Initial impressions of my modified analogue system

[DSJR]

SME's can easily be stripped out for service, although the cueing assembly is a pain to remove (on later arms at least). Once stripped and cleaned out, I'm sure SME or Rega would/could supply a phial of fresh silicone damping fluid to re-charge the piston.

As for swivelling headshells, a bodge could be to get some stud-lock type liquid (the green stuff used to lock tape head setting screws amongst other things) or similar. A drop or three of this around the headshell socket will stay tacky long enough to set correctly and then, if left for a few hours, should all but glue it in this position, not tightly, but enough to firmly hold the shell in correct azimuth. I'm sure though, that there are still people at SME who could advise on a correct course of action and they might even have some parts left!

[machtman]

It's a common problem with the early SME arms, and SME no longer service these arms.
It's something to do with the damping fluid leaking out over time.

Thanks very much. This arm is only six years old but it looks as if it were much older. I can live with slowly lowering the lever which then works quite well.

Mark

[machtman]

SME's can easily be stripped out for service, although the cueing assembly is a pain to remove (on later arms at least). Once stripped and cleaned out, I'm sure SME or Rega would/could supply a phial of fresh silicone damping fluid to re-charge the piston.

Thanks for the advice and I will keep it in mind. But I think I should first get everything to a basic level of function before I start making improvements. Among other issues having a loose input switch in the Aikido running at 300 V is more urgent.

As for swivelling headshells, a bodge could be to get some stud-lock type liquid (the green stuff used to lock tape head setting screws amongst other things) or similar.

I love Lock-Tite and has used it regularly on my motorcycle and also to keep screws on the drivers in speakers from vibrating loose. I'll see just how often I have to adjust the angle though before I start bodging around with an arm that I have no manual for.

Mark

[Barry]

How do I tighten it?
Mark

There is a slotted grub screw underneath the arm, just behind the headshell socket. It is obviously loose - use a jeweller's screwdriver to tighten it.

[machtman]

Update on sonic comparisons:

Yesterday was busy.
1. Getting a very heavy self-propelled petrol lawn mower assembled. It's not as obvious as I would have hoped but I eventually got it together. Luckily, after I had it assembled and figured out how to start it, my wife decided she had been waiting forever to mow a lawn and then mowed most of our 900 m2 meadow in front of the house. The grass bag is 60 l size and was emptied 3 times over the next couple of hours. She was exhausted from fighting the mower, which wants to mow faster than she wants to walk. but the lawn is moved and the composting bin is full. And I had time to worry about the wireless connections.

2. I went for BT broadband because they were the cheapest I could readily find and supposedly reliable. The installation was performed professionally 10 days ago and after minor initial confusion the BT Hub was up and running with wireless connections and a pair of Siemens Gigaset VOIP telephones running over it. I was even able to find good VOIP apps for telephoning over a wireless connection when I am roaming outside the UK. But despite the claims, the wireless speed I was getting on a notebook was only 64 MB/s and quite slow connection times to the internet on iOS devices. So I knew I wanted to install my Cisco Linksys E4200 router, especially because all of the devices in the home were working on it in Cork. And I also expected problems, which is exactly what happened.
The solution in the end was to switch the BT hub to a non-default IP range, 192.168.2.xxx and do an automatic DHPL connection on the Cisco which was setup for 192.168.1.xxx. But it took a couple of hours to figure that out and help from Briain in Edinburgh. Once you know what to do on the hub's website for administration and have finally figured out what password you were using on the Cisco, things were simple enough. But doing non-default settings on the BT is not necessarily obvious. At any rate, I'm back to 300 MB/s on the notebook and the NetGear bridge to the main computer is working and everything is now functional for digital streaming, which was my main motivation for bothering.

