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Post by rexton on Aug 26, 2023 18:38:52 GMT
Ooooh $$$$$$$$$$$$$  You only live once.  |
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Aug 26, 2023 19:09:24 GMT
Ooooh $$$$$$$$$$$$$ You only live once. I went to an antiques place today, found a load of vinyl....sorted through for about 45mins. Found two pieces with mint vinyl, ok covers, but not great. He wanted £40...I walked off. 🤣 |
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Post by rexton on Aug 26, 2023 20:06:07 GMT
I went to an antiques place today, found a load of vinyl....sorted through for about 45mins. Found two pieces with mint vinyl, ok covers, but not great. He wanted £40...I walked off. 🤣 I dont usually make a habit of spending so much on vinyl, I also own the Miles Davis Kind of Blue UHQR. I don't smoke, do drugs, and rarely drink (apart from the odd bottle of single malt) so I'm happy to justify the expense on this one. I must admit to liking a bargain and I think I'd have done the same, however if it's something you've really been after then why not? |
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Post by robbiegong on Aug 26, 2023 20:30:48 GMT
Good for you Andy and happy birthday. Life is for living, no point thinking about it when life has passed by. I've done the same more than a few times myself. From priority business is taken care of, wife, kids, bills etc then an indulgence every so often is all part of living and a sense of well-being - well that's how I see it and works for me  |
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Post by lurch on Aug 26, 2023 22:28:02 GMT
Yep, at the end of the day there are no pockets in a shroud.
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Post by rexton on Aug 27, 2023 18:52:50 GMT
Sunday Night Update Night - Part Infra Structure Pt II
It's that night again. I have my drinking partner with me tonight. 
I have used my Sunday well and that I have finally managed to do a system MOT where I clean everything. In total I think I took over two hours cleaning everything that I could clean.
So cleaning duties having included.
Cleaning every RCA I could find Cleaning every valve pin I could find Cleaning every female IEC socket Cleaning every pin on every plug Cleaning the insides of the pre and phonostage Cleaning every shelf on the rack. Checking very valve.
I took some photo's. So here is a picture of the Radford preamp with a shed load of Mullard M8137's supposed to be the best ECC83 every made, I'm sure you guys have some comments/opinions regarding this.
Inside the Radford preamp after a decent clean. To be fair it was already very clean but it's now even cleaner. All the valve bases got a decent clean with IPA.
The next thing to have some TLC was the Croft phonostage I purchased. OMG what a complete mess inside. I looked like it had never been cleaned since new. I must have used 30 cotton buds with IPA to get it to this stage. I removed the valves cleaned every pin, cleaned the valve bases with IPA. I cleaned the insides of the phonostage. Every RCA socket was cleaned and even the female IEC. The outer casing with really filthy. I polished the outside of the case, it's sill not perfect but it looks a whole lot better when I look at it sitting on the rack.
Both units reassembled with a bit of spit and polish.
Another picture with everything sprawled over the floor.
Now a few details about the system. I have been carefully assessing things and system three needs a few things.
1. New pair of 300b valves. One of the valves is coming apart. The quality of Golden Lion 300b valves is shocking. The pins gold plating very quickly scrapes away and one the things is excessive now slightly faulty, tapping it can get generate hum and a rustling noise through the right channel. I bought this pair second hand so I have no idea how many hours have been put on them. So I need a new pair. The 300b rabbit hole is a massive one. I might just get a pair and then at some point next year 2024 buy my ultimate buy and forget pair.
2. I also need a single Mullard M8137 as I have had to replace one of these with a JJ ECC83S in the preamp. Don't get me wrong the preamp is doing amazing things but it's just one of those silly annoying things that bugs me that I don't have a full complement of M8137's sitting in the pre-amp.
3. I've managed to give the speakers a little more breathing room and they don't sit quite so close to the rack. I have idea how or if indeed this helps but it makes it easier for me to change settings on the preamp without me having to get up off my arse. Everything is now within arms reach!!
4. I have slightly increased volume to the left channel by one half notch to compensate for a -6db difference in my hearing to my left ear. Again difficult to ascertain how/if things have improved massively.
5. I have worked on the cartridge alignment today. Things are still not perfect and need some work, maybe bank holiday monday for that. The JICO stylus was loaded at 0.97g and whilst this sounded better it now sounds better still at 1.25g. SME arms don't accurately load the cartridge with the weight selected.
