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Post by rexton on Sept 4, 2020 7:31:57 GMT
That's all good news. I gone on a little splurge over the last two weeks and it might be a little difficult to see what and how the system has improved. I'll probably have a play with power regulation valves tonight.
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Post by rexton on Sept 5, 2020 20:38:48 GMT
This bloody hobby! The Garrard 301 is now sitting on my floor awaiting me to fit the idler wheel bushings. I've half done this. The 401 is not spinning vinyl as we speak and it sounds bloody good. The 301 and 401 do different things. To my ears the 401 is a better sounding machine but the 301 just seems to present the music with a greater sense of ease of musicality. The 301 is having a check over whilst I'm waiting for my Royal N SPU to be returned. In the mean time I've also started playing around with the 85A2 valves, interesting to say the least. There is something there but it's subtle. More next time around pop pickers.....
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Post by karma67 on Sept 6, 2020 6:16:34 GMT
This bloody hobby! The Garrard 301 is now sitting on my floor awaiting me to fit the idler wheel bushings. I've half done this. The 401 is not spinning vinyl as we speak and it sounds bloody good. yep i agree the 401 does sound stunning when not spinning vinyl,its only when you play a record that it sounds awful!  |
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Post by rexton on Sept 6, 2020 7:40:56 GMT
Oh bloody hell!!  I've just seen what I've done, I had a very long work day yesterday and I was relaxing with a single malt and Jazz last night.  |
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Post by rexton on Sept 6, 2020 20:53:53 GMT
Currently got the 834P clone playing some mono stuff. It sounds fantastic through the Shure M55E mono stylus. It's an area of audio that's sadly overlooked. There are some amazing MONO recordings.
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Post by rexton on Nov 14, 2020 21:52:34 GMT
Big system updates! Been a while since I posted any updates so here goes.
New reference MM cartridge to go with the EAR834P. Shure SC35C fitted with JICO Neo/s stylus, pure silver cartridge leads, Orsonic headshell and rehoused in Pulse paradox aluminium body
The Garrard 301 / SME 3012 now has a new 25mm high tonearm board made from Panzerholz. Yes you can tell a difference. Better damping than the last tonearm board and now I have better ability to set VTA.
Now a but geeky. A Mullard 8098 valve for power regulation in the Croft preamp.
Whilst we are at it, a bit of Croft Porn!
My Celestion Ditton 15 speakers with Duelund "REALSOUND" bypass caps fitted.
Finally I've been playing around with power supplies on my Garrard 301. A Battery PSU for the Tachometer and a Linear PSU for the main Phoenix Engineering PSU.
All in all been quite busy! Yep things do sound very nice indeed.
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Post by jimbo on Nov 15, 2020 6:31:14 GMT
Great to see your system. The Croft looks a beast fron the days when his preamp were built like battleships. Another level. I should sell all my Croft gear and go back to his golden era?
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Post by rexton on Nov 15, 2020 11:31:38 GMT
Thanks that's just the valve system!
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Post by electronumpty on Nov 15, 2020 12:24:50 GMT
That's a nicely stacked rack you have there!
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Post by rexton on Nov 15, 2020 16:28:32 GMT
That's a nicely stacked rack you have there!
Cheers!
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Post by rexton on Nov 28, 2020 20:48:03 GMT
Got some of these coming from USA to do a little tube rolling...
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Post by rexton on Dec 1, 2020 21:58:52 GMT
I joined the Scope club today. So, it looks like it Oscilloscope duties for setting up the cartridges in the future! Just waiting for all the bobbins to arrive before the fun starts.
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Post by jimbo on Dec 1, 2020 22:07:40 GMT
Will be interested to hear how you get on with a scope Andy.
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Bigman80
Grandmaster
The HiFi Bear/Audioaddicts/Bigbottle Owner
Posts: 16,398
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Post by Bigman80 on Dec 1, 2020 23:49:11 GMT
I joined the Scope club today. So, it looks like it Oscilloscope duties for setting up the cartridges in the future! Just waiting for all the bobbins to arrive before the fun starts. Explain to me what the process is for using a scope for TT setup duties. I presume youll need a test record? Never considered this before and i have a very decent scope sitting here! |
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Post by rexton on Dec 2, 2020 18:43:59 GMT
I'm not sure myself yet it's still a learning curve.
