Analog, collections mortality and posterity

Good day everyone, I am writing today about leaving my extensive analog record and tape and music playback collection to my daughter one day.  It is a sad reminder that our time on this planet is limited.  We have to think about what is going to happen to our collections and equipment at some point.

I have been playing records with my daughter since she was about 4 years old.  In the past two years or so I have taught her how to mount, clean and start a record playing.  She is very careful with the records and Cd's she plays as I have taught her since she was very young the proper handling of media.  She is about to turn 11 and loves music and we listen to music throughout the house and the year, she also has a LP and CD collection of her own.  Christmas time is special as I have about 200 Christmas albums and we try each year to get through them all!

I have been wondering what the best way to get my collection to my daughter, as my wife will want to throw out, sell or consign all my stuff if I pre-decease her.  How can I ensure my collection, in its' entirety gets to my daughter without being thrown out in the meantime?

Do I make out a will and specifically mention in there that my collection goes to my daughter and is not to be destroyed, parted, sold off, thrown out or put in a storage locker?  I am not sure.  I do want my collection to stay together and make it to my daughter in the future sometime.  I am hoping that someday my collection will make it to my great-grand kids and I have great hope that there will still be record players in 40 years due to the recent increase in popularity of turntables and companies making LPs again. 

Here is a little history of me and my audio hobby.  I grew up in the Detroit metro area and I received my first stereo around my 16th birthday.  It was a gift that I received from my parents around the time I received my drivers license.  My parents were smarter than they realized as that kept me satisfied for a number of years and I did not purchase an automobile until I was nearly 20 and out of college.  That first stereo was from Tech-Hifi!  I received the most inexpensive 1978-79 featured system the SX-450, with the Kenwood 200B speakers with the BSR three speed semi-automatic turntable.  It may have been inexpensive but it certainly was awesome! 

The first new record that I bought was the late 1970's stereo re-issue of the Beatles American release of Meet the Beatles.  I still have this record and play it from time to time.  During those years when I lived at my parent's house, I acquired about 150 records, mostly from used record stores.  My favorite when I was growing up was Sam's Jams in Ferndale, MI.  The store was about 20 miles from my house, and when I had money I would hop in the car with a few friends and head out there to buy mostly .25 records.  Gas was .79 cents a gallon which at 9 miles a gallon made it a $4 round trip.  It was awesome, and if I found something that I really liked, I might spend as much as $1 for a record, but that was pretty rare.  I still have most of those records and play them once in a while.  They were mostly oldies records and some rock and roll.  I took a bunch of years off from collecting records, then once I got a decent turntable working, which was around 2005-06, I started purchasing used records on Ebay.  I now have approximately 1500 records, quite a bit of Jazz, Christmas Music, Blues, etc. 

As much as I loved that early stereo and wish I had not given it to some girl who either sold it or destroyed it, my current stereo is much nicer though.  It is the culmination of 20+ years of assembling the parts.  I have a couple items that I purchased when new.  I have a Sony 5 disc changer that I bought for the high price of $500 in 1991, and it is still running, I also bought new a pair of Boston Acoustics T-930 speakers in 1988, which I have re foamed a couple of years ago.  I also have some used equipment that I have assembled; a McIntosh MC250 stereo amplifier, a Yamaha RX-V2700 home theater receiver, a nice little flea-watt tube amp and 4 sets of speakers.  The Boston Acoustics, a pair of Paradigm's reference monitors, a Pair of PSB Image T1's and a pair of Klipsch KLF-20 speakers for my main system, and two pair of Bose speakers in my other systems some 301 series II and a pair of 10.2 series II, and a pair of Polk's for my computer room system.

I had a working turntable for a couple more years after I moved away from home in the mid 1980s, then the needle went bad around the time I moved in with my to be first wife.  At that time I had limited finances so I could not purchase much, I got a new pair of speakers to compliment the Kenwoods when I moved into my apartment and a replacement stylus.  I had a working turntable for about another two years or so.  When I got divorced, I moved the stereo to my new house and at that point the record player went into disrepair.  I purchased a JVC tuner and amplifier from a friend and gave away my original system, which I am still bummed about to this day.  I kept my record collection though and moved it around with me for the next 20 years.  I got married again, and we moved in together and my entire stereo was stored, OMG!  My current wife does not like the looks of stereos and especially hated mine.  With the large Boston Acoustics speakers, and the sub woofer that I used to have it took up quite a bit of the room and the wife wanted the room for her decorative stuff.  So reluctantly, I stored my stereo for a year and a half, I was miserable and didn't realize how much until I decided that I would hook my stereo back up around Christmas time 1999.  I put in a CD of Christmas music and listened to my then JVC integrated amp and those Boston Acoustics speakers and the beauty of the music brought tears to my eyes.  I then realized what I had been denying myself for a couple years.  I left it hooked up through the time I was at that apartment, through the next apartment until we bought a house.  My wife said my stereo could not be setup on the main floor due to space issues.  I agreed with her and hooked up what I had in the basement. 

At the time that I had this setup; a JVC 5.1 channel receiver, the Sony 5-disc changer, the Boston Acoustics speakers, which was around 10 years or so ago in the basement and I wanted to upgrade.  I mentioned this to my wife several times during a 6-year period and each time the response was that we didn't need it, what goal does this satisfy, this is not what we need, no, and so on and so forth.  I was getting frustrated as my system was old and starting to act up, the JVC receiver would make noise and you could get the high-pitched noise to stop by smacking the top of the unit.  I searched for a while after being fed-up with being told no time after time, so when I found a great deal on the Yamaha home theater receiver, which was a demo at my local hifi dealer, I jumped on it and brought it home, I had to sneak it into the basement.  When I hooked it up, I realized that it was too powerful for the Boston acoustics speakers I had for all those years.  This was around summertime 2007, I realized that it was time for new speakers.  So, I started looking for a set of speakers that I had been denied by her when they were in production, a set of Klipsch KLF-20's, I considered buying them while they were in production, but the wife said no.  By the time I found some I had been saving for quite a while and in late 2008 was able to pay cash for them.  I then had to sneak them into the basement so my wife wouldn't see these giant speakers coming into the house as I had them shipped to work.  It was difficult but I was able to get them down there.  The story is the same for the PSB and the Paradigm speakers, I saved up, found great deals, paid cash and snuck them into the basement.

I am very blessed with the equipment that I have assembled over the years.  I also have two turntables, a belt-drive Technics and a direct-drive, straight-arm JVC turntable and three Open Reel decks.  A Pioneer, a Teac and a Sony.  I have acquired a good archival cassette tape deck, which is a Nakamichi.  I have a 55-inch HD TV that the wife also hates.  She will not come into the home theater area of the basement to even watch a DVD.  My daughter and I love to use the stereo and the home theater!