3. Digital streaming. I have ripped all the CDs I own, as well as buying lots more and downloading HiRes over the last few years. This is all on a small QNAP with an 8 TB raid 6 array. It also contains backups of all the rips as well as ripped DVDs of all my DVDs, which are streamed to the a Dune device connected to the TV. Everything works well except that I put industrial level HDs into the QNAP and you can hear them chuckling almost continuously. However, as part of the move, I bought a larger QNAP to make a copy of the entire cluster at work, and once that cluster is up and running again at work, that QNAP is coming home with its 12 TB and it doesn't make any noise at all.
The QNAP is connected to the Linksys and a second ethernet cable runs to a Linn Renew. When I started digital streaming, I improved the DS from a PopCorn to a Linn Sneaky and then to a Renew. For those who don't know the Renew, it is a reboxed Klimax 0, which was the top of Linn's DS range until they came up with the Klimax 1. Each step up was a major improvement in SQ but something was still missing. I improved the Renew by putting it on a variety of supports until I settled on a Gingko Audio cloud. I also improved the sound with Meicord Ethernet cables and an MCRU 8 gang mains block and power cables. Finally, I played with ICs until I settled on some that sound reasonable. But after today, I'm going to order another pair from Yannis Tome, because his phono cable sounds better than any of the others I just tried. But in the end it still sounded lousy compared to vinyl. Thin and reedy. Too little music.
Linn aficionados claim that the Klimax 1 sounds indistinguishable from vinyl and it was a major step up from the Klimax 0. I've heard a Klimax 1, but not in my system. And 14,000 GBP for a new unit is a lot more money than I am willing to spend, especially after I paid 3400 for the Renew.
The initial problem with the Renew is that it puts out a 2 V signal whereas the CJ amp only needs 1 V. Thus a pre is used purely an attenuator. I tried using an attenuator on the end of the IC, but that killed the sound. Nick helped me to demonstrate that all I needed was attenuatation by building an ad hoc Alps Blue volume control with input and output sockets. That also killed the sound but at least it showed that I didn't need any amplification whatever. Which explains why I had Nick build the custom-built TVC pre which is a pure attenuator. And it did sound better. But a simple comparison with the Rega Planar 2 with a Shure MM cartridge that I had kept for >30 years convinced me that vinyl was better, which started me on the vinyl upgrade path.

However, this still left the question whether the Renew was working as well as it could, and helps to explain why I built the Aikido.

4. Comparisons. To my great pleasure, once I had the router up and running and the electrical components installed, the Renew started playing music immediately. I have now compared it with various ICs, between the Aikido and the TVC pre, and also compared it to the TT.

For those who don't know (and I had forgotten), the connections between neutral and live on a mains plug are not necessarily optimal for HiFi gear. I have been told that this depends on which side of the input transformer is connected to live but don't know for sure whether that is the correct explanation. When I was still living in Germany (pre-2007), the availability of Euro plugs made life easy. You simply tried them in both orientations and chose the orientation with the best soundstage. The difference is very dramatic and in one orientation, sound is flat and in the other you get additional depth. Every single mains cable has to be tested to get the best soundstage.
But UK plugs don't allow such simple changes. And each mains plug has a fuse that all the current is going through, which is not necessarily helping the sound. There are audiophile fuses (which I have in the 8 gang mains block) and will have in the Aikido once I remember to finally put it back in but the simplest solution is no fuses beyond the wall socket. Therefore the 8 gang mains block has Schuko (Euro) sockets and all my mains cables have Shuko plugs, which are unfused. Thanks to David Brook from MCRU for suggesting this simple trick. And indeed changing the orientation of the plugs on both the Aikido and Renew has given me a deeper soundstage than I started with.

The comparison between the Aikido and the TVC pre was not as dramatic as for the TT. The TVC pre sounds good but somewhat sterile. The Aikido sounds richer and has better bass, and sounds a bit more like vinyl. So the TVC is now banished from my main system.

The test pieces were ripped CDs:
Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Calling, Twilight
(nice voice, both treble and bass)
The Chieftains, Tears of Stone, Track 3 The Magdalene Laundries, Joni Mitchell)
(fantastic voice, great text)
John Cage, Works for Percussion external, Second Construction
(the most amazing experimental percussion, including bells, sheets of metal, sirens, and multiple unidentifiable sounds, doesn't sound musical at all until the system is at a very high level, deep soundstage, enormous variation in volume)
Nickel Creek, Nickel Creek, Ode to a Butterfly
(instrumental, voice, blues, thanks to Nick for recommending this group, great sound)
Crooked Still, Some Strange Country, Sometimes in the Country
(fantastic bluegrass, great twangy instruments, thanks to my older daughter for sending me the CD)
Cowboy Junkies, Trinity Session, Misguided Angel
(I love Cowboy Junkies and this is one of their best)

On all of them the Aikido sounds better, richer, better bass, more musical. And the TVCs sound digital, distant, less involving.

