Simple non intrusive tweak for Linn Akito (and perhaps similar arms..)

[tubenut]

I have been doing a bit of reading on tone arms lately and have been reading about the various structural modifications for Rega arms with interest.

One outstanding part of all of the options from Michel, Origin Expressimo etc etc is rigidity!

I decided to have a closer look at the Akito on my Axis. The counterweight, as all owners should know has a revolving tracking force scale that moves quite freely to set the “zero point” when balancing the arm. This disc is held in place by 3 little grub screws on the perimeter of the counterweight. The scale has a groove on its perimeter that these 3 screws sit into.

Once you have balanced the tone arm and set the dial to zero, hold everything in place and with a tiny flat jeweller screwdriver tighten one of the grub screws, 3 turns should do it. The disc is now locked in place.

I believe you have now stopped the scale disc from rattling around while the tone arm plays your tunes. Set to the desired tracking force and presto, more focus. It is subtle but worth the money!!!

An added advantage is that you will not loose your zero indication while experimenting with tracking force by accidentally pushing the scale disc out of sync with the weight when fumbling with it.

If you use a separate tracking force gauge, loosening the screws will allow you to remove the scale completely, perhaps the cavities in the counterweight could be stuffed with blu tack as well…



Happy spinning!!!

Guillaume

[audiotux]

Hallo tubenut ,
a easy modifikation for the Akito is simple , changing the Phono - Cable
(from Arm to Pre - Amp).
For the Axis : better Powercable and the Ringmat .

Greetings from Germany
jürgen

[tubenut]

I will in the near future rewire the Akito arm, elimiinating the "fixed headshell plug in leads" as well as the DIN plug and run some Cardas from cartridge clips to the RCAs without breaks.....

BTW, wrt the above tweak. You can also just lock the scale disk, balance the arm and add your desired tracking weight to the figure lined up on the dial at zero balance....

[audiotux]

hallo tubenut ,
i had only the Cinch-Cable in mind , not the Armcable .
Armcable-Mods can be critical ,depents on the stiffness of the new Cable
and Resonances , when the Arm is open at the end .
The Axis is a real Underdog for this little Money such an Output !
Greeting from Germany
Jürgen

[tubenut]

Yip, nobody really likes the Axis it seems. The PSU is better then a Valhalla, it is fuss free and does not look like an antique like an LP12. I have always wanted an Axis and could have bought used LP12s for similar cash here in SA but have always let them pass. In 5 years or more of looking for one I have only ever seen one for sale (vs dozens of LP12s) and that is the one I bought... Had to buy a rotel pre power and old Linn Index speakers to get it as the guy sold his whole system but I sold those other bits quite quickly.
I use mine with a Karma and phono stage is a modified Electrocompaniet ECP1. Do not care what folks say about the Akito, the Karma sounds better in it then any MM I have used. Linn recommended a K5 or K9 with this deck, an apt model name for such a dog of a cartridge... Maybe too many folks have heard Axis with those nasty Linn cartridges?

Sadly my Karma is getting bad, need something fresh. Still hunting as I can not really spend more then about USD 300

I put some baby oil (as per a thread on this forum) with a few squirts of Wynflon (a teflon based general purpose lube) in the bearinbng today. Whow, beats the synthetic oil I used before hands down. I timed the sub platter spinning after a finger push before and after baby oil and baby oil runs 2.4 times as long!!!!
Far punchier pacier dynamic sound with bigger body on male voices.
Try it out folks, Johnson & Johnson 100 ml for les then USD 2.00. It gets even cheaper if you buy bigger bottles )

[Nanook]

well certainly an unappreciated deck by many. I have no personal experience with it BUT , I do recall that in 1987 or 1988 "Audio" magazine put it in their best components issue.

I suspect that the biggest problem was the use of poor sounding "dogs" and the original Akito which was no giant slayer. I suspect that a used Alphason Xenon, Akito2 or any of the flavours of hotrodded Regas would be a big improvement.

good luck and happy listening..


Nanook

[audiotux]

hallo tubenut,
can you explain that babyoil Mod ?
Maybe your Karma can refreshed by VdH ?
I like my Axises , have 2 of them !

Jürgen

[tubenut]

No real mod on the baby oil..... Just cleaned out the previous bearing oil which replaced the original oil and was better to my ears...

Baby oil as used to lubricate babies sounds even better and smell sweet 2. I use Johnson and Johnson. I do add a few squirts of Wynflon (described on the can as "a superlube with PTFE"). A general all purpose spray lube like Q20/WD40 but main ingredient Teflon and of lower viscosity I think.

[tubenut]

Confused myself on viscosity, the wynflon product is "thinner" then WD40...