Sounds (heh) wonderful. I'm not sure if I should be jealous of the table itself or your wood dealer.

Eh, my wood dealer at the time was Woodcraft. Since I didn't have a Woodcraft nearby, I simply ordered what I wanted to use.

I think the one tool that is a necessity is a drill press. The hole for the platter bearing has to be absolutely 90 degrees to the plinth. A hand drill would be an extremely difficult proposition. 

The Reks nuke incident aside - we want photos!

That's the problem, all the photos got nuked.

It hasn't been shipped just yet, but it looks like the re-tipped Zu DL-103 tests out pretty darn good. He said that it's pretty rare to get separation so close to a perfect 40 degrees.

12 minutes ago, swt61 said:

That's the problem, all the photos got nuked.

It hasn't been shipped just yet, but it looks like the re-tipped Zu DL-103 tests out pretty darn good. He said that it's pretty rare to get separation so close to a perfect 40 degrees.

Looks great! Gotta love the use of the fozometer thingy to make sure the stereo separation is on point. 

(also, I believe that the unit is not degrees, but in DB, so the stereo separation from Left to Right is at -40DB (at least) which yes I'd agree is pretty solid)

Haven't I mentioned before that I'm just here to look pretty? I'll leave the technical mumbo-jumbo to the smarter people. 

🙂

And yes, looking back at the email, he did indeed say DB.

Got the re-tipped Zu DL-103 back yesterday. Today I mounted the cartridge, set the tracking force, aligned the cartridge and set azimuth and VTA. The custom belt is due on Tuesday, so I'll check the sound then. My last pieces of wood for the new stand shipped today. should be here soon. It's all coming together.

Interesting source for belts and precision pulleys:

https://shop.sdp-si.com/catalog/product/?id=S1086Y-PC-02

Edited November 23, 20205 yr by luvdunhill

The belt I ordered was too slick and just spun. But Marc sent me a VPI Aries II belt that he had on hand and it works great!

Milo and I started on the new stand today. Should be a few more days on that.

I learned something today that is probably super obvious to everyone else.

The turntable speed should be set with a stylus in the groove. That obviously will alter the speed - something I didn’t think about until I thought about it.

I always set the speed adjustment with the needle in the groove, because I assumed the needle will cause a certain amount of drag.

35 minutes ago, luvdunhill said:

"something I didn’t think about until I thought about it."

That's deep!

I have a Garrard 401. Stylus drag doesn't slow that sucker down.

Oh - and a Thorens TD150II, and that is a pretty weak force unit. But I'm using that with a Shure V15IV with Jico stylus. Since that thing runs at 0.75g tracking, it is just fine.

That feeds, via a phono stage, a BH original, with all the unobtainium silicon, and a pair of SR007. That is one of my wife-is-asleep headphone systems. Don't ask...

So I was driving back from Peter's tennis lesson and out of nowhere he says, "We should get a turntable". Well it was good thing he was driving as I would have likely driven off the road in shock. Not only did he want me to buy a turntable, but he actually called it a turntable and not a record player. After I recovered a bit, I asked him why we should buy one and his response was, "Vinyl is cool". 

So I feel I really have to buy a table so as not to stifle any potential budding audiophilia. My problem is I owned exactly one turntable my whole life, a Dual CS-721 bought in 1977 and given away (along with almost all of my vinyl) when we left Illinois in 2016. At that time I had not planned an analog return so I do not know what exists for a good quality, H-C approved table. Therefore, I am looking for any and all recommendations. I will hook it up through the NAD M-12 which has the ability use a turntable and has selectable MM or MC settings so all I need now is the turntable, although the slope is already feeling a bit slick.

Edited December 4, 20205 yr by morphsci

Heh, I recently came back and noticed my turntable mat on the floor. My son took the “blank record off” before adding the one he wanted to listen to. 
 

I think the Rega entry level tables are nice. I wish I could just sell you mine but I am really looking forward to listening to it over the Holiday’s and it’s replacement isn’t going to be ready for a bit. 
 

Some motor experiments will be occurring over the weekend

Edited December 4, 20205 yr by luvdunhill

Which Rega do you have Marc? I have been looking at the current Planar 3. It looks like a pretty solid table.

They're getting to be hard to find, but I love my Sony biotracer...

48 minutes ago, grawk said:

They're getting to be hard to find, but I love my Sony biotracer...

I have one that could use a tune-up, I think I got it from JP#.  Should really have a look at it, but have a Rega P3-24 that's keeping the Sony packed away.  Nice 'tables for sure!

I have a P3-24, Jim. I had a P3 before that. The new motor and the revised arm are both good improvements.

Another voice for Regas. Although slightly different models existed at the time, my hunt came down to two brands. I went the other route (Nottingham), but have many times thought I should have gone with the set-and-forget Regas. There were some crazy P8 sales recently, but they seem off now. Even the 1s sounds great last I heard it. 

The best table I've personally heard to date was a Nakamichi Dragon, but they're rarified and obscenely expensive.

I like my Musical Fidelity Roundtable quite a lot, but I'm going to agree that a Rega P3 is a great way to get into vinyl. Let the tweakery begin.

Edited December 4, 20205 yr by swt61

Don't listen to this bunch of Rega fanboys. The glass platter record spinners are very mediocre in the best case. I'd go for a Project if you want to spend very few bucks and get a lot of performance. The Rega arms are decent though. 

Depending on budget a midtier Project like the Debut Carbon series would be pretty decent. Then being an US company, Music Hall have their own series based on Project materials, motors and tonearms, but at very interesting prices. Their MMF 3.3 comes with an Ortofon 2M Red cartridge at $700 https://www.musicdirect.com/turntables/Music-Hall-MMF-33-Turntable Looks like Amazon have them too.

Nottingham Analogues are great, sure, but their cheapest is rather expensive. If I were looking for an awesome performer at a price, yet affordable, I'd get a Michell Tecno Deck, it's an incredible turntable https://www.analogueseduction.net/turntables/michell-engineering-tecno-dec.html

I agree glass isn’t the best material. However, taken as a system they do more right than wrong. Kinda like Harbeth’s approach to building speaker cabinets.

For the Schiit fanboys, there's the Sol Cast that looks interesting. I have not heard it, but the price point is nice.

 

How user friendly are you wanting this thing to be? I'm a technics fanboy myself simply because they are stupidly easy to use and setup, require no maintenance, will most likely last longer then you will be alive (sorry), and the direct drive ensures that pitch won't get all wobbly or fluttery on you. 

Technics has the new models of various price points which are all quality, or you can go old school Mk2 on the used market to practice your wicka-wicka for your upcoming rave or techno dance party.