I’ve gotten a few DMs asking about the arm on my LT-5V vertical turntable and why I use it in some posts and not in others. The truth is, the arm doesn’t do much. It holds your record in place upright so that the record doesn’t potentially flop around, but it does that very lightly—the clamp at the end barely touches the record. The arm itself has a next-to-useless gauge etched into it to help you estimate where to drop the needle if you’re looking to play a specific track, but otherwise the arm does little except get in the way of looking at your record. As it happens, maybe a month before the LT-5V returned from restoration, I picked up a Clearaudio Clever Clamp, also known as a Souther Clever Clamp—a clear, short turntable clamp that looks like a glorified drink coaster (the cost of them has exploded recently, by the way; I did not pay $40 for it!). Folks use clamps to pin down a vinyl record while it’s on a turntable; it dampens vibrations, helping clarify the sound, and also helps flatten slightly warped records when you play them. I initially bought it to try on another turntable I have, a Technics SL-5, that has a very low lid, but it was still too tall to fit. I meant to return it, but never got around to it—and just as well because I’ve found it works great on the vertical turntable, improving the sound and the visual aesthetic at the same time.
