Re: Turntables Have A "Sound" Of Their Own?
- From: "Jeremy" <jeremy@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 09 May 2006 17:35:02 GMT
"Allen" <allen@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Wt38g.9386$CH2.6719@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I amde a sugesstion to him: Go to WalMart or the equivalent and buy a
cheap children's player and dismantle it. Then replace each part of his
at-the-time system with the same part from the cheap machine, one part at
a time. Then come back and tell me which part made the most difference.
The only problem with this was that on the cheap machine the cartridge
probably couldn't be separated from the arm, so those two would have to be
considered as a unit.
When I was in my 20s I bought that cult classic, the AR Turntable (XB was
the model that was current then). I bought into that malarkey about the
turntable being minimalist, that it didn't require anti-skate, that it met
or exceeded all NAB standards, except for how long it took the turntable to
get up to speed, etc. Boy, what a piece of crap!
The turntable motor--that well-advertised synchronous motor, that locked in
to the 60 cycle alternating current to produce 100% perfect speed--was so
small that it could fit into my closed palm. There was no speed adjustment
switch--one had to take the platter off, then move the belt to a different
part of the pulley--to change from 33.3 to 45 RPM.
The tone arm was as Spartan as could be. There was a weight that had to be
manually moved in order to set the tracking weight--and then screwed down to
keep it in place, while hoping that it would not get nudged out of correct
position while being tightened down.
The heavy plastic headshell seemed to be too much for my Stanton 681 EEE
cartridge--it tended to mistrack, and the cartridge bottomed out, just
barely touching the vinyl and introducing a low frequency scraping sound if
the record was the least bit warped.
Worst thing was that the table hummed--AC hum, I think. I tried all sorts
of things to get rid of it, but it was always in the background.
Now I see places that charge a fortune for parts to modify that piece of
junk:
http://vinylnirvana.com/ar_mods1.shtml
My latest Technics is the Model SL-5300--the one with the Quartz Phase Lock
Loop and the full contingent of controls located on the front, rather than
under the dust cover, keeping the tonearm safe from being knocked out of the
groove by my big hands . . .
http://www.vintagetechnics.com/images/sl5300catalog.jpg
I keep reading postings from alleged "audiophiles" knocking these
tables--something about the Direct Drive motor always "hunting" to find the
correct speed. Then I read this article and I finally saw that I was not as
deluded as others might have wanted me to think I was:
http://www.kabusa.com/frameset.htm?/index.htm
I'm glad to learn that the rest of you on this NG share my sentiments about
being reluctant to accept the outlandish claims of some who would put down
classic turntables in favor of ones that are assembled in someone's garage,
and priced more than a modest house.
.
- References:
- Turntables Have A "Sound" Of Their Own?
- From: Jeremy
- Re: Turntables Have A "Sound" Of Their Own?
- From: Allen
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