I have over 300 Cd's and over 100 reel to reel tapes that need to make it somehow into the future.  Now do you see what I am concerned about?  I would like my daughter to have all this stuff.  Should I be concerned, or just let my collection be dis-assembled and sold off to the highest bidder in an Ebay auction, or sold as part of an estate sale?

What do you think?  What would you do?  Any suggestions?

Keep on listening!

Jeff

Christmas Music

I have quite a large collection of Christmas LPs, Reel to Reels and CDs.  One curiosity that I have especially when I play an LP is who owned this, how did that scratch get there and what the story of this record is.

When I think of Christmas, I reflect on the good times, the people and the memories.  How many different things each of these records have "seen" over the years.  Some of the Christmas albums are 50 or more years old.  Imagine all the family changes that went on over that time period.  How long did this album sit before I purchased it with the intent of playing it.  How many memories are contained in this record?

I am digitizing some of these recordings and posting them on my YouTube channel called XmasWonderland.  I am finding that quite a number of people are quite happy to see these videos of some of the less known seasonal music.  I have some comments that they hadn't heard that particular song in years, or tell me of their memories.  It is awesome and gave me the desire to post more music on the site to excite other people looking for certain songs.

I have about 250 Christmas albums ranging in quality from Good to Near Mint.  Sometimes I wonder if the album that I am playing has even been played more than once or twice.  One thing that I think about is how many of these were purchased in the bargain bins of the local store and forgotten about.  Or played that first year and their record player broke, or they received their first CD player and the records were filed in boxes in some dark corner of the basement.

The treasures held in these old records are pretty significant.  Some of the music has not been moved to CD, so except for those of us digitizing the songs and posting them, they may wind up forgotten songs.  I would hate to see that, as I am disappointed by the trend of radio stations to have a month or so of Christmas music by playing the same 40 songs over and over again.  When was the last time you heard the Lennon Sisters, or Lou Rawls, or Ed Ames, or Lynn Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, Ella Fitzgerald or Wurlitzer Organ Christmas music, which used to be very popular on the radio stations playing Christmas classics?

I am very glad to have a couple working turntables so I can enrich my holiday season by treating my family to some wonderful Christmas music that at least in my house, hasn't been forgotten.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Jeff

Denon DL-110 experience

     I am sitting in the man-cave and feeling that I have been neglecting my collection of vintage stereo phono cartridges.  I pull out a discussions in percussion LP which has some finger prints and other dirt on the surface.  I spend some time doing my cleaning ritual.  I spin dry these as I use an alcohol-based cleaner which evaporates without leaving residue.

     I look on the shelf and decide that I am going to play the JVC straight-arm turntable with a Shure M91ED cartridge.  I can hear you now, "that's not a fair comparison, what are you thinking..." and I agree.  It's not necessarily the comparison of the cartridges that this post is about, it is actually entirely different.

     I remove the Shure M97xE, which I use as the daily driver on the JVC straight-arm turntable, and inserted the head-shell containing the M91ED.  I ensured that the LP was dry and appeared clean, so I lowered the needle into the groove and what do I hear?  Snaps and pops.  I am tracking at .75gm with this cart, which is its recommended force on a clean LP.  I think to myself, darn, this LP is noisy, that is a very cool sounding song so I continued listening to it.  I could hear the promise of some awesome piano that seems to be shrouded behind other instruments on this record.  The LP was AWESOME sounding!

     I started thinking that maybe there might be a way to get better sound out of this LP so I got up.  I walked over and dismounted my Grado Mono cartridge from the Technics 'table while the JVC was still playing the LP and grabbed the Denon DL-110 cartridge and installed, balanced and set the VTF and the anti-skating.  I moved the LP from the other turntable and started it up.  What did I hear after the initial touchdown?  Quite a bit of silence, just the tiniest amount of background noise, but the pops and clicks were GONE!  I actually mean gone.  Oh, I could hear that little bit of background noise here and there between tracks, but it was amazing how much better the LP sounded.  This record was amazing, it was a jazzy-Spanish percussion-based stew of awesome sounds great rhythms and cool stereo imaging.  I could hear the piano that I faintly heard on the Shure loud and clear with the Denon, along with other instruments and percussive instruments that I cannot even guess.  It sure was cool sounding though!

    Nothing against the M91ED, Shure fans. This was not intended to slight that awesome cartridge maker and those fine stylus.  As a matter of fact I have M97xE, M91E, M91ED, M95ED, V15RS cartridges that are currently mounted on head-shells that I use every now and then.  Some of them even have the original stylus, and I love to listen to these on perfect or warped records in the case of the M97xE.  On not perfect but excellent records (unscratched but noisy) the Denon does wonders to eliminate those little pops and clicks! (SAS Aftermarket Styli are available, which should elevate performance of these carts! - edited 031614).

What did I learn, as I have mentioned before, is to use different needles for different things.  As it turns out, this needle was the perfect addition to my collection.  The largest bonus was this is exactly what I purchased this needle for!  Playing not so perfect on the surface but clean deep-down records that just need some deeper penetration into the grooves to extract the information.

Mission Accomplished!

Listen to some music today.

Jeff


Update 03/23/13:
This cartridge has become my daily driver for the most part.  I have put a couple hundred listening hours on this cartridge and I am watching eBay for a good price on one so I can have a backup.  The sound of this cartridge is very nice, I have compared it to a V-15 RS that I have, which is basically a V-15 III.  I have no problem using the cartridge on the MM setting on my preamp, it is quite loud enough for most phono inputs.

Update 03/16/14:
This cartridge is the finest that I have.  It is true to the music and has an ability to play records that other cartridges will reveal surface noise much quieter than expected sometimes.  If the record is damaged, you will hear it, but that nice stylus goes very deep into the grooves and bypasses much of the damage caused by earlier plays.  This would be an awesome combination for vinyl archiving.

Mono Cartridge Affordability?

I currently have a Grado MC+ Mono Phono Cartridge.  I was looking on ebay and found several mono cartridges for over $200 each, some were over $1000.  I want to step up to a better mono cartridge, but I cannot see paying that much for one.

Mono recordins sound sweet and are less noisy.  I have over 100 of them currently and expect that number to expand as I continue to collect older recordings of Jazz and continue to find mono versions of early rock and roll records.  I have found no loss of enjoyment listening to mono recordings, and seldom miss the stereo effect of records.  I found the mono releases of the Beatles to be more satisfying than the stereo versions because of the musical information that is lost in the stereo mix.  I have quite a few old Jazz recordings that are mono and I absolutely refuse to play a mono recording with a stereo needle!

