Built this plinth with MDF and some veneer that I've had for a long time, waiting to use it on something special.
It's my fault for looking at this thread. I mean comparatively perfect and beautiful input wiring. Why O why can't I?
Well @Ixnay, the input wiring of my SP3A1 is ARC factory stock : yes, simple, clever engineering and thoroughly built to last... 😎
T
Phono preamp can be almost as small as a Burson V6/7 or Zerofox SA100/200 op amp
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https://photos.app.goo.gl/VS7kydnex9uNnVxi9
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ttVui7ztyJjhX1cY6
https://www.bursonaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Burson-V7-Opamp-S4.jpg
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002197443875.html
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https://photos.app.goo.gl/VS7kydnex9uNnVxi9
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ttVui7ztyJjhX1cY6
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002197443875.html
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Unfortunately, the images-part of your post is oscillating.
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When I was a kid, I‘d always fall for knobs. I couldn‘t forgive my father that he bought only the 680zx and not the dragon. (Even though he loves Wagner)
Tritium Turntable with Air Bearing Tonearm, About 150lbs.
Oh, OK : I'll mention a second one... My DIY SRPP Anzaï tube preamplifier (under my ARC SP3A1 below) with passive RIAA equalization:
All this connected to my TECHNICS SL-1200G with its mere 50lbs and AT-VM540ML cartridge, @TR1TIUM ! 😆😉
T
All this connected to my TECHNICS SL-1200G with its mere 50lbs and AT-VM540ML cartridge, @TR1TIUM ! 😆😉
T
Well, over the past half century, I've had 4 turntable setups... and, I still have three of them. Early on, I had a Philips GA-212... great TT for the price way back when... I think I had a Grado cart in it... but sold it after a while (we were a dealer for Philips and a large collection of top brands).
Second TT is a Kenwood KD-500 with an Infinity Black Widow arm... cartridge was a Decca Gold which actually matched up quite well with the Black Widow. As my Black Widow was the first gen., the silk-wrapped wire wore thru the silk covering at the pivot point over time. I replaced it with some amazing stuff.... from a read/write head from an IBM disc drive. Very flexible high purity copper... was a sonic improvement as well and it will likely never wear out. Currently, the KD-500 has a Sumiko MMT and original NOS Sumiko Blue Point cartridge. Once my son and his fiance get a larger place, he'll get the KD-500 setup and a full vacuum tube system, which will be nice to get it out of my place. I still have the Black Widow and Decca Gold.... should probably think about selling them ;-)
Thru the years, I've had access to many different cartridges.... Grado, AKG, ADC, Shure, Decca, Micro Acoustics, Adcom, Sumiko and probably some others I forgot about.... but my current favs are below.
Third TT is an original Sota Sapphire (mid 80's)... with a Sumiko FT-3 tonearm. I replaced all of the internal wiring (including the PIB interface box) with Van den Hul pure silver. It's had a few different cartridges.... including an Adcom SXC VdH MC with a sapphire cantilever. Sadly, the right channel coil opened up and started as a hum. Really bummed me out, as it had such minimal time on it (as I had other carts installed over the years). So... this is my current backup TT and has a nice new Hana SH Mk II installed and aligned with the SRA at 92 degrees within the past 2 weeks. It sounds better than it has any right to... using my custom designed and built vacuum tube preamp from the 80's.
Fourth TT... and likely my last (in myupper 60's now...). A custom ordered Sota Nova V vacuum table finished in Cocobola wood, Cosmos arm board, SME IV.VI tonearm with a Koetsu Rosewood Signature cartridge. I'm in the process of designing a new fully balanced and transformer-coupled preamp that has zero feedback and passive LCR EQ with all Hashimoto iron. I'm currently using a pair of Hashimoto HM-3 step-up transformers to front end into my circa-80's preamp. The Nova/SME/Koetsu is a great vinyl front end.... don't see me replacing it ever... and the kids get to fight over it when my time expires.
I keep both SOTA tables setup and operating... but critical listening is always on the Nova/SME/Koetsu setup.
Second TT is a Kenwood KD-500 with an Infinity Black Widow arm... cartridge was a Decca Gold which actually matched up quite well with the Black Widow. As my Black Widow was the first gen., the silk-wrapped wire wore thru the silk covering at the pivot point over time. I replaced it with some amazing stuff.... from a read/write head from an IBM disc drive. Very flexible high purity copper... was a sonic improvement as well and it will likely never wear out. Currently, the KD-500 has a Sumiko MMT and original NOS Sumiko Blue Point cartridge. Once my son and his fiance get a larger place, he'll get the KD-500 setup and a full vacuum tube system, which will be nice to get it out of my place. I still have the Black Widow and Decca Gold.... should probably think about selling them ;-)
Thru the years, I've had access to many different cartridges.... Grado, AKG, ADC, Shure, Decca, Micro Acoustics, Adcom, Sumiko and probably some others I forgot about.... but my current favs are below.
