Hi Warren
On the subject of imperfect LP's, how does your parallel tracker handle warps? With the very short effective arm length, doesn't the VTA shift drastically when riding warps? Is warp-wow audible?
I have long used a peripheral ring for taming non-flat LP's.
Yes, the finishing can be tedious. I have done the same with a fibreglass mat layer and then automotive filler, sanding and spray painting. With the right filler, the fibreglass mat layer can be omitted. The mat does give extra security against accidental knocks though.
Did you deliberately choose an off-centre LP to show off your frictionless arm? Impressive groove security. Is the wow audible with this amount of eccentricity?
On the subject of imperfect LP's, how does your parallel tracker handle warps? With the very short effective arm length, doesn't the VTA shift drastically when riding warps? Is warp-wow audible?
I have long used a peripheral ring for taming non-flat LP's.
Hi Bon,
I have rolls of fiberglass mat and a 20kg drum of resin left over from my car project so still using this up. I'm designing a new servo driven unipivot linear tracker and will build a new plinth for this.
I opened out the hole on that LP as a torture test. It's one of my old kiddie LP's from when I was 5 and only stories so didn't listen to it.
As the carriage is only 100mm long ans pivot to stylus is 58mm I use a reflex clamp to hold LP's down. It does a good job of all but the worst and I don't have any of those.
VTF does vary with stylus height. As the pivot is so low COM is above the pivot point so VTF decreases as the stylus lifts. I plan to add a spacer under the cartridge tomorrow in an attempt to lower COM.
It's not perfect and given the right amount of eccentricity, warp, modulation it will spit the stylus out of the groove at worst and distortion at best. This only happens occasionally and is repeatable with the same song.
Even with this issue the performance is stunning, on Pink Floyd The Wall it out performs my digital in bass response, which is something I wasn't prepared for. The noise floor is also lower than my pivoting arm, significantly reduced clicks and pops on old second hand LP's.
I have rolls of fiberglass mat and a 20kg drum of resin left over from my car project so still using this up. I'm designing a new servo driven unipivot linear tracker and will build a new plinth for this.
I opened out the hole on that LP as a torture test. It's one of my old kiddie LP's from when I was 5 and only stories so didn't listen to it.
As the carriage is only 100mm long ans pivot to stylus is 58mm I use a reflex clamp to hold LP's down. It does a good job of all but the worst and I don't have any of those.
VTF does vary with stylus height. As the pivot is so low COM is above the pivot point so VTF decreases as the stylus lifts. I plan to add a spacer under the cartridge tomorrow in an attempt to lower COM.
It's not perfect and given the right amount of eccentricity, warp, modulation it will spit the stylus out of the groove at worst and distortion at best. This only happens occasionally and is repeatable with the same song.
Even with this issue the performance is stunning, on Pink Floyd The Wall it out performs my digital in bass response, which is something I wasn't prepared for. The noise floor is also lower than my pivoting arm, significantly reduced clicks and pops on old second hand LP's.
Hi Warren.
I think the low noise floor is a result of the very high damping factor of the resin/bentonite plinth construction. Clicks and pops are impulsive in nature and tend to excite any resonances in the attached hardware. These increase the audibility of the impulses. Your solid parallel tracker gantry also helps in this regard.
The bass quality is assisted by getting the arm/cartridge resonance in the ideal range, around 12 Hz. I recall the Stanton 881 cartridges were high compliance mm's, like the top of the line Shures, ADC, Pickerings etc. They worked best with low mass tonearms, which kept the arm/cartridge resonance above record warp frequencies. Your minimal parallel tracker carriage should be close to perfect. Do you have the HiFi News HFN001 Test Record? It has LF tones and sweeps on Bands 2 and 3, side 2, which can detect your arm/cartridge resonance frequency.
I think the low noise floor is a result of the very high damping factor of the resin/bentonite plinth construction. Clicks and pops are impulsive in nature and tend to excite any resonances in the attached hardware. These increase the audibility of the impulses. Your solid parallel tracker gantry also helps in this regard.