The Grado is a good cartridge, but I am thinking that like the MC cartridge that I finally purchased, there must be more sound in the grooves that can be extracted with a better mono cartridge.  I have no beef with the sound of the Grado, but as always, I am looking for more!

I was on ebay and saw a Denon, which I have the DL-110 MC stereo cartridge, which I got for around $160, but the mono Denon cartridge was over $200.  Is it worth it?  Does it sound good?  Will it be a vast improvement in the listening experience of my mono recordings?  I wish I knew!

I read a review of a mono cartridge made by Ortofon and it costs over $900, I am not ever going to have the disposable cash to spring for one of those puppies, so I am hoping to find a reasonable mono cartridge that is better than my Grado for around $150 or so. 
Is it possible?

I HOPE SO!

Keep listening!

Jeff

Beatles Mono Box Set listener review

Let me start with WOW and continue on.  I am amazed at the stuff that the stereo mix of the early LPs hide!  Some of the music behind the scenes is sort of hidden by the stereo mix.  I get a larger sense of the musicality of the Beatles from the mono mixes of the songs.

I decided to use my Qinpu tube amp and my PSB Alpha T-1 speakers to hear the most from these CDs.  I am amazed at how front and center the sound is!  I am very happy that I got the mono box set instead of the stereo one!  How revealing, I am hearing things that I never heard on their songs before; and I am a HUGE Beatles fan, and have listened to these songs at least 1,000 times each before! 

Instead of the opposing vocals responses being in the other channel, they are behind the vocals.  I am impressed and what a difference in the interpretation that the listener would get from experiencing these songs the way that George Martin and the Beatles meant them to be heard.

Why CD and not the LP box set.  I do not wish to have these wear out from playing them a hundred times each, LP is still a fragile format and I would only get the LP box set after acquiring the CD box set to listen to over and over.  To pull out the LP mono box set would be a special treat and I may only listen to it a half a dozen times or so as that special treat! 

I love LPs, however I understand their limits, and each time you play them you wear them out just a little bit.  I do love things that last forever, thus the CD box set.

I also feel there is less distortion in the output in the mono versions.  I have noticed, now after hearing the mono versions, that there is a bit of strain as the mix equalizes the channels in volume and makes the vocals sound a bit strained.

Highly recommended!  Best in class!  I have acquired the Meet the Beatles US release in original mono on LP and I am very excited to listen to it when it comes with my Grado mono cartridge.  I will listen to it on the Tube Amp and PSB combination and compare.


It may be time to get a higher end Mono cartridge.  I like my Moving Coil Denon cartridge for Stereo, I should get something just as good for Mono.



Keep Listening!

Jeff

Qinpu 2.5Wpc Flea-Watt Tube Amp and PSB speakers

I love having options!  I took this little Qinpu Flea-Watt amp at 2.5 Watts Per Channel on vacation to drive a set of Polk mini-monitors.  It did a great job!  It went quite loud and sounded quite good.  I use this amp at home usually to drive some Paradigm mini-monitor V.5s.  It again, does a great job.  However I installed banana plugs today on my speaker connectors for two of my speakers, (One set of my speakers does not recommend banana clips when bi-amping), and I moved the speaker wires from the Paradigm to the PSB Image 6Ts.  It sounds awesome!

The banana plugs make moving the speaker connections just about as easy as using a speaker selector switch, with no electronics in between.  I will listen and see at some point if there is a difference in sound when connecting my speakers directly to the amps and moving the wires instead of using the Adcom speaker selector switch that I have hooked up to two of my amps currently.  I have been using the speaker selector switch for some time now.

I was surprised by the amazing sound earlier this year when I used the Qinpu with the PSBs so I decided to re-visit the combination in case I was just dreaming.  I was not, the sound is quite excellent, albeit not very loud coming from this combination.  I listened to a couple records and so far have been very impressed with the depth and sweetness of the sound.  At lower than loud volume levels the sound is captivating, nice and warm and very revealing.  Quite a bit of bass from this little amp!  The highs are sweet and solid, and not too bright; I was worried about the sound being too bright from this low power amp.

I am going to listen to the combination of the Qinpu and the PSBs for a week or so and see if I still think it is sweet sounding.  As of today, I think it sounds just a little bit better than my McIntosh MC250, which sounds pretty nice with the PSBs.



Thanks
Jeff


Update 03/23/13:
This little tube amp has impressed me so very much and turned me onto tube technology.  I decided to upgrade to a more powerful tube amplifier, the new one has 7 wpc.  This Quinpu amp will be moved to my office and travel with me as my vacation amp as it is an awesome little amp!  Beware, this is a gateway drug type of device, once you hear it you will be amazed at the detail and great sound this little amp gives at modest volumes.  Well worth the price at $150.

Take a stereo on vacation?

Yes, I take a stereo and a radio on my vacations.  I alter what I take based on who I am traveling with and where I am going.  I find that having music available to be played at a decent, good sounding volume level is a necessity when traveling.  I was able to get a couple days of listening in on both of my summer vacations this year.  I get a bit tired of only having the music they play on the radio in northern Michigan and need a variety!  I also take one of my Zenith Trans Oceanic radios, either the 3000-1 or the 7000 series radios.  I like the reception from both of them as I can pick up AM and SW from all over the place! 

When I go up north to the cabin I take my small flea-watt amp and a pair of Polk mini-monitors to listen to.  Placement of the speakers is a bit of a pain in the butt.  I choose the Polk's as they are front ported and can be placed up against a wall, if necessary.  I use my laptop with a music streamer DAC to play the music.  I find the sound pretty good for such a smallish setup.  The 2.5 Watts of the tube amp play the Polk's to a pretty decent sound level.  The sound is pretty good too! 

When I travel with my best friend to play video games and listen to music up north in a house we rent. I take my Sherwood 70WPC integrated amplifier and my pair of Paradigm Mini Monitor V.5s with a pair of stands.   I also bring my laptop and the music streamer, of course.  I find the sound pretty satisfying and it goes quite loud.

I have relegated the Sherwood to duty in my garage system, so I cannot bring it this year.  What I am going to do this year on guy's weekend is take the Paradigm's, a pair of stands, my Hafler pre-amp and my Parasound HCA-800II power amp.  I still plan to bring the laptop, but I want to be able to choose other sources like when I take the Sherwood.  I don't want to be switching cables all over the place, so I will take a couple decent cables to connect media players to the pre-amp and play different types of music than what I have on my laptop.  I expect the sound to be vastly improved as the Parasound is a very clean sounding amp, it is newer and it has 100WPC.  I certainly won't be able to turn it up all the way with the Paradigms, but with their decent efficiency they should go quite loud and sound very clean! 