6. Tonearm and cartridge compliance matching. Again things are ok, not great. I might start to look for a new cartridge to match the SME V-12. Ortofon 2MB could be the way forward. I'm keeping a look out.
7. Binding posts. The binding posts on my Power amp are naff. I did find four CMC binding posts in my spares box but it turns out that they are brass  . I think I'm going to remove some pure copper Cardas binding posts from my Ditton 15 speakers and try them on the amp. I will have pure copper cardas binding posts from both the speakers and power amp.
8. Power leads. I need a new extension, that's for sure. The TESCO 20M extension is working well but I think there is better to be had. I might even make up four new power leads with solid core and see if this helps the sonics are further. It's a cheap experiment that might yield better sonics.
Just a few more pictures
The cartridge now loaded at 1.26g. I really cut not be bothered to jig this around any futher.
The saga of the binding posts.
So, that's it for another night. Stay tuned....
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RexBlog
Aug 27, 2023 19:01:14 GMT
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Post by pete on Aug 27, 2023 19:01:14 GMT
Inspirational cleaning work. Thanks for sharing 😁
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Bigman80
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Posts: 16,399
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Post by Bigman80 on Aug 28, 2023 9:44:04 GMT
Is that WE speaker cable Andrew?
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Post by rexton on Aug 28, 2023 11:16:07 GMT
Is that WE speaker cable Andrew? Duelund copy, supposed to be an exact replica. It does sound very very good. YMMV but in this little system it sounds excellent, not the last word in detail but more than adequate. |
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Aug 28, 2023 11:47:44 GMT
Is that WE speaker cable Andrew? Duelund copy, supposed to be an exact replica. It does sound very very good. YMMV but in this little system it sounds excellent, not the last word in detail but more than adequate. Ah, I thought it looked familiar |
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Post by rexton on Aug 28, 2023 18:39:13 GMT
Monday Night - Update night
It's back to work tomorrow so I thought I would do a little record cleaning. No please don't the pi$$ I've been after that copy of My Fair Lady for years and I picked it up for £3. It takes me back to school days when I used to visit an old friend, his Mum and Dad always had something similar playing in the background whilst we waited for games to load up from tape!! This album takes me back to those days so hence the copy in the collection. The DECCA album is something of a rarity and actually sounds very very good indeed, it's turns out that this is from 1963 and isn't going to make me a million £ www.discogs.com/release/19467259-Bach-Jeanne-Demessieux-Fantasia-And-Fugue-In-G-Minor-Toccata-And-Fugue-In-D-MinorStill I supposed the fun is in the collecting and I also like to find out the history of these little gems when they arise. I now ultrasonically clean everything before it comes into the listening rooms, I like to maximise the life span of my carts.
I've spent a little more time on the setup of my 401 today. Tonearm is now perfectly level whilst sitting parallel against the surface of vinyl. The 401 now sits nice and level, yes it was a little skew-whiff, it's still not absolutely perfectly level but well within what my spirit level classifies as level. Cartridge alignment still needs a little work but the sonics sound excellent at the moment. I also removed more sorbothane from under the TT bamboo plinth that it sits on. I notice no downgrade in sonic quality in fact if anything things seem a tad lively.
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Post by rexton on Sept 10, 2023 19:30:25 GMT
Sunday Night - Update Night
The REAL SOUND system has been upgraded again!
I've been away for a couple of weeks and nothing has been brewing. My 300b amplifier will be going away to have some tweaks, mainly some nice new copper binding posts. I salvaged these Cardas pure copper binding posts from my Celestion 15 speakers, I hardly use them. This saved £108.
So with the money saved I bought a pair of these.
No idea what they sound like, a complete punt! Anything is better than the shocking build quality of the Gold Lion 300b's, never again!
I also did this to my Shure SC35C
The SC35C is nude, got rid of the stupid blue bit. It bugger all apart from get in the way. I've also improved the cart setup, still a little out but better than before.
Finally some good news for my 301 and my main valve system. My tonearm cable has been repaired so the 301 shoudl be spinning soon and then I can check out the Ortofon Silver Meister II SPU / FGS experiment 
As ever, stay tuned.