Third TT is an original Sota Sapphire (mid 80's)... with a Sumiko FT-3 tonearm. I replaced all of the internal wiring (including the PIB interface box) with Van den Hul pure silver. It's had a few different cartridges.... including an Adcom SXC VdH MC with a sapphire cantilever. Sadly, the right channel coil opened up and started as a hum. Really bummed me out, as it had such minimal time on it (as I had other carts installed over the years). So... this is my current backup TT and has a nice new Hana SH Mk II installed and aligned with the SRA at 92 degrees within the past 2 weeks. It sounds better than it has any right to... using my custom designed and built vacuum tube preamp from the 80's.
Fourth TT... and likely my last (in myupper 60's now...). A custom ordered Sota Nova V vacuum table finished in Cocobola wood, Cosmos arm board, SME IV.VI tonearm with a Koetsu Rosewood Signature cartridge. I'm in the process of designing a new fully balanced and transformer-coupled preamp that has zero feedback and passive LCR EQ with all Hashimoto iron. I'm currently using a pair of Hashimoto HM-3 step-up transformers to front end into my circa-80's preamp. The Nova/SME/Koetsu is a great vinyl front end.... don't see me replacing it ever... and the kids get to fight over it when my time expires.
I keep both SOTA tables setup and operating... but critical listening is always on the Nova/SME/Koetsu setup.
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The quintessential tonearm, optically at least. I was drooling for it for a long time, but then I realized it is way too long for where I stand. Still, a 🤤
I was gifted a broken ReVox B790 linear tracking table this year. After several days of work to repair and re-cap the servo and power supply circuit boards, it is functional again. Fortunately the service manual was available on the web for free. Without that this would have been a total mystery. It has a circuit that detects the rapid movement of the tonearm on the wide center spiral track to determine the end of the record has been reached. Mechanically it is as simple as can be, and most of the electrical components are readily available. The tone arm is the smallest piece of plastic suspended by fine coil springs. My other table is a sweet little Techniques SL-Q5. It has a few more modern features, but the close and play style works well but maybe isn't quite as cool as the ReVox. I built a ballanced input & output flat frequency response preamp with a pair of small prototyping boards using LM1037 op amps. It Paired with a Motu M4 USB audio interface I can capture the full fidelity of records to the PC. Channel balance and mathematically ideal RIAA equalization can be applied using digital filters. I use Audacity.
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A relatively-long project I just got running:
Parts of it are definitely a "blast from the past", in combination with some newly-built stuff. The old: A Technics SL-120 TT with an Infinity Black Widow tone arm, an Adcom high-output MC cartridge and featuring a jazz album from Colin Walcott. I am the original owner of all of these bits.
The new: a DIY phono preamp using a pair of OPA1656 opamps, a headphone amp loosely based on the JLH symmetrical class-A design and (not shown) Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro X headphones.
Here's a closer top-down view of the HA guts --
There's my version of star connections on Vcc, Ground and Vee. The heat sinks were re-purposed from some electronic devices I got from the old Tektronix country store. They weren't quite wide enough so I 3D-printed some pieces to make up the difference. I also printed some board-mount blocks and feet.
The combination of old and new sounds pretty good to me. Then again, it's been awhile since I listened to a fully-analog sound source. Going to be doing more of that now!
The Adcom MC phono cartridge is pretty old but sounds surprisingly good, considering. I recall the old Sonus Red and Blue cartridges that sounded VERY good .... when new .... but they didn't hold up very well. I think I went through 2 or 3 stylus assemblies (at LEAST) before I gave up on them.
Parts of it are definitely a "blast from the past", in combination with some newly-built stuff. The old: A Technics SL-120 TT with an Infinity Black Widow tone arm, an Adcom high-output MC cartridge and featuring a jazz album from Colin Walcott. I am the original owner of all of these bits.
The new: a DIY phono preamp using a pair of OPA1656 opamps, a headphone amp loosely based on the JLH symmetrical class-A design and (not shown) Beyerdynamic DT-770 Pro X headphones.
Here's a closer top-down view of the HA guts --
There's my version of star connections on Vcc, Ground and Vee. The heat sinks were re-purposed from some electronic devices I got from the old Tektronix country store. They weren't quite wide enough so I 3D-printed some pieces to make up the difference. I also printed some board-mount blocks and feet.
The combination of old and new sounds pretty good to me. Then again, it's been awhile since I listened to a fully-analog sound source. Going to be doing more of that now!
The Adcom MC phono cartridge is pretty old but sounds surprisingly good, considering. I recall the old Sonus Red and Blue cartridges that sounded VERY good .... when new .... but they didn't hold up very well. I think I went through 2 or 3 stylus assemblies (at LEAST) before I gave up on them.