“The first analog turntable “Air Force One” manufactured by TechDAS was introduced as a flagship reference, just like it sounds, with exploitation of the air force applying to every key part of its own mechanism, while having achieved ultimate analog playback sound and receiving great acclaim from analog audio enthusiasts around the world.

Air Force Two was developed as a sophisticated best buy based on the core technology inherited from “Air Force One”, while maintaining many of those high-end qualities. It may be no exaggeration to say that this is a real product of genuine value.”

Hideaki Nishikawa
THE DESIGNER

Two key factors of “Air Force” descended from the flagship reference. An Air Bearing Mechanism and a Vacuum Disc Suction Mechanism.

It is as always the highest-priority issue on a turntable to obtain accurate and noise free stable rotation. Since sufficient inertia is required to actualize the stable rotation, a platter is needed to be very heavy. Accordingly the “Air Force Two” is also equipped with 10kg of platter. On the other hand, however, as the platter load onto bearings is being so heavy that the deterioration of bearings with operating time may progress and cause friction vibrations or degradation of rotation accuracies even by precision
products.

One of the key mechanisms over “Air Force Two” descended from the flagship reference is an Air Bearing Mechanism. Because of this, all the issues there have been completely resolved. This system is configured with no conventional bearings and a platter simply installed on the glass plate with a polished flat surface to be aligned with the center shaft for positioning. At this stage, the platter is absolutely still, but once the ancillary electric air pump starts forcing air into the turntable, you would see the platter floating instantly to the height of 0.03mm (30μ) above the base and rotating in deep silence and with absolute smoothness, especially due to the air bearing mechanism. As the platter load is no longer applied anywhere, not only frictional noise or various vibrations are perfectly eliminated but also the primary performance of highest quality is infinitely maintained.

Another key aerodynamic-force-dependent mechanism is a vacuum disc suction system. Even though the platter is rotating in extremely quiet manner and with maximum accuracy, disc warpage may cause a vertical motion of a tonearm and at the same time undesired stylus movement will induce sympathetic vibrations. Under such circumstance, no music signal is extracted with complete fidelity. According to undesired vertical motion by the tonearm, collaterally the stylus is seriously damaged. Sympathetic disc vibrations may lead deadly loss of music signal quality and its sensitivity. It was fashionable to apply a stabilizer weight on the disc as a solution in the past. With that method it does neither give sufficient solution on disc warpage, nor suppress the development of resonance.

While on the other hand, with our vacuum disc suction system, right after setting a disc on the platter, just one press on SUCTION button located in the main unit, allows a disc attracted on the platter simultaneously with it floating. You can see in a split second, as a result, a completely flat disc surface and the platter is keep rotating as is in the environment where the vertical motion of the tonearm disappears and the potential capability of the cartridge exerts its performance to the full, but not only those, it is possible to extract only the valuable music waveforms imprinted in the groove with high-fidelity. After that, a press on the SUCTION button again allows full evacuation instantly enough to release attraction of a disc plate at the same time.

While, one more aerodynamic force is Hybrid Spring Suspension. This system is newly developed for the “Air Force Two”

One of the touchy issues for a turntable is how to isolate it from vibrations propagating through floors. There often occurred different vibration problems when a turntable was installed on the floor even finished with vibro-isolating materials, because vibrations by speakers or people’s movement might propagate through the same floor. To prevent those symptoms in the past, various corrective actions like isolation by springs or buffer materials were applied to many products. However, as all of you may know, we have barely seen successful examples where there was no wobbling. In the process of developing the flagship reference, we decided to employ the hybrid suspension system configured with the air and the macromolecular polymer as the third key mechanism that resulted in an elegant solution of this particularly difficult challenge.

However, in contrast to the “Air Force One”, as the total weight and its distribution of the “Air Force Two” are different, it is not always technically suitable to employ the same system. Therefore, instead of three-legged structure we needed to develop a new suspension system with four-legged structure which accommodates upper chamber sealed with air and lower rubberoid diaphragm with built-in springs and sealed with oil internally. That diaphragm is connected to the upper chamber via a tiny hole of the orifice plate and damps the spring movements mutually by internally sealed oil and air from the chamber and as a result, produces a high vibration insulation effect by means of reducing Q-factor of resonance. This means that the “Air Force Two“ is the same system as the “Air Force One” in terms of exploiting air force effectively for quality, and even better and easier to use for longstanding audio.

A precisely flat hard glass face is used under the platter, and air flow creates a 30 micron clearance between the platter and the glass face.