Guess I forgot to post about this project from last winter, as when spring hits, there's tons of outside projects and toys to do and play with! Now that cold and rain is here, its back indoors, and back into audio bliss.....
This was a simple (as im a rookie) diy project of taking my first and only TT, moding it, and making it my own. This was given to me from my mother 3 years ago as I've always wanted to hear what vinyl is all about. As she's getting up there in age, I wanted a easy project that the two of us could do together, improve the sound a little, and make it a "permanent im not going to get another and replace this one with something better" turntable.
I love the look of my marantz gear, and thought, why don't I make my fluance rt-81, match my marantz stack?!
So, I tore apart the fluance, and took my set of decent patch cables, and bypassed the internal amp 100% (even though there's a defeat switch, it still runs the circuit through a series of resistors) and soldered directly to the tonearm wiring, also redid the grounding wiring as it was poorly done and measured high resistance. I then sourced a marantz face plate in the right dimensions and a set of feet for my project. At first I filled in all the holes with a 2 part plastic jb weld epoxy, this left, well, a rough finish, so on went the bondo, and after much sanding, and filing, and sanding, the surface was still not 100% flat, and tried the black brushed aluminum vinyl wrap, and looked horrible.
Back to the drawing board....well, got a piece of aluminum plate from Lowes, cut, sanded to correct size, wrapped with ...the....well, wrap, and looks great! Smooth, flat, factory.....ish hahaha.
Another mod I've always seen is to isolate the table. So, again, ebay and grabbed some half inch sorbethane washers x4, left the bottom cover off the fluance, and placed the washers between that and a baseboard I made out of 3 glued and screwed layers of half inch MDF, slightly wider as this base would be used to hold the front marantz panel. I installed some 1/4-20 thread inserts into the base, as I wanted the feet to be adjustable for leveling the turntable (as the stock rt-81 didn't have adjustable feet). Installed some same thread screws into the marantz feet and installed after the wrapped board, attached the front panel (after more sanding and painting) reassembled the rt-81 and placed back on top. I still need to do some finishing of white decals for the model number ( Marantz TT-81? Or TT-1950 as this was the year my mom was born?) I also changed out the cart to the ATVM95ML after many recommendations.
Results? Well, I can tell you for certain the curtain has been lifted to reveal what my "reference" system can do for high frequency, it was as though before anything over 14k hz was cut (as I have a seperate headshell for the stock cart, I can A/B them) and believe this was due to the rewire job. I also noticed that mid bass around 250 hz tightened up as the kick drum in fleetwood make "second hand news" tightened up, I believe to be attributed to the isolated base. Now, as far as the cartridge goes.....yeah, that kick drum? I can now hear definition in the thwack of that mallet? Hitting that kick drum, separation is also increased for as busy as that song is, it never gets blury or obscured with the "precision chaos".....
But above all else, I got to build something with my mother by my side, something that can't be bought, and a permanent piece to my entertainment system that won't be traded in at any time ]
This was a simple (as im a rookie) diy project of taking my first and only TT, moding it, and making it my own. This was given to me from my mother 3 years ago as I've always wanted to hear what vinyl is all about. As she's getting up there in age, I wanted a easy project that the two of us could do together, improve the sound a little, and make it a "permanent im not going to get another and replace this one with something better" turntable.
I love the look of my marantz gear, and thought, why don't I make my fluance rt-81, match my marantz stack?!
So, I tore apart the fluance, and took my set of decent patch cables, and bypassed the internal amp 100% (even though there's a defeat switch, it still runs the circuit through a series of resistors) and soldered directly to the tonearm wiring, also redid the grounding wiring as it was poorly done and measured high resistance. I then sourced a marantz face plate in the right dimensions and a set of feet for my project. At first I filled in all the holes with a 2 part plastic jb weld epoxy, this left, well, a rough finish, so on went the bondo, and after much sanding, and filing, and sanding, the surface was still not 100% flat, and tried the black brushed aluminum vinyl wrap, and looked horrible.
Back to the drawing board....well, got a piece of aluminum plate from Lowes, cut, sanded to correct size, wrapped with ...the....well, wrap, and looks great! Smooth, flat, factory.....ish hahaha.
Another mod I've always seen is to isolate the table. So, again, ebay and grabbed some half inch sorbethane washers x4, left the bottom cover off the fluance, and placed the washers between that and a baseboard I made out of 3 glued and screwed layers of half inch MDF, slightly wider as this base would be used to hold the front marantz panel. I installed some 1/4-20 thread inserts into the base, as I wanted the feet to be adjustable for leveling the turntable (as the stock rt-81 didn't have adjustable feet). Installed some same thread screws into the marantz feet and installed after the wrapped board, attached the front panel (after more sanding and painting) reassembled the rt-81 and placed back on top. I still need to do some finishing of white decals for the model number ( Marantz TT-81? Or TT-1950 as this was the year my mom was born?) I also changed out the cart to the ATVM95ML after many recommendations.
Results? Well, I can tell you for certain the curtain has been lifted to reveal what my "reference" system can do for high frequency, it was as though before anything over 14k hz was cut (as I have a seperate headshell for the stock cart, I can A/B them) and believe this was due to the rewire job. I also noticed that mid bass around 250 hz tightened up as the kick drum in fleetwood make "second hand news" tightened up, I believe to be attributed to the isolated base. Now, as far as the cartridge goes.....yeah, that kick drum? I can now hear definition in the thwack of that mallet? Hitting that kick drum, separation is also increased for as busy as that song is, it never gets blury or obscured with the "precision chaos".....
But above all else, I got to build something with my mother by my side, something that can't be bought, and a permanent piece to my entertainment system that won't be traded in at any time ]
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Nice job of turning a sow's ear into a silk purse.
By the way, can we all use that credit card displayed in the one photo to do our DIY Christmas shopping this year? 😀
By the way, can we all use that credit card displayed in the one photo to do our DIY Christmas shopping this year? 😀
Thanks! Yeah, missed that.....and won't let me edit it to delete it.....so on the phone now with the bank.
Yup, did it as soon as I realized it. Thanks
The image has been deleted but I think you know what needs to be done.