Then I started comparing the TT with the Renew. The unfortunate problem is that the TOCOS input selector is lying loose inside the case. So for every trial, I have to turn everything off, lift the lid of the case, stick my clumsy fingers into a case with hot valves and turn a slightly stiff selector switch without damaging the soldered connections. And then try to remember the sonic qualities from the previous source afterwards. And my wife who was helping to listen claims that she needs to hear each track on vinyl and digital for comparisons rather than hearing several tracks on each before switching. I really need to get the input selector extension installed before I do this again.

The result is that both digital and vinyl sound good, just different. The digital sound is colder and slightly more distant. Less bass, clearer separation between instruments. I had the impression that the sound floor is lower with vinyl (!!!!!?????), which was totally unexpected. But the Verdier does have an amazingly low sound floor, with nothing in between sounds. On the Trinity sessions which was recorded in an empty church, the first track, Mining for Gold, has a very clear echo from the church which is very dramatic on the digital recording. At first I thought it was missing on the vinyl, but it just sounds different, possibly less dramatic. But it is definitely there on vinyl as well. So once I have the input selector mounted, I expect to go back and forth more often whereas previously I only listened to digital music when the TT was giving problems. Which is good because I have several CDs that were never produced on vinyl and which I love (such as Crooked Still).

I also did some comparisons for digital music with different ICs, and between NextGen silver input sockets and high quality silver plated sockets from HiFi Collective. Those differences were not as dramatic, although I will now order Yannis Tome ICs and go for all NextGen sockets.

Summary, the Renew is sounding more like I had hoped for when I bought it about 18 months ago.

Next comparison, Verdier/SME 3012/Ortofon SPU versus Notts/SME IV/Dynavector XX2. Any predictions? My 69 year old back is already hurting in advance from thinking about lifting these behemoths from the stands.

Mark

[machtman]

There is a slotted grub screw underneath the arm, just behind the headshell socket. It is obviously loose - use a jeweller's screwdriver to tighten it.

Barry, thanks very much for the information. Unfortunately, I can't find a grub screw just behind the headshell socket. I even put on my Optivizor's so I could see something and twisted my neck to an impossible angle to see whether there was any grub screw in the slot underneath the arm running behind the headshell socket. I took the headshell off and tried to move the socket. No grub screw. The only grub screws I can see are at the back of the arm over the knife bearings.

The movement is of the whole headshell socket. The arm itself doesn't seem to move at all. And this arm was just overhauled by Peter Empson at Deco Audio who told me that I had to turn it against slight resistance to make the stylus vertical if it went out of alignment. Is it possible that the 3102R is different from the 3012 model you have experience with?

Mark

[MCRU]

No Jennifer Warnes "The Well" then chief?

Thought you would have given that an outing on the new system.

[machtman]

No Jennifer Warnes "The Well" then chief?

Hi Dude
I gave your power cables and the 8 gang mains block a plug in my descriptions. But the only thing I want to do with the luxury box of The Well is to sell it.
Mark

[MCRU]

The box it comes in is wood, why not put some cones underneath and use it as an equipment support

[machtman]

Final part of the review:
Contestant 1:
Nottingham Analogue Space Deck with heavy upgrade platter, Martin Bastin Wave Mechanic power supply, rewired SME_IV arm with Ikeda silver tonearm wires, Dynavector XX2 retipped by van den Hul, AN-V silver phono cable with AN jacks. There is also an Oyaide aluminium mat and I play it with a Stillpoints clamp.

This is the system that I have been wild about for 18 months. It has great resolution between individual voices, although it may be a bit weak on bass and strong on treble. Everybody who has heard it has been totally amazed that a turntable can sound this clear and natural.

Contestant 2:
I've been listening for slightly over a week to the Aschenborn Verdier Nouvelle with an SME 3012 arm and an Ortofon 90. anniversary cartridge. That arm has also been rewired with Ikeda silver wires and the phono cable is a Yannis Tome silver litz. It is using the Aschenborn A23 textile mat. And it is sitting on the Something Solid Stand while the Notts is on a slate platter in an oak table.

Two tracks of Alison Kraus New Favorite were enough to convince me that I'm selling the Notts. The music that comes from the Verdier is much, much more convincing and the Notts is just slightly edgy on this record.

I will probably put the Notts on the Something Solid stands just to be sure that it's not the stand. And I may well compare more records. But the Notts sounds just like it always did, and the Verdier is producing a sound that I hadn't realised I was lacking until now.

Mark