Or like the J.A. Mitchell record clamp which used a felt washer around the platter spindle to lift the LP slightly, The applied clamp would then flatten minor warps and couples the LP to the platter. I still believe part of the described sonic difference is attributable to SRA.
Vpi sells a clamp which screws down onto the spindle to weigh down the record and keep it from getting away and also a weight which just slips over the spindle to have the same effect but relief from the awfulness of having to thread it down.
I don’t know what the rubber washer is supposed to do, I’ve never tried it.
The rubber washer is provided to increasing clamping/coupling pressure between the LP and platter. Most effective for warped LPs inVPIS’s opinion. I’ve tried it both ways with my VPI Prime and threaded record clamp system. It can help. I did try the unthreaded clamp as well and to my ears thought it made for a more lifeless presentation. I am now running the VPI Prime with a Boston Audio Carbon Mat and the VPI threaded clamp. The latter as needed. Having access to a Furutech LP flattener I don’t have the need for the periphery ring, and do not consistently use the threaded clamp.
Next time I am with the Prime I will try floating an LP sans clamp and mat.
I have carried it on its own on three different occasions.
It seems to me that the record would lose stability, creating at least some wobble, thus introducing at least some increases in wow and flutter, and in alignment errors such as VTA. The question then becomes are the improvements more than the added errors affects. That probably needs to be answered on a case by case basis, and maybe even record by record basis, as it might sometimes exaggerate irregularities in the vinyl itself. But no matter, it is a very interesting idea.
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Didn’t hear the flutter, just the……
You look mahvelus
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So… has anyone here tried this?
I’m another vacuum TT user. Mine: a SOTA Nova Series V vacuum. That design has been refined over many years such that the reflex clamp, vacuum and platter mat (which is specially designed for a vacuum system) is an integrated whole when the vinyl disc is sucked down on the platter. I chose it because the sonics SOTA has been able to achieve are heavenly. I’m open minded as well, but tor those of us who own certain TT types (looks like aangen is in that camp) it doesn’t make sense. Heck, I can’t defeat the vacuum on my SOTA to try this trick anyway. If the record has to be essentially completely decoupled from a VPI classic platter, that tells me VPI should reconsider their platter design. The same heavy aluminum with VPI mat design they’ve been using for years. Might be time considering the capabilities of the latest cartridges to update their design.
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Some of you folks are jumping to conclusions and taking this silly experiment way too seriously.
No one ever said that floating the record was superior.
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Could not have said it better. 
If so, I think folks were reacting on your last sentence:
“Then we substituted different mats, cork, leather and my Achromat that he asked me to bring. Floating won,“
, I think, maybe."
You left out the words that followed the comma, completed the thought and finally ended at the actual period.
So I can still use my turntable the way it is?
Please?
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Your turntable sucks, which is in this case, good.
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Very droll. Score one for those of us with TTs that suck. 
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I’ll send you my VPI washer to preview on your TT, if you send me one of those fancy cables to try. 
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