It's always exciting to get a new component from Ken-san at Acoustic Revive and Elia-san at the MuSon Project (exporter). 

Today's Fresh Catch is the Acoustic Revive Analog Stabilizer PS-DBLP (¥88,000 / $567.83 USD, excluding tax).

Like all of Ken-san's creations, the fit and finish is extraordinary, and the analog stabilizer PS-DBLP comes safely packed in a protective box to make sure it gets to you in pristine condition. 

All of Ken-san's creations have more to them than classy looks though, as they are carefully thought out in terms of design and materials science to provide the intended benefits to the listener.

"Intended benefits? It's just a record weight, right? It just holds my record down on the mat?"

Yes, it is a record weight, but the idea of the PS-DBLP is that it does more than just to squash your LP down securely onto the record mat. 

Ken-san's idea is that a record weight can be designed through materials science principles to help reduce or eliminate vibrations from the turntable motor and the loudspeakers on the record's surface, making the sound quality more open and clear, improving dynamics, along with improved visuospatial performance like imaging and soundstaging. 

Essentially, all you want is the "good" vibrations from the stylus tracing the groove going to the moving-coil to be converted to an electrical signal, and not those "bad" vibrations from the turntable motor and loudspeakers added to it, which degrades the signal sound quality.  

Here's what Ken-san says:

"PS-DBLP combines super duralumin and brass heterogeneous metals, and has a groove with a geometric pattern that effectively suppresses vibration, and places a natural smoky quartz resonator that supports the point on the contact surface with the record label, and in the interior a large number of natural ore particle blends are enclosed in a groundbreaking structure that instantly converts vibrations generated from motors and speakers from analog players and disappears. You can experience the overwhelming sound quality improvement effect, such as clear sound image positioning that is three-dimensional and dynamic, which overturns the concept of analog stabilizers that only added the tone of the material."

Ken-san doesn't describe exactly the how this design works, design secrets and all, but based on other products Ken-san has designed, I think I may have a pretty good idea. 

If you look at the side view of the PS-DBLP (above), you can see the duralumin (black CNC'd pieces on top and bottom), and brass in the middle. 

I suspect vibration control is multi-fold. First there is mass loading from the duralumin, brass, quartz, and other materials the PS-DBLP is constructed from. That mass stabilizes the record, as the PS-DBLP weighs in at about 460 grams. 

Then, if you look at the bottom view of the PS-DBLP above, you can see three round disks at its outer perimeter.

Those round disks are the "natural smoky quartz resonators" Ken-san mentions that are the point-of-contact on the record's surface, and which I imagine transmits surface vibrations into the PS-DBLP's interior. 

Note the geometric pattern that is machined into the bottom of the PS-DBLP that Ken-san says "effectively suppresses vibration." 

Inside the PS-DBLP: Ken-san says, "... in the interior a large number of natural ore particle blends are enclosed in a groundbreaking structure that instantly converts vibrations generated from motors and speakers from analog players and disappears." 

In other components Ken-san produces, he uses tourmaline crystals for their unique properties of converting vibrational energy into thermal energy, so I suspect that is also the case for the PS-DBLP.

Here's an AI explanation for the way tourmaline works: "Tourmaline is a unique piezoelectric and pyroelectric mineral that converts mechanical stress, vibrations, and temperature fluctuations into electrical energy. This, in turn, generates negative ions and far-infrared (FIR) radiation, which are absorbed by surroundings as heat. This "resonance absorption" allows tourmaline to effectively turn physical vibrations into perceived thermal energy." 

So my take on the PS-DBLP is that it first stabilizes a record by providing mass loading, then due to the unique pattern machined into its base it dissipates some vibrational energy there, and possibly some thermal energy from the tourmaline converting vibrational energy into thermal energy, which all works together to give you less vibration that degrades sound quality.

The Acoustic Revive Analog Stabilizer PS-DBLP is limited to 100 pieces sold worldwide, so if you're interested in getting one, you'll need to act fast. 

If you are located outside of Japan, you can contact exporter Elia ([email protected]) at the MuSon Project, for the importer that you can buy the PS-DBLP from in your country. 

In a future article I'll compare the Analog Stabilizer PS-DBLP to a couple other record weights I have here and will let you know the results.

As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!