The Design:
More ways to amaze. The new Thunder is a consequent developed new design. It’s all combined with the award-winning performance, elegance, convenience and comfort that have made the mass turntable Series so successful. Get ready to experience of the Thunder Series – now perfectly suited to your own unique style. Perfect surface quality combined with the latest technology and flexibility.
The Thunder includes the 24 Silencer Platter and the latest version of the AlphaDig motor electronic elegantly placed beside the Chassis. The tone arm mounting plates are adjustable. The mounting of any desired tone arm is possible, with a maximum of 3 tone arm mounting plates on one turntable. Three adjustable feet for simple macro and micro adjustments to level the turntable.
The Drive System:
In the new Thunder Acoustic Signature combine a massive Aluminium plinth of 45mm with a 50mm massive Aluminum platter. This is a perfect fit for the Tidorfolon bearing holding the platter and the exchangeable arm boards.
A new fully digital motor Electronic Alpha DIG provides perfect speed stability and easy operation and is integrated into a fully CNC milled external housing.
The carefully made Aluminum platter with his 24 Silencers is another part which makes the sound of a Thunder so outstanding for its price class.
The Platter:
The 50mm solid turntable platter is made of aluminium with 24 Silencer inserts. The platter material is a very soft alloy to optimize its periodic resonance, and is coated on the rear side with resonance-reducing material. For the Silencer-Platter the development target was clearly defined: Elimination of vibration due to impacting airborne sound. Elimination of bearing noise, increase of the gyrating mass. Serious elimination of all frequencies, especially in the range 400-6000Hz. This was achieved by drilling 24 holes into the turntable. The manufacturing process for the precision of these holes was once more refined. The holes are drilled and afterwards separately “line-bored”.
This allows a clearance of less than 1/100mm. Perfect conditions for the force-fitting of the 24 silencer modules. The “silencers” are now an integral part of the turntable – but highly absorbing. Existing vibration energy is quickly reduced and the Platter is immediately steadied. To avoid unbalances through the additional holes these are manufactured in the same setting as the outer contour.
In this way the holes are absolutely true to the centre of the turntable.
The Motor:
Acoustic Signature believe that a motor system for a turntable should have enough energy to speed up the platter but not influence it during rotation. That aim is reached by using a European made Synchronous motor with a proprietary State of the Art motor control. The external drive motor of the turntable is run by its own electronic controller, called the AlphaDIG, a brand new design where fully digital output stages and quartz locked technology is used. It is impervious to the negative effects of mains voltage fluctuations and household appliances that produce ‘noisy’ mains that can have a very great detrimental effect on AC motors and therefore the turntable performance and ultimately the sound.
A quartz precision DSP then produces a perfect sine wave at 24VAC to run the motor, resulting in a perfectly steady and constant platter rotation. The AlphaDIG control is the perfect design solution. This engine system is absolutely stable in its rotation speed and in combination with the digital control easy to use and reliable. The motor of the Thunder is on the left back side of the turntable close to the Chassis. As it has no contact with the Chassis there can’t be any vibration transferred to the turntable. The Thunder can be equipped with up to 3 motors.
The Bearing:
The bearing is the heart of every turntable. Through fundamental research and development, Acoustic Signature have invented a bearing with the ideal performance characteristics of exact fit, extremely low noise, very low friction and long term stability. The platter bearing component is manufactured from special hardened and polished steel, with an extremely hard tungsten carbide ball at its base. The bearing housing uses perfectly matched and ‘aged’ sinter bronze inserts which are self-lubricating; and therefore maintenance free.
At the base of the bearing, a specially developed ‘high-tech’ material called TIDORFOLON is used. The bearing runs dry – without oil. With ultra-tight tolerances and the Tidorfolon material, the bearing is lifetime maintenance free – as a result the bearing is covered with a 10 year product warranty.
