Gromit's music centre...

[Gromit]

Brilliant room dimensions, there. Unusual too! Is it a Victorian house or one specifically made? It's that 14 feet width, you see, that I find interesting.

You need some seriously large speakers to reproduce the scale those dimensions can give you, i.m.o.

Hi Mike - the room's dimensions are at its widest point. The chimney breast is approx 14" out into the room and approx 6' wide. The house was built 20 years ago by a small local builder which may also explain why all internal walls are brick, even upstairs which is refreshing.

My present stack...

[Gromit]

Had a bit of a move-around and installed the Squeezebox (which sounds so good I'm giving serious thought to selling the CD player)...



This afternoon I'm popping down to Harrow Audio to pick up a new DL103 - really fancy trying one in the Pioneer as I've always been a fan of the old nail. It worked very well in the old Spacearm so will be interested to see how it goes in this one.

The PL71's arm has a 16g effective mass which can be raised by moving the small weight just forward of the bearing housing.

Will get it set up and report back.

[Peter Stockwell]

So all that wifi is not having an effect on thos nva boxes. I was thinking that maybe they would be less resistant to rfi because of the high non ferrous content ?

[Gromit]

So all that wifi is not having an effect on thos nva boxes. I was thinking that maybe they would be less resistant to rfi because of the high non ferrous content ?

Hi Peter - when I first placed the Squeezebox near the phonostage (it was sat on the top shelf next to the SB) there was a faint ticking/whistling when using the turntable whlst the SB was switched on. Now, with the phonostage sat under the turntable, there's no noise at all; in fact getting it as far away from transformers as possible has brought about an increase in clarity.

[Gromit]

All set up and playing away...



All the 103 characteristics are there - ballsy, rich and fruity presentation. Not overly accurate perhaps but definitely fun. It does cause more hum than the Lyra - I've had to run a separate earth cable from the back of the PL71 (it has its own earthing post next to the RCA outs) to the phonostage which has quietened it down significantly.

Time to spin some more tunes to let it run in.

[Marco]

It’s looking great, Richard - your system pics and the close-up of the 103. The Pioneer arm will suit the 103 down to a tee. Try adding a little more mass (around 6g) to the Sumiko with a brass plate, or whatever. Trust me it will sound even better

The 103 is what I'd call 'musically accurate', not 'hi-fi accurate'. I think you probably know what I mean. I know why you like the Lyra. I used to own an Argo(i), which is quite a bit better than the Dorian, and in my opinion the 103 plays music much more accurately without the 'toppy' balance of the Lyra, when loaded correctly preferably through a quality valve preamp (step-up transformer) and phono stage, albeit losing some of the Lyra's high frequency definition and 'clarity'.

Your Pioneer looks very sexy, and as you've described, sounds excellent. I would love to compare it to my KAB-modified 1210. I don't doubt the PL-71 is better than a stock 1210, but I think we're in a different football match with the KAB 1210

Perhaps we could have some fun and set-up the two 'teams' in a match sometime? Any excuse to listen to music and drink a ridiculous amount of beer

Marco.

[Gromit]

Hi Marco - just spent an hour or so tweaking the 103, setting VTA and lining it up more accurately. I always found with the previous 103's I've owned (I had a std one in my Gyro several years ago then the R in the Spacedeck) that they need a couple of hours to warm up at which point it's best to 'tune' them whilst warm rather than setting it up from cold.

Now - this is where things get interesting...

I bought one of those funny Cartridge Man Isolators a year or so ago for using with my 103R (stop heckling at the back!). I fitted it, sat back and though it didn't really do an awful lot - any differences were subtle at best, and hardly worth getting steamed-up over so I removed it carefully and put it back in the drawer. Fast forward to 30 mins ago...

Just fitted it to the Pioneer and sat back down for a listen - I wasn't quite prepared for what I was about to hear. Threw a couple of difficult tracks at the turntable: Steve Winwood 'Back in the High Life' is a bit nasty at times - harsh, but nonetheless dynamic and with some hard hitting bass synth lines. With the Isolator in place the top end has become cleaner, the bass is more nimble and SW's voice is more intelligible. Trying a couple of other tracks (on other lp's) it displays the same improvements. Surface noise is lower (the PL71's eerily quiet to start with) and there's less 'dirt' in the presentation.

In the short space of time it's been fitted I cannot yet detect any downsides.

[Marco]

Interesting, Richard. Could it just be that the Isolator is adding a bit more mass to the headshell which the 103 likes? How much does the Isolator weigh?

Marco.

[Gromit]

Interesting, Richard. Could it just be that the Isolator is adding a bit more mass to the headshell which the 103 likes? How much does the Isolator weigh?

Marco.

This could have something to do with it, although one should remember here that the Isolator decouples the cartridge from the headshell so any mass is 'sprung' as it were. With the PL71's arm it's possible to alter its effective mass by adjusting the position of the side weight. Standard setting the arm's 16.4g - this can be altered up to 19g or if the weight's removed completely it goes down to 15g. The Isolator is exactly 2.5g.

When I tried the Isolator with the Spacearm the effect wasn't as pronounced - I'm wondering if this may have been down to the fact that the S'arm already has some de-coupling of its own, being a mechanically damped unipivot.

All being well Scoobs' SDS should be arriving today or tomorrow so we'll have a play around with that aswell.

[Marco]

Yep, I get what you're saying about the Isolator. The bottom line is that you're hearing an improvement with it so it doesn't really matter why it's happening.

I'd still be tempted though to increase the effective mass on your arm to 19g, and to add another 6g mass to the headshell (get John, Thrunobulaxx, to make you up a threaded 6g brass plate that will fit to the top of your Sumiko), removing the Isolator first, and see what happens. If it doesn't work out you can always revert back to the Isolator. Thruno's plates aren't expensive.

What you should remember is that the 103 is from an era when high-mass tonearms were the norm, and was often used on arms like the Fidelity Research FR-64S which had an effective mass of 35g! I know it goes against current thinking where the approach is to reduce mass wherever possible, but the 103 is a dinosaur; it likes mass - and lots of it!

The SDS works really well on the 1210. I'm not sure if it'll have the same effect on your PL-71 unless the platter, un-weighted, is equally as resonant. Let us know how you get on.

Marco.