What do I listen to when I travel?  I try and switch it up a bit, so I listen to some old Jazz, Rock, Soul, Funk, R&B, and Oldies.  I have some old radio shows that I have recorded over the years and they are fun to listen to as I have digitized them.  I have also digitized some of my old Cassette tapes that I made years and years ago.  I did this to basically be able to listen to them for years to come as cassette lifespan varies from brand to brand of tape.  I have music recorded on old El-cheapo tape, but mostly I have the old Memorex tapes then I upgraded to using Maxell High-bias tapes , some TDK's and Sony's along with some Scotch and Denon tapes that I started using when I realized that they would last longer.  Quite a bit of my tape collection is over 30 years old and they still play.  I bought a Nakamichi CR-1A tape deck a few years back to allow me to record from these old tapes.  I still had the first tape deck I purchased until a couple years ago, but it wasn't even that good when I bought it.  I plan to digitize my tape collection over the next few years.  That will take a while as I have hundreds of tapes. 

Why do I take a stereo on vacation?  Pure enjoyment!  I have found that I am less stressed out when I get some listening time every couple days.  Otherwise I get crabby and I am in a hurry to get home.  Listening to music is one of my favorite things in this world!  Thank you to all who make music, without it life would certainly suck a whole lot more!

Keep Listening!

Jeff

Record Cleaning Machine versus Tube Amp

I have been wanting to get my hands on a 10+ watt per channel (WPC) stereo tube amplifier.  I have also wanted to get my hands on a decent record cleaning machine.  The question has been, which do I want more?  The cost for the inexpensive Spin-Clean record cleaning system is less than an inexpensive 10+ WPC tube amp, but I still cannot make up my mind.

The Spin-Clean is a manual record cleaning solution which has been receiving great reviews from all over the web.  I see it for sale for $79, and I see the deluxe pack for $129.  When I did the math, the $129 was a nice price for all the extras you receive when you purchase it that way.

An inexpensive stereo tube amp, which has the desired power can run around $300.  When I do my search I see the vintage tube amps being sold.  I have been wondering about one.  My friend mentioned a couple things, vintage does mean old and it will need to have some work done under the hood.  Plus, am I certain that it is not a fire hazard?  He also mentioned something about the quality of the output transformers.

The sweet sound of nice and clean records will make my system sound awesome when playing records.  However, it could sound sweet all the time I am listening if I choose to add a tube amp to my system.  I currently have a flea-watt tube amp, 2.5 WPC.  Most people would be surprised as to how nicely it plays through even decent sized speakers.  I have some PSB Image Ts and the sound was impressive and actually is what convinced me in the first place to get more watts to see how nice a tube with some decent power would sound. 

Back to the record cleaning machine.  I listen to LPs nearly daily and when my mother asked me today how many LPs I have, I estimated it at around 1,000.  It would take a while to get them all cleaned, but I would use a label to identify on my plastic liners which records had been cleaned.  From what I have read this device makes quite a difference in any except machine cleaned records.

Right now I use a 4-brush wet method for cleaning my LPs.  I use an anti-static brush to loosen the dirt, then I go over it with a discwasher brush.  Then, if needed I will spray some awesome cleaning solution that I currently use, (Smart, available at www.needledoctor.com).  I then use my flat, felt pad to spread out the liquid on the surface.  Then I use the four Discwasher brushes, the newer ones are a different, more absorbent material than the original, so I start with that one.  Then I move on from the most to least aggressive brush.  Afterward it takes around 5 minutes for the liquid to evaporate.  Some records only need the first two brushes and no wet cleaning, others are very dirty.

So you can see the positive attributes of either acquisition.  I am still pondering which I will do.  I will have to make up my mind soon!


Any Opinions?





Keep Listening!

Jeff

Satellite Radio Lo-Fi?

Is it just me, or does satellite radio sound like crap?  I am listening to a couple stations on sirius, and I am finding digital artifacts and crappy sound.  Has anyone else noticed?  The content is nice, I can listen to anything I want, but I like to listen in High Fidelity, not crappy sound.

I got a new car and I have 6 months to decide whether to extend satellite radio or not.  Right now, listening to music, I am uncertain as to whether I should start paying to deliver crappy sound to my car.

What are your thoughts?  Has anyone else noticed this?

Vibration Absorption - The inexpensive way!

I was listening at club level volume at home one day and something that had never happened before occured.  The CD player skipped.  I had never had that happen before and it scared the heck out of me!  I thought maybe the CD was messed up, something had scratched it or it was dirty.  I inspected the CD and it was clean as can be. I take very good care of my media!  At that point I started considering that maybe my old player had seen better days and it was malfunctioning.  I took a look and everything seemed to be good, I played several more CDs that day and I was happy with the result, there were no more skips.  So I pulled that near perfect CD and placed it on the disposal pile and went about my week.  The next change I had to play the stereo at 11 was a couple weeks later.  I was cranking some 80s Hair band rock and it skipped again.  At the volume level that I had been listening to it was quite startling! Inspection revealed that this CD was nearly perfect too.

I was trying to determine what my course of action was, because I was pretty sure that the CD player was dying.  I found it quite strange that both 'skips" happened during very loud playback.  Before the first listening session where the skip occurred, I changed the location of quite a bit of my gear and moved it to a lower rack on a wood cabinet.  I noticed that it was right in the dispersion field of the speaker that I was using when this happened.  Hmmmmm......

Vibration!  Oh no!  I started looking on Ebay, Audiogon, checked out my local stereo store and read some articles on vibration control.  I was bummed because the cost of even a modest vibration control scheme, was like $50 and they ranged to the hundreds of dollars to treat more than one device.  So, I decided that I would go down a different route to eliminate the vibration.  If the device cannot move, it should vibrate a bit less, so I added 10 pounds to the top of the CD player, in the form of a dumbbell.  It worked!  At least it stopped skipping during the very loud passages.  I am not going to claim that I heard sonic signatures from the vibrations that I know were still attacking the component.  I just did not know what my inexpensive options were.

I have a fellow audiophile friend and we visit each others' houses to do listening and to learn about new music that either of us have discovered, or re-discovered.  He has a smallish listening room with a bunch of speakers mounted on the same shelves as his components.  We were in there for hours listening to all his components, through various speakers, quite loud too, and not a single piece of equipment did so much as hiccup in all that time and as loud as it was playing.  I was pretty impressed, so I spoke about my experience with the skipping of the CD with him and he agreed it was vibration that most likely caused the issue.  So I asked him how the heck he was able to have all his gear co-exist on the same shelving structure as some of his speakers.

He Showed Me!

I was floored, what an awesome solution that never even crossed my mind!  I figured that if it worked for him it would work for me since my equipment is at least physically isolated from the sound source and not sitting together.  I went to my local sporting goods store and purchased a large pack of a dozen racquetballs, yes racquetballs!  He told me to cut them in half along the mold line which is straight and use them like a cup and put each under the feet of the desired component to absorb vibration coming from the room, the furniture and some of the vibration coming from the speakers.  I did this and have not had a single problem with skipping CDs since, and I have listened quite loudly since.  Plus I got rid of the dumbbell.