The bass quality is assisted by getting the arm/cartridge resonance in the ideal range, around 12 Hz. I recall the Stanton 881 cartridges were high compliance mm's, like the top of the line Shures, ADC, Pickerings etc. They worked best with low mass tonearms, which kept the arm/cartridge resonance above record warp frequencies. Your minimal parallel tracker carriage should be close to perfect. Do you have the HiFi News HFN001 Test Record? It has LF tones and sweeps on Bands 2 and 3, side 2, which can detect your arm/cartridge resonance frequency.
Yes I have the HFN LP and a heap of other ones.
I don't have the 881s installed as I could not get the Linear to track effectively with the Stanton, too much horizontal mass for the ultra high compliance. I have a Technics EPC205 with a Jico SAS stylus.
I have run both horizontal and vertical resonance test tracks with the EPC and the arm does not show up any resonance in the frequencies on the HFN. I copied the carriage from another member and his calculations on the resonant frequency of this carriage were in the vicinity of 20kHz.
I have had 3 different carriages on this rail. The one pictured I ran for a few weeks while I rebuilt the Frog (as my wife calls it). The noise floor on the temporary carriage was higher more clicks and pops, but still lower than my EPA100. On a good LP (one I've had since new 1980's) there is almost no noise the Frog is eerily quiet.
Both SP10's are in resin plinths I just didn't make the one with the EPA100 mounted.
I don't have the 881s installed as I could not get the Linear to track effectively with the Stanton, too much horizontal mass for the ultra high compliance. I have a Technics EPC205 with a Jico SAS stylus.
I have run both horizontal and vertical resonance test tracks with the EPC and the arm does not show up any resonance in the frequencies on the HFN. I copied the carriage from another member and his calculations on the resonant frequency of this carriage were in the vicinity of 20kHz.
I have had 3 different carriages on this rail. The one pictured I ran for a few weeks while I rebuilt the Frog (as my wife calls it). The noise floor on the temporary carriage was higher more clicks and pops, but still lower than my EPA100. On a good LP (one I've had since new 1980's) there is almost no noise the Frog is eerily quiet.
Both SP10's are in resin plinths I just didn't make the one with the EPA100 mounted.
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My comment about the resonant frequency concerns the tonearm+ cartridge effective mass combined with the cartridge compliance which usually gives a low frequency resonance (below 20 Hz). Does the 20 kHz figure you mention refer to a carriage structural resonance? If so, it seems very high. These are typically in the hundreds of Hz.
Yes 20kHz is structural resonance and it high because of the design of the carriage.
I did run the arm cart resonant frequency test and had no resonance either vertical or horizontal, so the arm/cart resonance is not in the bands on the HFN test LP.
I did run the arm cart resonant frequency test and had no resonance either vertical or horizontal, so the arm/cart resonance is not in the bands on the HFN test LP.
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So from 1995-2007 I used 10/2 in broadcasting, later part I uesed one to transfer many 16 inch one of a kind transcription disc and a whole mess of 78's that I was interested in, I loved the deck, and my boss at the time built me a 3-4 foot walnut plinth on rollers, it was a great time, everty linch break id run down to the celler to transfer some more (I had about 7 diffrent sized stily and my own designed FLAT preamp), so last week was a shock, old mate from work said "did I want some decks" yes I said. and Now I have 2 10/2, both power up fine and run very well, the dunno, top case?, I guess are so pitted and corroded they could have been in a lake for 40 years!. in a jiffy i completly dismateled one and have sanded it and put some primer on it and laquered the cheap **** plinth. both come with standard ABC brodcast cheap tonearms, which were set WITH solder to about 10-15 grams?!?!?, so after wiggling the larger 3rd weight free Ive got it to 2.5 grams, as im using my fav cart santon 500al mk2. Im using one as a daily deck corosion, moldy base an all. coming from someone that used a AT for the last 20 years the pure tone of the 10/s is a sight (or hear?) to behold, no more plastic fantastick decks for me, Ive come home
My new 2 10/2
Belive it or not here is the better of the two
Here's the worst
which now looks like this
After sevral hours of hand sanding both the deck and the bit of wood. I sried to use a stain and varnish on the wood, but it came out like shiny paint in the wrong shade of brown, oh well, thats what stripper is for, oh this deck sat in multiple aplications of paint stripper for 6 hrs, did not do a thing!