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Post by rexton on Sept 17, 2023 17:31:32 GMT
Sunday Night - Update Night!
I'm still awaiting the 300B's from HotRox after a massive cock-up, hopefully all will be sorted this week. Not really done anything else on the REAL SOUND system but the main Garrard 301 system is now fully singing again thanks to Yannis Tome repairing my tonearm cable. Thanks, again. Yannis! I'm trying to get all my upgrades done for this system before the winter arrives. I would like a few weeks were I can just listen to vinyl and not think about more upgrades. So, I have started planning. Firstly I've ordered more Bamboo and this will make some more shelves for a couple of my hi-fi racks and also (BIG FANFARE) a new experimental plinthj for the 301. The new plinth will hopefully be a 2 SME tonearm design with a 3009 S2 / Improved which will do vintage MM and Ortofon MONO duties. The SME 3012 will just stay as it is. The 3012 has the new FGS diamond and currently I'm building the first 50 hours and have only good things to say. Plenty of detail and I'm happy with the way things sound. I shall have to sort out all my MONO recordings into one section in the album shelves.
I'm slowly optimising the 301 system, I'll be using the new Croft - The Cartridge Man phonostage for vintage MM / MONO duties on the main valve system, I'll be plugging the EAR 834 clone back into the REAL SOUND system. The croft will also be used with my Rek-O-Kut Re-Equaliser III for some of my very old MONO pressings. This will ultimately play through a single Quad ESL 57 speaker. I'm looking forward to having lots of fun playing my old MONO pressings over winter whilst trying some new single malts! I have already started to run into problems with getting this upgrades sorted. Firstly, the SME 3009 stub weight is by no-means heavy enough to balance a 30.7g SPU so I've started to make enquiries about getting a new 175g version made for me. I've sent an email and currently await a reply. I'll also have to pay careful attention to plinth design so that I can house the SME 3009's tonearm cable. I will also need to dismantle the hifi rack I made for the 301 system to house the new shelves, this is going to be a PITA but I suppose it will only need doing once.
I also have about 20-30 records which I have purchased from various charity shops, mainly classical, but I have managed to get a couple of early Dave Brubeck pressings, all of these needs checking and cleaning before they go into the main collection. My DECCA collection has been boosted by several more finds. I must admit to really loving finding these gems and adding them to the collection. Well, that's it for another Sunday.
As always, stay tuned.... |
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Post by rexton on Oct 1, 2023 19:43:13 GMT
Sunday Night - UPDATE
Good evening ladies! Well the usual culprits are sitting around the listening room, a bottle of single malt, some music, and some hifi gear, the thing that's missing is JAZZ! I'm not playing JAZZ because my main transcription device is sitting in pieces on my listening room floor. The 301 is undergoing BIG surgery! I'm making a new plinth. So here is my old plinth.
And here are some pictures showing the plinth development.
Heres a picture of the top part of the new plinth, take a look at the homebrew Dr. Feickhert's equipment (5 minutes in my shed and cost pennies)!
A bit of DIY in the workshop.
An afternoon later and we have something which looks like a nearly finished plinth.
So the idea is for mass, this thing will weigh >25kg. I'll be adding a decoupled motor and a CLD layer. I'll be fitting two SME classic tonearms, mainly a 3009 and a 3012 both sporting SPU's. One arm will do MONO / vintage MM duties (the 3009), whilst the 3012 will be specifically classical and Jazz. I'll have the pick of two phonostages and then this should see me through winter until I get the upgrade itch again. PANZERHOLZ or Permali......
Stay tuned.... 
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RexBlog
Oct 2, 2023 6:24:29 GMT
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Post by lurch on Oct 2, 2023 6:24:29 GMT
I want to sort a new absolute minimum footprint plinth for my 401, unfortunately my woodworking skills are minimal. Most things I attempt make a shuttering carpenter look like a master cabinet maker, so will have to bite the bullet and put my hand in my pocket and pay someone to sort for me.
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Bigman80
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Posts: 16,399
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Post by Bigman80 on Oct 2, 2023 7:31:08 GMT
Might be worth having a chat with Jason when he is back up and running?
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Post by rexton on Oct 20, 2023 18:53:06 GMT
It's not sunday Night!! - I'll do a mini update! (43350) snagging, snagging and more snagging.....
Text only tonight, friends!