I found this "tweak" to be one of the most effective and cost-efficient methods out there to control vibration, which is the enemy of your components, and can cause issues with the sound.  The cost was $12.99 for 12 balls.  When you consider that I can cut them in half and put them under 6 components for that price, it truely is the cheapest thing going! 

I have used my first dozen balls up, so it is time to buy some more.  I have placed them under my solid state and tube amps, my CD Player, my home theater receiver, and my preamp, I will probably use them in my other systems in time. 

Again, I am not going to say that I heard more detail, better sound or any of that malarky, although it could be true, I just have not noticed.  I am just resting assured that the vibration control will allow me a few things, the ability to play my system very loud, to protect the sound from being altered by all the vibration, and it should help my tubes last longer as they are not being assaulted by vibration when being used.

Unless you point it out, no one notices.

Keep Listening!

Jeff

Oh CRAP!

I blew it!

I did it, oh man, I bought the pre-amp that I have been looking for.  Not specifically this one, but close.  I have wanted this brand of equipment for years and years and now I have found an affordable (reasonably and relatively inexpensive) McIntosh Preamplifier.  I am currently running a Yamaha C-70 Preamp, which is AWESOME and will see duty in my office system.  It has been acting up, so I may take the opportunity to get it over to my good friends’ house and clean it up a bit and replace some of the inner electronics. 

So I was on EBay and did a search for McIntosh C and chose newly listed, I see this beauty, and it’s within my price range.  It is not perfect, it seems to have a crack on the glass and a little bit of the paper inner label material seems to be peeling away.  I will see what it will cost to get it re-done once it becomes noticeable, or if I have other work done to it.  I am going to check with my friend and see if he recommends that this unit be sent out before I even hook it up to ensure it is working properly.  I currently have a MC250 Stereo Amplifier, and found out that I just happened to purchase its’ matching pre-amp, the McIntosh C-28 Preamplifier.  They were in production at the same time.  There are two solid state amps they made at that time, one had meters, and it is the MC2105, a very cool looking amplifier!   The other is the MC250, which doesn’t even have a power switch!  It has no meters, no lights, only two RCA inputs, two special inputs, the speaker terminals and two volume controls.

The C-28 has lots of goodies that I cannot wait to play with.  It has two phono inputs, and I will need both, it has dual tape inputs, an aux input and a tuner input.  I will be able to use this unit and have a few inputs and outputs available for expansion.  It has tone controls for each individual channel which allows for sound balancing the speakers.  The volume works independent of all tone and balance controls and just equally increases or decreases the volume the same in both channels at the same time.  It has a few equalization features, but I mostly listen to music flat.  I will have a closer look when using the C-28, but I think I am losing the ability to record from one source while listening to another.  That is a feature that I love that the Yamaha C-70 has.  Other than that, I expect it to be a very nice addition to my stereo collection.

Why did I upgrade?  Well the C-70 has acted up a bit and has me questioning its reliability lately.  So I have been watching eBay while warming up and babying the Yamaha.  I ran into this at totally the wrong time, and I had to scrape together the funds from various sources to make it work.  I can’t wait for it to arrive.  I will be chatting with my friend this weekend and will seek his advice.  Watch for postings regarding the C-28.

Keep listening,

Jeff

Postscript: 

The preamp was damaged in shipping.  I am in negotiations with UPS as it will cost a few hundred dollars to repair the unit. The technician thinks I have a cracked board.  The glass was shattered and when it was operated it made some scary noises.  I am going to try and keep it and do the repairs, as this equipment is high quality and meant to last.  McIntosh also still makes the replacement glass.

Posted 3 weeks ago

Postscript:

UPS wanted the preamp back, so I had to settle for a refund.  I am not very happy and it will take me quite some time to find another preamp that I want at the same time I have the $600 to spend.  I will just keep using the C-70 Yamaha preamp until it fails and forces me to upgrade.  I may purchase a couple good phono preamps and find a nice preamp that does not have phono inputs, but has tons of other inputs.  Only time will tell.  It is sad that idiots at UPS cannot read a box when it says FRAGILE on it, and have to kick, drop and destroy stuff that people have paid money for. 

Denon DL-110 Phono Cartridge evaluation

                I am not going to bore you with details of its frequency response, specs or other information.  I am here to tell you how I “feel” the cartridge performed.  I played various types of music on various qualities of LPs over a three-week period. 

Break-in
               

     The first thing I did after mounting and aligning it was to put on a great quality record and put a bunch of hours on it before doing any critical listening.  I broke in the turntable over a week period and was able to put approximately 20 hours on the cartridge before I started listening.  I have a repeat function on my turntable so I enabled it to auto-repeat and let it go while I worked on various projects around the house. 

How much force to use               

     I started the listening project on the 15^th of the month and ended on the 31^st.  I tried three different VTF (Vertical Tracking force), the amount of force pressing down on the stylus (needle) playing the record.  You want this to be within manufacturers specifications.  The range of force was from 1.5 Gram to 2 Grams.  I tried three settings within that range, 1.5, 1.75 and 2.0 Grams of force.  I felt that the 1.5 Gram weight produced a more noisy sound, this was still extremely slight, but I could pick it out from the recording I was listening to.  When I adjusted it to 2.0 Grams, I noticed that there was more pronounced  bass and a more warm sound, I knew there should be more performance that this cartridge could provide, so I tried 1.75 Grams of force.  I was rewarded with a very nice sound, extremely low, if any noise when playing excellent quality LPs.  The high-frequency material was nicely presented and sounded excellent, there was quite a bit of bass present as well.  It was a very-nicely balanced sound.  I found this to be my favorite sound produced by this cartridge, so I have left it at 1.75 for the entire test from that point on.  I also never removed the stylus from my turntable during the test. 

Listening               

     I started listening with some old favorites that I know pretty well.  The first LP that I mounted was a near mint, original pressing of Alan Parson’s Project’s Greatest Hits.  I like this LP because of all the electronics in the mix.  The sound was awesome; I immediately noticed the absence of any surface noise.  I liked the sound.  I also noticed that the sound provided by this cartridge sounded larger than my actual speakers.  I was pretty happy overall and this was the first LP!  I then threw on a VG+ copy of Boston’s first LP.  I like to use this LP, because of the dynamic range of the recording; it starts very quietly and works its way up to loud.  I appreciated the extra low surface noise with this record quite a bit.  It was not even as near perfect an LP as the Alan Parsons LP, so I was pretty happy indeed.  I read in the manual that clean records are a must with this cartridge.  So I cleaned the records pretty well before playing each.  Over the next few nights I spent some time listening to some of my favorite LPs.  Dire Straits – Communiqué, Triumph – The Sport of Kings, Yes – 90125, The Cars, Styx – Crystal Ball.  These are some of the comments that I made while listening.  “Sound six feet wider than the speakers”; No extra noise on quiet parts and pauses in the music”; Hardly any pops or clicks, WOW!”;  “ Some deep scratches cannot be avoided”.  I spent some time listening with my daughter and she said it “sounded awesome”.

