Strange Inspire LP12 woe - help/advice sought please

[Clive197]

I would have fully supported these comments 15 years ago during the 'RB250 downgrade era' but today they are simply not relevant.
I trust no reviews but my own and now myself and several of my colleagues all run OL arms as a preference to many more popular offerings.
I make no secret of the fact that OL are a horrendous company to deal with and my recent experience has been without doubt the most unpleasant experience of my hifi buying and selling life, but when it comes to the products, they really are incredible.
Alas, I don't think OL will ever repair their bad reputation without a serious attitude adjustment.

Sounds like you spoke to Mark!

[paskinn]

My guess would be either the armrest getting in the way, or issues with the wiring round the bearing. I had this problem, not on a Origin Live arm, and the thin insulating coating had flaked a bit. There was not only gunge around the bearing, but the wire was making intermittent shorts, so you got odd noises and sporadic loss of signal.
Right sod to track down. That happened at certain points on the record. The internal wiring in an arm can be very fragile. Anyway, do let us know what the solution turns out to be, as it's an 'interesting' fault (unless you are the one suffering the problem!)
BTW: harsh stuff on OL; are they really that bad? They seem to have loyal customers so they must be doing something right.

[Marco]

I've never liked their modded Rega arms, finding them somewhat 'zingy' and bright sounding, but rate their own designed-from-the-ground-up tonearms. Yes, Mark Baker does seem to be one of those 'Marmite' type characters...

Marco.

[andybee33]

Hello chaps,

Well - my arm is all sorted. You'll never guess what - there were TWO things wrong with it! First of all, yes the armrest was snagging slightly, which explained the jumping issue - so thanks to krugdoktor There was what looked like a superfluous washer in the lift assembly to I took it out. The arm lift still works fine and now only lifts the arm when I ask it to - which is never as I just use my finger. However, having laughed at the simplicity of the problem, I put a record on and there was still a change in the sound as it moved across the record - becoming more 'vague'. Tracking weight was spot on (2.01g against a book figure of 2.00g) but the alignment turned out to be WAY out. The cart looks just to have been aligned to look pretty/straight in the headshell. I used the Hifi News test LP protractor (for the first time ever!) and, using both the Two Point technique and the Universal one, it was toed in too much to quite a large extent. After adjustment, the cart doesn't look quite as pretty in the headshell, but it erm sounds quite a lot better!! So much for professional setup.

Anyway - thanks for all the other ideas too - I'm a bit wiser now A

[Clive197]

Hello chaps,

Well - my arm is all sorted. You'll never guess what - there were TWO things wrong with it! First of all, yes the armrest was snagging slightly, which explained the jumping issue - so thanks to krugdoktor There was what looked like a superfluous washer in the lift assembly to I took it out. The arm lift still works fine and now only lifts the arm when I ask it to - which is never as I just use my finger. However, having laughed at the simplicity of the problem, I put a record on and there was still a change in the sound as it moved across the record - becoming more 'vague'. Tracking weight was spot on (2.01g against a book figure of 2.00g) but the alignment turned out to be WAY out. The cart looks just to have been aligned to look pretty/straight in the headshell. I used the Hifi News test LP protractor (for the first time ever!) and, using both the Two Point technique and the Universal one, it was toed in too much to quite a large extent. After adjustment, the cart doesn't look quite as pretty in the headshell, but it erm sounds quite a lot better!! So much for professional setup.

Anyway - thanks for all the other ideas too - I'm a bit wiser now A

Glad you got it sorted. Interesting that Robert installed your cartridge as he did mine. Both poorly done.

The washer issue is also interesting, as it was me that put it in after speaking to Mark Baker because the arm would not lift off the record, the small washer solved the problem which Mark sent me FOC. It is possible that the height of the lift is dependent on which deck the arm is mounted on. Mine was a Technics, yours is a a Linn.

[sq225917]

My experience of other peoples decks from Inspire has been poor. The worst LP12 I ever saw came set-up from them, just bloody inexcusably bad. Nice fella though, when he's not stealing ideas from other designers...

[Rush2112]

Set up can be everything ! Knowing how to get the best from a turntable arm and cartridge is well worth the effort whether it is sourcing the information yourself or finding the right dealer. I have heard some terrible set ups and know it's hard to put a price on the added value a dealer who knows what he is doing can bring to the end result !