Things have not been quiet on the Western front! I've been slowly beavering away with my Garrard 301. I've been making a new Bamboo plinth to replace my old Birch ply plinth that I bought from Eastern Europe over 10 years ago, I still have the plinth should things go wrong or I don't like the sound of bamboo. The new plinth makes my old plinth look like a toy and weighs in at 16Kg. The entire TT + plinth weight and all bit and pieces weighs in at 28Kg, which is certainly twice as heavy as my old setup and a little bit more besides! This whole project was undertakem for several reasons, mainly the 301 had needed a new plinth for quite some time and I've been eager to see if I can eek any further improvements from the 301. The new plinth also enables me to fulfil a long time dream of wanting a two armed vintage SME tonearm setup. The SME 3009 will be purely for MONO pressings but can at a whim be setup for vintage MM carts should the mood take. I have an amazing Croft MM phonostage that will be doing MONO/MM duties and it uses my favourite 6SL7 valve the RCA 5691. The SME 3012 will be used with a modified with a Silver Meister II SPU with FGS tip, I decided upon this combo after months of research finding my favourite SPU, stylus profile and conductor type, this SPU offers all three, I'm blessed .
The making of the new plinth hgas not been easy and I'm about 85% happy with it, I'm a perfectionist so 85% is actually not bad for me. I've learned a few things whilst making this and would probably do things slightly different, but hey-ho it's full functional and more than cosmetically acceptable. I've had to make two new SME tonearm mounts out of Panerholz, it's always fun working with this stuff as your wallet takes a hit every few drill bits or jigsaw blades. These tonearm mounts do work very very well and I have no idea how they will perform on a Bamboo plinth. It's been quite frustrating getting everything setup as the plinth, the 301 and the two tonearms all need setting up to get the best from them. I took the oppotunity to do a little maintainence on the 301 whilst it was out of it's plinth. A little cleaning, oiling, and a fresh clean for the idler wheel and inner area of the platter with IPA to remove any dirt or rubber residue. I also fixed the on/off switch as it had decided to work itself loose !!??!!
I'm hoping to get some Jazz spinning in the next few days altough the 301 will not be totally finished off. I did want to add a CLD layer to the plinth and decouple the 301 motor. I've put the decoupling of the motor on hold at the moment but I have come up with a cheap and stress free solution to adding a CLD layer to the 301. The solution comes from Townshend Audio I did not realise my Seismic platform had a CLD component and this is where the 301 will be sitting, so it seems as if the 301 will have a layer of CLD, just not in the plinth. I also need to buy some new uprated pods for the podium, that's another £500 8-< I'll recycle the older pods and use them under the croft preamp and get rid of the bamboo board that it currently sits on, so I suppose a infrastructure upgrade.
OK peeps, more over the weekend hopefully!
Stay tuned..
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Post by antonio on Oct 21, 2023 2:01:33 GMT
Forgive my ignorance, what does CLD stand for, having googled, I don't think the meaning here is chronic liver disease.
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Bigman80
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Post by Bigman80 on Oct 21, 2023 6:09:24 GMT
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Post by gninnam on Oct 21, 2023 9:52:53 GMT
Constrained LAYER damping |
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Bigman80
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Posts: 16,399
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Post by Bigman80 on Oct 21, 2023 10:33:04 GMT
Constrained LAYER damping Obviously 😂 |
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Post by rexton on Oct 22, 2023 19:00:20 GMT
Sunday Night - Update Night..... It's a big-un. After many years of planning and then just sitting on my backside I decided to build a new plinth for the 301. The old plinth was a crappy bitch ply from Eastern Europe, purchased when funds were low and I knew next to nothing about these decks. Move forward a decade and we have more knowledge. more pennies and a workshop that can make such things as plinths. Spurred on by (well I'm not quite sure what), I decided to get some Bamboo and make my own designed plinth, never made one before and I decided to completely ignore any well thought out designs because I think I know better (). I did have some ideas that I wanted to implement and these were to have a more massey plinth, something with better damping qualities than ply, something which was cheaper than Panzerholz, and I wanted a two tonearm setup, mainly my SME 3009 and 3012, decoupled motor and a CLD layer. And here we go