Impressions               


     I loved the cartridge!  I read on websites that it has a sound of its own; I did not find that to be the case, I believe that I was hearing the record itself instead of the cartridge.  The sound was very nice, especially on very well kept and clean records.  The cartridge does NOT like scratched up records.  I have a lot of records from G+ to NM- to LPs that have been played only a few times.  As good as this cartridge is I still need to have a variety of them to choose from.  (For an in-depth discussion see my Blog post regarding the need to have more than one cartridge to choose from).  It has dethroned my former best aligned cartridge, it sounds fantastic!  The sound is much bigger and more precise than my Shure M97xE, all of my Grado Prestige series, (with the exception of the mono cartridge), and it sounded quite a bit better than my Shure V15RS.  I realize that I don’t have a truly expensive MM cartridge to really do a comparison, although I believe that $150 for the Denon is comparable in cost to what the Shure V15RS cost back when it came out in 1982.  I would also put this in the same category as the Shure M97xE that I have a few of.  Again, I will need other needles for listening to crappy records, or when I need a change.  I believe that I will be getting another MC cartridge down the road.  My pre-amp has a setting to switch my Phono input from MM to MC, so I will be set at least in that respect.

Lessons Learned               


     I learned how crucial alignment of a phono cartridge can be.  I watched a video to learn how to align it properly.  Michael Fremer, vinyl aficionado, explains the how to and the way to do it of turntable setup.  I followed the instructions, used the tools I had and worked for a while on aligning the cartridge.  (This made me go through nearly all of my current cartridges and re-do their alignment if needed, quite a few did!).  I learned that my perception of the “hype” surrounding MC cartridges was not “hype” but in this case, an eye (ear) opening performance to behold. 

LPs Listened to during the test period:


Alan Parsons Project - Greatest Hits, NM-
Boston - Boston, VG+
Dire Straits - Comminique, VG++
Triumph - The Sport of Kings, Just Opened
Yes - 90125, VG+
The Cars - The Cars, VG++
Styx - Crystal Ball, VG+
The Association - and then along comes the Association, VG++
Sonny Rollins - Pure gold Jazz - VG+
HSAS - Through the Fire, Just Opened
Judas Priest - Turbo, VG++
The Great Hits of Ray Charles Recorded on 8-Track Stereo, VG+
Styx - Grand Illusion, VG+
A few assorted 45rpm records, ranging VG+ to NM

Rating:

4.5 Beers - SOLID! - Revealing, Awesome, on perfect records it is nice, clear and detailed, and for what I consider not an insignificant sum of money it is an amazing bargain!  I would recommend this cartridge as a solid entry-level MC cartridge.

Posted 3 weeks ago

McIntosh Preamp derailed?

Over the past few months I have been considering upgrading my Pre-amp.  I am currently running a Yamaha C-70 Preamp.  This is a very nice and quite capable preamp.  It has dual phono inputs, which to me is essential; it allows me to choose what source to record from so I can listen to other material while I record something from another source.  It is way cool; it also has an equalizer, which I seldom use to shape the sound.  It has lots of gain as well, which I seldom use as I have my amps set to 11.  The preamp needs to be warmed up to perform properly since it sits in a cold basement.  I have been considering changing this unit out for some time and I have been looking at McIntosh C-33 preamp as the model I will most like to acquire.  They are expensive, and could cost me around a thousand dollars.  I will be saving for a long time to get one!

Meet the challenger, a $150 - 2.5 watt per channel, flea-watt tube amp.  I acquired it a year or so ago and I was using it in my office system powering some Polk mini speakers.  Yesterday, I was going through my connections and labeling any changes that I had made when I noticed that I had one vacant input on my amplifier switch.  I was thinking at first that I could get something cool to fill that opening.  I walked into my office and saw the little guy and thought that I would like to hear it with those new PSB 6T speakers that I had purchased recently.  So I disconnected it from the few cables connecting it to my office system and moved it to the other room.  (You would not believe how nice it is to have amplifier options!).

While I was looking around for spare speaker cable, which I am nearly out of, I discovered one very long piece of a home-made speaker cable that I started to make a while back.  I made three of them and finished two, which have been in service for some time.  These speaker wires are made of Category 5e, solid-strand data cable.  I used some of my old cabling tricks to ensure that I had a nick-free cable end.  I used shrink tubing to ensure a neat and tidy end and marked which side would be positive.  I feel these are awesome cables, as inside there are 4-pairs of wires, and each twisted with each other and the other 3 pairs to eliminate EMI interference in data transmission.  Well, I could not see how I could miss since the signals that are sent to your speakers aren't really that much different than the impulses that network equipment sent over them.  Plus, the side benefit, there are eight 24-gauge solid copper strands in each cable.   I used one cable (all 8 strands), for the positive and one for the negative, sure I could have split out 2-pairs (4 wires) for positive and negative, but I decided the benefit might be lost and there might not be the same sound if I use the same cable for both.  So I cut the large cable in half, prepared all four ends on each and I was ready about a half-hour later!

So I connected the 2.5 watt flea amp to my system and ran a dual connector from one of my outputs from the pre-amp and hooked it up.  I connected the speaker terminals to my amplifier switch and I was ready for some listening.  I figured, since the PSB speakers have an efficiency rating of 89, they may not work very well with this low powered amplifier.  I powered off the McIntosh and powered up the flea-watt amp. I was wrong.  I could not believe the sound coming from this little amp and those speakers.  I was quite surprised, so I put on a familiar recording, INXS – Kick, and listened to the entire recording.  WOW!  I did not just hear things I had not noticed before, it was like the speakers become 10 times larger and the sound enveloped the room. Now, this will not play especially loud with these few watts, but it goes louder than I thought it would!  I know It probably sounds ridiculous, but come on over and check it out for yourself if you are skeptical.  This little stereo amp is, using my friend’s standard, not even an especially good cheap one.  It has one tube, which is a triode tube I believe, and does the work of a set of tubes, and an electronic board which eliminates the need for one tube as well is built into this little amp.  Most of the better, inexpensive tube amps have two or more tubes doing all the jobs that get the signal from your source to your speakers for better overall sound and a pure tube-based signal path. 