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Post by rexton on Dec 2, 2020 21:28:59 GMT
Evaluating the new "penny base" RCA 6SL7GT's, they sound a bit good. Pics and review to follow.
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Post by rexton on Dec 3, 2020 21:00:39 GMT
 
New catch of the day a pair of matched 6SU7GTY a premium versions of the 6SL7. Should be fun to test out on the Croft.
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Post by rexton on Dec 9, 2020 21:46:18 GMT
Bit bored so I thought I'd post a picture of the latest 6SL7GT's to grace the Croft. Not a bad valve at all but the RCA 5691 is still king!
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Bigman80
Grandmaster
The HiFi Bear/Audioaddicts/Bigbottle Owner
Posts: 16,398
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Post by Bigman80 on Dec 10, 2020 7:31:49 GMT
Bit bored so I thought I'd post a picture of the latest 6SL7GT's to grace the Croft. Not a bad valve at all but the RCA 5691 is still king!
A lot of the Croft fraternity rave about the RCA....is there a ECC83 with the same reputation? |
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Post by rexton on Dec 10, 2020 18:31:49 GMT
Not sure about RCA ECC83's. Tung-SOl have always traditionally been my go-to valve for the Croft. The RCA 5691 is a very special valve and the 6SU7GTY is also supposed to be highly regarded, we shall see.
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Post by rexton on Dec 13, 2020 21:41:42 GMT
Now buggering around with a pair of JR 149's. I've decided to do the full monty on these. Lot's of mods on the way....!!
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Post by jimbo on Dec 13, 2020 21:44:03 GMT
I wondered how you were getting on with those JR 149's Andy?
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Post by rexton on Dec 14, 2020 19:50:15 GMT
I wondered how you were getting on with those JR 149's Andy? JR 149 Speakers mk 1 These speakers can benefit from have some slight modifications. Most Mk 1 speakers will be approaching over 40 years of age and most of the capacitors and resistors will have started to deteriorate and be out of specification. My own pair of Mk 1 JR149 had several resistors and capacitors which had gone 10-20% out of specified values. It's been widely accepted that some of the designs in the speakers were made for money saving, but overall the speaker has many excellent design features, these include :-
⦁ An extrinisic speaker cross (XO) over which contains a damping ring to minimise vibrations from the speaker drivers, or extrinsic vibrations outside the speaker cabinet getting into the XO. ⦁ A central rod was used in the speaker cabinet which when tightened increased the rigidity of the speaker cabinet. ⦁ The cabinet was made from rolled alumuniuml which was cheap and also had a greater rigidity than it's peer's designs. ⦁ The speakers had no binding posts. Attaching speaker cable was attached straight onto the XO with a simple screw and washer design. The JR 149 mk 1 also had many areas which could (and should) have been improved. These include :- ⦁ Removing the intrinsic tinned copper wire and replacing with high purity oxygen free copper. ⦁ Removing the instrinsic plugs which attach the SP1032 tweeter to the cross over, this can be converted into a straight run of copper wire from the SP1032 to the XO. ⦁ Re-capping the XO with new caps and 1% tolerance Takman resistors. ⦁ Removing the plastic connector which attached the intrinsic wiring of the driver units to the XO. This can be bypassed by soldering straight on the XO. This bypasses the Nickel plated pins. ⦁ Replacing the speaker wire binding screws and washers with pure copper alternatives. This gets rid of the Nickel versions supplied and improved signal transmission by using a better conductor. ⦁ Replacing the plastazote speaker gaskets. EVA speaker gaskets are used instead which gives better damping for the speaker driver units. ⦁ The speakers feet can be replaced with materials which offer betting damping properties. EVA or Sorbothane can be used.
That's for starters. If I can think of anything else I'll post on my blog. I've recapped both the XO's. I've just ordered some oxygen free high purity copper and now have the materials ready to make the four new gaskets for the speaker drivers. I do a little each evening to while away the short nights!
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Post by rexton on Dec 18, 2020 19:16:21 GMT
As promised some pics of the JR149 resto and they are in no order...
This is the very early Mk 1 of the speaker XO, note no fuse unlike the Mk 2 version. This is before the Recap and replacement of resistors. ALL the caps and resistors had wondered well below their original tolerance values. All get replaced.