 Not the last word in woodworking skills, Robert Thompson has nothing to worry about . So, I few design details. The tonearm mounts arm made from Panzerholz and have been directly coupled to the Bamboo plinth. I have removed the SME rubber grommets in the tonearm mounts. I'm hoping to get maximal damping this way rather than isolation ( I have a plan for this). The SME 3009 is a MONO/vintage MM (when the mood takes) tonerarm, this will be using a Croft MM phonostage using the RCA 5691 valve and Belden cabling as I quite like the tone this produced. Currently the 3009 has not been tested, my time has been utilised setting up the 3012 today. The 3012 has a very special modified Silver Meister II SPU. This SPU was beginning to show signs of wearing out so I decided to get a FGS stylus profile added and I created my dream SPU. This dream consisted of silver coil windings and the FGS stylus profile, coupled to SPU design and we have a very sexy performer . Mass has increased from around 12-14kg from the old setup to around 28Kg for the new one. Damping has been improved with Bamboo and Panzerholz. I will be including a CLD layer in the form of a Townshend seismic platform. I'm waiting for the correct pods to arrive and be installed, presently, the 301 weighs too much (fat git) for the current pods! I have decided to re-use the old pods under the Croft Epoch pre-amp that I run. I hope to do something similar to how old Royal Navy Valve gear used to be mouted, SPRINGS, provides great isolation for valves from vibration. If it's good enough for the Royal Navy it's good enough for my Croft Epoch.
Here the's Townshend jobbie waiting for new pods...  The Townshend Seismic platform provides the CLD layer that I wanted. The only thing missing is the decoupled motor. I'll be leaving that for the time being as I want to fully learn the new systems sound and then we can start to evaluate where we can improve things. I will at some point write up what I can hear through the big Tannoys... As ever people. Stay tuned...  |
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Bigman80
Grandmaster
The HiFi Bear/Audioaddicts/Bigbottle Owner
Posts: 16,399
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Post by Bigman80 on Oct 22, 2023 19:47:43 GMT
Well done!
Great to see people having a bash.
Looking forward to the report on the listening!
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Post by rexton on Oct 22, 2023 19:58:38 GMT
Early signs are very positive.
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Post by antonio on Oct 22, 2023 23:39:45 GMT
I think the plinth looks more than acceptable, well done.
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Post by rexton on Oct 24, 2023 18:34:00 GMT
Update Night
Mini update today. It's rained pretty much all day up here in West Yorkshire so I decided to try and get the SME 3009 setup and workimg tonight. I wanted to see if we could get some output and to make sure that the tonearm cable was working alongside the SPU MONO, well we have some output. Output is in true MONO and sounds very good indeed but I have a couple of issues. Firstly the onboard Croft phonostage of my Epoch amp sounds, well, ok, it's polite enough but I've heard my MONO recordings sound better and I'm not sure to go down the single channel SS Paradise phonostage route, or plug in the other Croft phonostage which is a dedicated unit and then try that. Second caveat is that I listened through my Tannoy speaker. I'm afraid I've been spoiled and prefer my Quad ESL 57 speakers for MONO recordings. So more fun to be had with experimenting and trying different bits of kit. Stay tuned.
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Post by rexton on Nov 5, 2023 19:00:41 GMT
Sunday Night - Update Night
Hello chaps. I thought I would do an update tonight as I haven't done anything in ages. Today's job has all been about getting the new Croft Valve phonostage into place. This has been done after raising and lowering some of the shelves on the rack and saving a few quid having to order another bamboo shelf. The new Croft phonostage new sits on Townshend isolation pods. I managed to find three in my spares box, yes THREE! Presently the phonostage sits perfectly well on these three pods, I will see if I can hunt a single unit down either on the forums or on eBay. I now have three components sitting on isolation pods or platforms, these being the turntable, the new Croft phonostage and the Croft preamp. I have ordered a new set of Isolation pods for the Seismic platform directly from Townshend (they did a good deal), and I probably saved about £50 compared to the next cheapest supplier and I have piece of mind after some communication from Townshend that I have the correct spec for the 28.1kg Garrard 301. The 301 is currently awaiting arrival of the new pods for the Seismic Platform that it sits on. I can't wait to try and level that bugger up  .