How did this de-rail the McIntosh Preamp?  Well, since I have a darn good preamp now, I may wait for it to die (if it ever does), and pick up a medium range tube amp as one of my amplifier options.  I have been looking around and I may buy an inexpensive, vintage amp with 10 - 50 watts to replace my flea-watt amp, (which I will probably give to my brother to make a believer out of him).  If the sound is this awesome with a cheap tube-amp how much better will it be with a more-expensive, better designed piece of tube gear? 

I intend to find out!  What are your thoughts?

Keep listening and keep that stress down!

Jeff

Update 03/23/13:
Still no McIntosh Preamp. I would call that derailed.  :(

Jeff's Beer Rating System:

1 Beer - Weak - did these components come out of a kids toy?

2 Beer - OK - these would sound OK at a party or at party-level listening, not for critical listening.

3 Beer - Good - this component would sound good just about anywhere, in any system, not great, but a good component at a good price, not revealing or articulate, but rocks the house down and handles music very nicely.

4 Beer - Solid -make great recordings sound incredible and in a perfect room the performance would be outstanding, quite a few of these level of components are reasonably priced, can be revealing and articulate, but usually a great sounding component and a good value to own.

5 Beer - Sweet - these would play articulate, revealing and sweet sounding music, clean source material is a must, nearly perfect sound with nearly any music or source, a nice component to have if you can afford it.

6 Beer - OMG - these would knock your socks off, sound amazing, redefine your idea of what a perfect system can sound like, it's almost like you are in the room with the performers, the component(s) to have if you can afford it.

Make it a great day! 

Keep Listening!

Jeff

OOPS!

OOPS!  In my last post, I discussed how I was going to build a turntable.  Ummmm, well it turns out that I am a member of an audiophile club and I got wind of a sale of some speakers which I have wanted to try for a while.  I heard these particular speakers, or something similar by PSB at a friends house listening to some recordings.  I was impressed with the detail and the sound.  The speakers that I picked up this week are PSB 6T speakers.  I guess that the turntable will have to wait a bit longer, onto the back burner.

The PSB 6T speakers look huge, which they are not, they are pretty big though.  Those are actually 3 - 6.5" drivers, two woofers, one mid and upper mid, and a tweeter, they stand maybe 40 inches or so high, and only about 10 inches wide, the large part is they are 20" deep!  There is a little superficial cabinet damage, so I acquired them at a sweet price from a very nice fellow.  I believe he told me he was playing them on a 35WPC tube amp.  I would have liked to hear them with that setup!

  

Yamaha RX-V2070 and PSB 6T

As far as how they sound with my Yamaha amp, the sound is very precise, I heard musicians breathing on certain sections of music.  I will have to listen to them for a while to fully appreciate them.  I ran them for a few hours on the Yamaha home theater receiver; I played rock, metal, jazz, vocal, Sinatra, and some reggae.  My source was a computer WMA library fed to my system by a Music Streamer USB DAC.  On certain material the speakers sounded amazing but I found they were missing just a little something on the heavier rock songs like some Judas Priest that I had played.  I had them bi-amped to the Yamaha home theater receiver, an RX-V2070, 140 Watts x 7.  I was surprised how much bass they deliver.  Overall I felt that this receiver cannot push the PSBs to the volume level I would need them to achieve in order to de-throne the Klipsch KLF-20s that are usually bi-amped to this receiver and give wonderful performance.

Parasound HCA 800 II and PSB 6T

I listened to SACD / CD of Ray Charles - "Genius + Soul = Jazz" on my vintage (1991) Sony ES 5-disc carousel and on my Parasound HCA 800 II and the PSB 6Ts.  I felt a bit fatigued listening to the music while my system was configured this way.  I had a headache by the time I was done listening to the CD.  The sound was excellent, however it bothered me, sometimes to the point that I wanted to turn it down during some organ and horn sections.  I will have to listen to different material to be certain with this combination.  I will take another listen to the CD as well, on a different set of speakers and see if I notice the same harshness.  this was a tough listening session, I am hoping for different results with different music.  I spent some time, an album side to be exact listening to Ray Charles again, on LP.  I figured out what bothers me about the way this setup sounds.  It is the excellence of the tweeter, with this amp in particular, it makes the highs harsh.  I noticed it quite pronounced on scratch portions of my record.  I played side two on a different set of speakers, my Boston Acoustics T-930, which I have had since new.  This side sounded "better", I could still hear the pops and snaps, but it was much more agreeable sounding.  I have come to the conclusion that unless a recording is perfect and mid range rich, I should not listen using this combination of equipment.

.

McIntosh MC250 and PSB 6T

Now I have the PSBs hooked to my McIntosh MC250 50 Watts x 2, to see how they sound. I just got my hands on some mono, extended play, 45RPM Benny Goodman small group jazz  records.  I played them through the McIntosh and the 5 sides I listened to were pretty awesome, very nice indeed.  I was a bit concerned that they might sound harsh with vinyl.  Imagine my delight when I did not hear the harshness that I had experienced with the Parasound.  I used a Grado M+ mono cartridge on my Technics SL-B3 turntable.  I spent some more time with my digitized music collection, the source was a computer WMA library fed to my system by a Music Streamer USB DAC, this time I played some Taylor Swift with my daughter.  The sound was excellent, there was no harshness and the sound was very revealing, I sometimes was surprised that I was hearing a new thing here or there in the music I was listening to.  Overall, I would have to say that I have not experienced the issues that I had when pairing these speakers with the Parasound amp.  The sound when paired with the McIntosh is awesome, nice and full, a winner to my ears!

Summary
Not every amplifier and speaker combination works together to create awesomeness, I am very glad I have a variety.  These are excellent speakers and will have a home here for a while.  I am very glad to have a few amplifiers that I can try with different combinations of equipment in the attempt to hear music in as revealing a way as possible, without spending a fortune.  I will not be using these speakers with the Parasound due to the issues that I listed above.  However, the performance of my other two amplifiers was very good to excellent, even remarkable depending on the music and the volume.  If I only had one amp, I may not be keeping these due to the fact they do not play loud enough to satisfy my occasional need to crank the tunes to 11, otherwise these are very beautiful, revealing awesome sounding speakers.  I heard things in recordings that I had not heard with any of my other speakers, I am pretty impressed with the sound of this speaker. 

Jeffs Beer Rating - 4 out of 6 beers!  Solid!



Jeff's Beer Rating System:

1 Beer - Weak - did these come out of a kids toy?

2 Beer - OK - these would sound OK at a party.

3 Beer - Good - these would sound good just about anywhere, not great, but a good speaker at a good price, not revealing or articulate, but rocks the house down and handles music very nicely.