Here's a picture of the XO canisters fully restored. The canisters got stripped down to bare metal, primed, resprayed and then lacquered. The old feet were kept and replaced with slightly larger medium density EVA replacements which should give better damping. The original speaker number labels were attached in exactly the same position. The locking nuts were ultrasonically cleaned and then hand polished.
Here's a picture of the restored veneer and for comparison sake you can see what the other one looked like.
Next picture shows the left speaker cabinet more or less untouched. The XO cover has been primed. The right speaker cabinet shows the driver units removed. I probably cleaned them. I also removed all the intrinsic tinned copper wire from the XO and driver units. All the screws in the speaker cabinet on the right had been ultrasonically cleaned and hand polished, the same process was done on the left speaker cabinet as well.
Back of the speaker cabinets and you can see they are full of glue approaching over 40 years of age. All this has been stripped off. The original plastic strips of "hooks" for the speakers foam covers was removed, cleaned, and a fresh application of strong double sided sticky tape applied. Good for 40 more years.
Speaker gaskets have been removed and saved. I remade brand new gaskets with better damping properties for the driver units.
Here's a photo of the base, veneer gently sanded back awaiting polish and fresh varnish.
More pictures of another day...
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Bigman80
Grandmaster
The HiFi Bear/Audioaddicts/Bigbottle Owner
Posts: 16,398
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Post by Bigman80 on Dec 18, 2020 19:27:32 GMT
They are very unique!
Not seen that type before
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Post by rexton on Dec 18, 2020 19:38:12 GMT
The JR149 has essentially 3 versions. The Mk1, the Mk2 and the Mk v2. The Mk2 speakes were a little taller than mk1 versions. The XO's had numerous tweaks over the years. A fuse was added in the v2 and it would appear Jim Rogers used any old caps to hand when making the XO's. Cap values have pretty much remained the same but resistor values have changed over the XO's variants, some say the values being changed to better match mis-matched driver units. A "type 24" version of the XO was designed by Jim Rogers. I'm not sure if he actually released it, certainly they have been made and do appear in the wild every now and then.
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Post by gninnam on Dec 18, 2020 20:04:43 GMT
Very nice work and have always admired the looks - I also liked the way they sound too. Good on ya for taking the time to give them a new lease of life.
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Bigman80
Grandmaster
The HiFi Bear/Audioaddicts/Bigbottle Owner
Posts: 16,398
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Post by Bigman80 on Dec 18, 2020 20:42:26 GMT
The JR149 has essentially 3 versions. The Mk1, the Mk2 and the Mk v2. The Mk2 speakes were a little taller than mk1 versions. The XO's had numerous tweaks over the years. A fuse was added in the v2 and it would appear Jim Rogers used any old caps to hand when making the XO's. Cap values have pretty much remained the same but resistor values have changed over the XO's variants, some say the values being changed to better match mis-matched driver units. A "type 24" version of the XO was designed by Jim Rogers. I'm not sure if he actually released it, certainly they have been made and do appear in the wild every now and then. Do they sound any good? |
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Post by rexton on Dec 18, 2020 21:48:43 GMT
Very nice work and have always admired the looks - I also liked the way they sound too. Good on ya for taking the time to give them a new lease of life. Thanks. I do like a good restoration project. |
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Post by rexton on Dec 18, 2020 21:52:47 GMT
The JR149 has essentially 3 versions. The Mk1, the Mk2 and the Mk v2. The Mk2 speakes were a little taller than mk1 versions. The XO's had numerous tweaks over the years. A fuse was added in the v2 and it would appear Jim Rogers used any old caps to hand when making the XO's. Cap values have pretty much remained the same but resistor values have changed over the XO's variants, some say the values being changed to better match mis-matched driver units. A "type 24" version of the XO was designed by Jim Rogers. I'm not sure if he actually released it, certainly they have been made and do appear in the wild every now and then. Do they sound any good? No idea yet as they are not finished. I need to re-wire them. They are supposed to sound/better the LS5/3A but I'll post something on here when I've finally had chance to listen. |
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I've just seen what I've done, I had a very long work day yesterday and I was relaxing with a single malt and Jazz last night. 