The SME 3009 has been sent to J7 @ AO up in Scotland for a check over and some modifications. The tonearm needed internally grounding and I also asked John to add some new improved termination spades on the grounding wires of the phonostage lead. I'm presently down to one tonearm and this is the SME 3012, it's been very carefully setup and is now singing along playing all sorts of stuff. I can't wait to get the Croft Phonostage and Rek-o-Kut Re-Eqaulizer III all linked up playing through my single Quad ESL 57 speaker over the winter nights during the Xmas break whilst enjoying some single malt. In fact that is going to be one of my jobs over Xmas. I intend to finally seperate and house all my MONO recordings in a seperate place on the record shelves I have installed in the listening room.
Cable management could be better but at this moment in time it's quite low down on the priority of things it dosen't seem to have much of an impact of the quality of the sonics I'm hearing. I'm not going to do an in depth analysis of how the new plinth sounds. All I will say is that it is an improvement over the old beast that I have now housed in the loft. Overall the main thing that strikes me about this new plinth is the clarity and detail that it seems to bring to the listening experience. I've long since stopped trying to analyse every last detail of vinyl replay, today, I'm more interested in the emotional aspect of replay, the engagement of the listening experience. My Garrard 301 system hasn't really changed over 10 years and I know that far more revealing systems exist and would blow this one out of the water. For me it's always been about how far I could push these old components and I think I may have pushed the bar a little higher with the bamboo plinth. I would heartily recommend building one and experimenting with the material as it's very cheap and easy to work with. The 301 system is about 90% complete, still some snagging but it sounds bloody good.
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A quick picture of how the entire Garrard setup now looks.
I have decided to retire system 3 (The REAL SOUND) system over Xmas which is a but annoying as I was giving a Shure M44-7 to play with, I would have loved to have some fun listening to 9.5mv output through my big Tannoys but that could be January's treat! The Radford is currently going down to Bodmin for Radford Revival to go through my Radford STA25 Reniassence with a fine tooth comb, I'm getting a rustling noise through one channel that's bloody annoying, overall this is an amazing amp when it works silently. Never mind I have plenty to keep my going over the Xmas break period.
As ever gents, stay tuned... |
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Post by rexton on Nov 12, 2023 18:27:13 GMT
Sunday Night - Update Night!
Not really an update, I just fancied writing a few lines. I'm still waiting for a few bits to arrive from various parts of the world. I have a new counterweight for the SME 3009 coming from China, about £18 delivered . Townshend Audio are dragging their arses in delivering the new uprated feet for the Seismic Podium and I'm waiting for J7 to return my 3009. In the mean time the spare Townshend pods have now been deployed under the Croft pre-amp, and the new (old) Croft MM phonostage I purchased. The 301 system still has some fine tuning before it will be fully operational. I can still chill out to choons becuase the deck, plinth and SME 3012 are all finished and setup. The sonics coming from the deck are mighty fine. I've purposefully not written anything about the sonic character of the Bamboo plinth simply because I've not had enough time to sit down and have a good listen.
The plinth as stated previously is a big step up from the old birch ply plinth from a decade ago. The main take away from the new plinth is that is produces a greater clarity, soundstage is generally more cohesive and expansive. The new plinth also seems to major in detail. The plinth is by no means the last statement in build or material quality but I will not ever be going back to birch ply to construct a new plinth and at some point in the future will use either Panzerholz / Permali. My main concern is to add too much damping to the 301. It will be interesting to see what improvements the uprated pods for the Townshend Seismic podium produce. I've noticed that the improvements are quite subtle at first and them become more apparent after several weeks listening, I've noticed an "ease" to the soundstage with no loss of details and a sensed improved timing and cohesion to the presentation.
The MONO playback side of things will soon be up and running. I've had the 3009 playing MONO with the MONO SPU through the big tannoys but I did not fine tune the set up of the tonearm and playback is never as good until you run the whole thing through a single Quad ESL 57. I'm hoping to get something setup and working soon. It would be really nice to have the choice bewteen the Tannoys and Quad ESL 57 over the Xmas period, here's hoping!
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Post by rexton on Nov 19, 2023 19:33:38 GMT
Sunday night - Update Night.