4 Beer - Solid - these would play very well with great recordings and a perfect room, quite a few of these are reasonably priced speakers, can be revealing and articulate, but usually a great sounding speaker and a good value to own.

5 Beer - Sweet - these would play articulate, revealing and sweet sounding music, source type is nearly irrelevant, nearly perfect sound with nearly any music or source, a nice speaker to have if you can afford it.

6 Beer - OMG - these would knock your socks off, sound amazing, redefine your idea of what a perfect speaker can sound like, it's almost like you are in the room with the performers, the speaker to have if you can afford it.



Equipment used during evaluation:

• PSB 6T Speakers
• Yamaha C-70 Pre-Amplifier
• McIntosh MC250
• Parasound HCA 800 II
• Yamaha RX-V2070 Home Theater Receiver
• Technics SL-B3 Belt-Drive Turntable
• Grado MC Mono Phono Cartridge
• Dell Precision Laptop M70
• Music Streamer DAC
• Knuconceptz Speaker cables
• Sony C77ES 5-disc carousel CD player
• Boston Acoustics T930 Speakers
• Klipsch KLF-20 Speakers

Keep Listening!

Jeff

Posted 13th May, 2012

The turntable itch

I have been recently infected with the itch to change up my turntables.  I have two vintage turntables that I use as daily drivers.  Neither of them are high-end; remember I am the budget audiophile!  I have a belt-driven Technics SL-B3 turntable, this table has an interchangeable head shell system, it was built around 1980. I brought this one back from the junk pile, I traded a 17" monitor for it.  This thing was very dirty, the belt had melted to the platter.  I restored it, cleaned it, lubricated it, got a headshell a new belt and brought it back from near-death.  I also have a direct-drive JVC L-F210.  This table is a direct-drive straight-arm table from around 1982, it also has the interchangeable head shell system. 


Each of my turntables have it's strengths and weaknesses.  Both have interchangeabe headshells, albeit both are different styles of headshell.  The JVC sounds brighter than the Technics, which has a nice and rich sound.  I have each one of them for a reason based upon preferences and performance.  The question is, what do I replace and with what?


I have been looking around the Internet and have been toying with the idea of purchasing a used turntable of a higher-grade than what I am currently using.  I have also been looking at some of the new turntables available.  What are the considerations I must think about as I start the pursuit of a different turntable?
On the surface purchasing or replacing a turntable seems pretty easy, right?  Do you know which direction you would take with each of the listed choices below?  Which would be your primary consideration?

• Belt-drive, Direct-drive?
• Interchangeable head shells or one pre-mounted or permanent?
• 33, 45, 78 or 33,45?
• Automatic, Manual or Auto-return only?
• New or used?
• Build a custom-made turntable from parts?
• Price

I have found several good, used turntables.  Dual 1219 and 1229 would be nice turntables to have, although not necessarily an audiophile pick.  I was looking at a couple Garrard's from the 1970's and they look pretty good.   These models have the fixed head shell so I cannot interchange needles on them. As much as I would like either of them I will probably steer clear until I have one perfect needle that I wish to live with on one perfect turntable. (as-if...).  The cost of these can range from less than $100 to more than $300. I thought about Technics, but in order to get a better turntable, I would have to buy a 1200.   Shipping is another problem, over the years I have had about a 50% success rate with having turntables shipped to me.  Half have arrived either broken, smashed or not working as intended.  I hesitate to have anything shipped to me except in original packaging, with shipping insurance or a guarantee.


I have looked at some new turntables, like the Rega and the Project turntables.  I like the way they look, they get great reviews, however there is no way to swap the headshells on the affordable ones, (if you consider $369 - $700 afordable).  I found a Thorens which is in current production that has the removable headshell, 3-speeds and auto return, very nice, but over $1200.  I tend to avoid the Stanton, Numark, Crosley and the remainder of the budget, entry-level or USB turntables.


What about a custom-built turntable from parts?  I have an old Garrard with a very heavy platter that spins forever, it has that funky, antique astatic needle with vibration pickup arm. It is not audiophlile by any stretch of imagination, (YET!).  I have acquired a couple tonearms from broken turntables that I have had in the past and online and I plan to use one.  The arms that I have all use the interchangeable head shell setup for which I have about a dozen needles ready to go.  To make this a reality, I need to have a base, or plinth designed which will house the motor assembly and the electronics, and needs to be heavy enough to deal with the vibration that it will encounter and big enough to house everything under the covers.  I will remove the old tonearm from the turntable, move the motor, base and platter assembly to the new base.  Then, drill the appropriate holes in the turntable base to accomodate the new tonearm in the desired location.  When I design the base I will be emulating the shape and size of my Technics table, so I can use the geometry from it to correctly place the tonearm for similar alignment and playback performance, (hopefully).  The speeds available on my home-made turntable will be 16, 33, 45, 78rpm, which makes this table quite flexible.  I have needles mounted on headshells for special records that I will be able to play on the home built table.  I have a 78 Cartridge, a Mono Cartridge and a couple spherical ones for playing crappy records.  I will be able to change to any of them I want to use for the record I wish to play.  This is one of my favorite parts of havinig a turntable is having multiple needles, see my post on multiple needles and the benefits.


I think I will be building the custom turntable as it offers the most fun for me, it also offers the most flexibility for playback.  I think the challenge of making all this work properly will be quite fun and enlightening.  As for the cost, it will probably cost me a couple hundred dollars to get the right piece of wood for the plinth and have it shaped to fit the turntable base I intend to use and hold the tonearm in the correct location with a nice finish.  A dozen hours on the base, another few hours drilling and placing everything where it should go.  100 hours of playing records to test it, tweaks here and there until I get good sound or better, fun, fun, fun!  The final table should be something fun to watch and listen to, while it will probably not be audiophile grade, the grade it will get for fun should be an A+!

The needles I use are:

Technics SL-B3, SME interchangeable stylus system

Pickering V-15 - PD07-C spherical stylus - tracks crappy records
Shure V15 RS - original stylus w/stabilizer brush - only used with new or perfect records
Shure M91ED - aftermarket stylus
Shure M95ED - aftermarket stylus
Shure M97Xe - original stylus - with stabilizer brush - tracks warped records
Grado Prestige Black - original stylus
Grado Prestige Blue - origina stylus - reference - perfectly aligned and very honest
Grado Mono - original mono stylus - only for playing mono microgroove recordings

JVC L-F210, straight-arm standard interchangable stylus system

Audio Technica - Model unknown, came with turntable
Shure M91ED - Original stylus
Shure M97Xe - original stylus - with stabilizer brush - tracks warped records
Pickering XV-15/625e w/d700 aftermarket conical stylus w/brushmatic - tracks crappy records




What would you do?  Which table should I replace?





Do some listening today!

Jeff

Posted 6th May, 2012