Belive it or not here is the better of the two
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Here's the worst
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
which now looks like this
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
After sevral hours of hand sanding both the deck and the bit of wood. I sried to use a stain and varnish on the wood, but it came out like shiny paint in the wrong shade of brown, oh well, thats what stripper is for, oh this deck sat in multiple aplications of paint stripper for 6 hrs, did not do a thing!
Electroinics are great in both, Im not that keen to replace the caps as I dont have a scope to recalabrate, might do the ones on both PSU's well Ill do one and then see if its ok with the deck and do the other, I was clever when I first had them spinning, I left em on spinning away for 5 hrs before turnming off, diddnt want then to go boom next time I powered up. The neon in the one ive not dismanteled has gone, turntable still playing perfectly fine, I would have expected there to be issues with a dead Neon, I put the other PSU on it and it aint that, Ill have to check voltages across the neon, but not just yet, want to paint and put other one back together. got to iuse a steel brch on about a inch on the underside of the platter on the dismanteled one, lots of corosion, then repaint a few of the black stripes. I cant getover the tone,sounds great not having to use the AT plastic thing again
One of my SP10's came from radio 2LM and was in pretty bad shape inside. Been modified and butchered over the years at the radio station, I did replace the motor and PSU caps, the ones in the PSU were leaking. Replaced C2,4 & 6 on the drive PCB with with Panasonic FC 10u 100v. Being a old tech I'm not in the "let's re-cap the whole thing" camp. Only replace the ones that are needed.
While I had this SP10 apart I deleted the brake and changed the neon to LED's
While I had this SP10 apart I deleted the brake and changed the neon to LED's
Replacing the electrolytics won’t have any meaningful impact to the tracking setting.
There is no speed calibration aside from the oscillator. The tracking period adjustments is the phase relationship between the reference and the motor. Electrolytics aren't going to affect any of those in any appreciable way on a MKII, and the tracking period adjustment isn't really that critical.
The journey begins
Just buy the nicest MkII you can afford, and be done with turntables for the rest of your life. It really is that easy.
[/QUOTE]
It started with conversations on the Salas FSP thread and came to fruition with the incredible help of pfarrell. I now own two really nice SP-10mk2's. One is a low time excellent condition, perfect working order with EPA 100 tone arm and the second is a zero time flawless and inop TT with no tone arm. Both on Panasonic Obsidian plinths.
My plan is to get the inop unit working. Then I will recap and time the unit.
When successful with that I will tackle a recap and timing of the second unit.
In between, I will tackle the tone arm setup.
Who knows what I'll do with two but I am sure I can get some guidance with that.
I am pretty new to diy audio and certainly to these tables so I will be needing help and there will be lots of questions.
Hopefully getting some pics up will start. Thanking everybody in advance.
Regards,
Don
Just buy the nicest MkII you can afford, and be done with turntables for the rest of your life. It really is that easy.
[/QUOTE]It started with conversations on the Salas FSP thread and came to fruition with the incredible help of pfarrell. I now own two really nice SP-10mk2's. One is a low time excellent condition, perfect working order with EPA 100 tone arm and the second is a zero time flawless and inop TT with no tone arm. Both on Panasonic Obsidian plinths.
My plan is to get the inop unit working. Then I will recap and time the unit.
When successful with that I will tackle a recap and timing of the second unit.
In between, I will tackle the tone arm setup.
Who knows what I'll do with two but I am sure I can get some guidance with that.
I am pretty new to diy audio and certainly to these tables so I will be needing help and there will be lots of questions.
Hopefully getting some pics up will start. Thanking everybody in advance.
Regards,
Don
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I have never owned 2 TT's but now have 2 x SP10's, 1 with an EPA100 and the other with a DIY linear arm. Both have EPC205's
The EPA100 is easy to setup just set the spindle to pivot accurately, there are loads of commercial protractors for this. Not sure if the Technics arm board is drilled precisely for fit, if it is then you may not even need the protractor.
The EPA100 is easy to setup just set the spindle to pivot accurately, there are loads of commercial protractors for this. Not sure if the Technics arm board is drilled precisely for fit, if it is then you may not even need the protractor.