Hi guys, hope your all keeping well. I have whiskey on one hand and jazz playing away. And now a few thoughts on the services provided by the small guys in audio vs the large guys in audio. Firstly, my J. Nilson of Audio Origami - Sorted out my SME 3009 in less then three days and charged me £10 - I paid him more than this as the guy has to live and pay his bills. Secondly, some dude in China who sent me a replacement counter weight for my SME 3012, it arrived in 7 days flat from China. So, these are the good guys and we really really should use them and make sure they florish. Now the big guys TOWNSHEND AUDIO, guess what, still waiting for my pods, even though paid over two weeks ago. The product may be excellent but the service is Sh#t. I called the main office to be told that my package would be delivered by the end of the week. fobbed off with a "you'll just have to wait until we send it", attitude. Well here we are and still no bleeding package. Can you tell I'm a bit miffed? So my advice is not to buy from them and wait until a decent 2nd hand product becomes available and you'll probably get better service.
The problems with Townshit audio have meant that I'm still awaiting to properly setup my 301 system. I've thankfully re-installed my SME 3009 and SPU and at least I can set this up and to some extent start to listen to my ever expaning MONO collection of recordings. The 301 and huge bamboo plinth still needs to be properly levelled up but at least the SME 3012 side of things is setup as good as can be. The SME 3009 is still in snagging mode. I need to make up some more IC's and the platter mat combo needs to be sorted out to give best results. I'm hoping that TownShit Audio deliver the pods before Xmas which means I should meet my target of being able to listen to the SME 3009 and 3012 stereo/mono records over the Xmas break. I'm also hoping to listen to more of my DECCA records, I admit to having a DECCA record fetish. I've been buying up pretty much anything with the DECCA label, my favourite is of course the SXL recordings, the LXT recordings are also something special, especially with a decent MONO cart.
I feel I need a new adventure with respect to restoring a new deck. I've been looking for ages but nothing seems to grab my attention. Over the years I've done Technics, Garrards, Lenco's, Sansui's, Heybrooks, Linn's, Thoren's, I'm still on the look out. OK, enough for tonight. Take care guys.
Stay Tuned....
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Post by rexton on Nov 26, 2023 18:57:58 GMT
Sunday Night - Update Night! Hello people, I've decided to add some much needed content to this forum. The 301 project is now in it's second decade how the hell did that happen. Any major upgrade to a well established TT is bound to have many twists and turns and I'm thankful for this joyride. If anything else it has taught me which tweaks work well in my system. I have taken a month getting to know the new sound of the upgraded 301. I'm not going to go into massive details and list every nuance for every track that I've listened to, I think it's a pointless excercise. I can say without of a shadow of a doubt that the 301 has spades more detail, more conhesion to the soundstage, better seperation and an improved engaging feel to the presentation. The bamboo plinth has proven to be a very worthwhile experiment and I shall not be going back to birch ply. I was most disgruntled with Townshend Audio, customer service needs to be improved and packages dispensed when stated. I should not have to listen to a churlish helper on the end of the phone basically saying that I'll recieve my package when they choose to dispense and no earlier. This is despite immediate payment from my end. Anyway this probably did me a big favour as I waited for the new uprated feet for the Seismic platform (or whatever gumph they call them). For all that I complain about Townshend I have to say that their products (in my system) work very well indeed. Twenty minutes of faffing and levelling has resulted in a very find sounding 301, it is painfully obvious that the 301's new improved performance partly comes from the new uprated Seismic platform which can now handle 48Kg of loaded mass. My SME 3009 has proven to be a test of patience. I first had to order a new increased mass counter balance to be made by Steve at Magna Audio. Fit and finish are excellent as ever from Steve and the Ortofon MONO SPU balances perfectly on my SME S2 3009. I've had big problems with trying to get the cartridge to lower sufficiently onto the vinyl for any meaningful output through the speakers . Using several platter mats has resulted in the 3009 working ok but it's not ideal and I will have to decrease the height of the newly made Panzerholz tonearm mount for the 3009, probably by about 2-3 and this should then work well. I have been listening to the Croft MusicMaker phonostrage and everything wired up, so for the first time in months everything is wired up and working. The 3009 still needs a few tweaks by hey-ho I'm 95%+ finished. So just a couple of pictures showing you everything wired up.
 As ever guys, stay tuned... |
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. I think I'm going to remove some pure copper Cardas binding posts from my Ditton 15 speakers and try them on the amp. I will have pure copper cardas binding posts from both the speakers and power amp. 
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