Magna Audio's custom-made counterweight balance and armboard service!

[sq225917]

Double bonus, that Ebony looks very nice Marco, Interested in your opinion on the sound.

[alfie2902]

Looks very nice indeed! Steve's made a nice job of that. It will be interesting to hear your thoughts on any differences you hear, Marco.

Those horns of Steve's are pretty impressive in size & performance! Did they float your boat?

[Spectral Morn]

Cheers, Neil. The effort has definitely been worth it!

Btw, as an aside, on the way to Guildford, Del spotted this little antique/bric-a-brac shop, so we stopped and went in for a look....

There was some interesting bits and pieces in the front of the shop, but nothing we were interested in buying, but that changed when we went through the back and we saw a huge pile of records, which turned out to be mostly mint condition vintage classical recordings, from the 60s and 70s, on the likes of Deutsche Grammophon, Decca (FFRR and Ace of Clubs), RCA Victrola, Phillips, EMI (His Master's Voice), etc...

So I grabbed 75 of the best ones (all minty mint - some were even still sealed from new!!) and got them for, wait for it.................... £45!

I'll list all the different titles in the Classical music section tomorrow. So, all in all, it's been a fab day!

Marco.

Nice one Marco

Always love poking about antique, bric-a-brac, thrift shops, you just never know what you might find in them.


Regards D S D L

[WOStantonCS100]

That ebony board looks great; made for the deck... ...which it was.

Interesting to note is that the SL-150MK2 came standard with a thick hardwood armboard bolted to a non-suspended sub-chassis. I've needed a replacement for mine for sometime. Maybe, ebony is the way to go.

[Marco]

Cheers, Biff!

So, the ebony armboard looks like the dogs danglies, but does it actually sound any good?

Well, I guess the best answer to that question is provided by the fact that, even though I was knackered after having driven 400+ miles there and back to collect my armboard that, despite that, I stayed up until 3am this morning listening to music!

I had intended to crash early, but thought 'fuck it', I've got to hear what this is like, so I reconnected and set up my T/T, stuck on Bert Jansch's 'Santa Barbara Honeymoon', which I'd been playing earlier at Steve's, sat back and listened, and was gobsmacked at what I was hearing.....

I won't go into 'hi-fi magazine reviewer mode', and waffle on with flowery prose to describe what I'm hearing, but it is absolutely obvious upon listening that, sonically, the ebony armboard suits the Ortofon arm and Techy down to a tee. Quite simply, no other armboard I've used, aluminium or birch ply, has made my T/T sound so good!

Having listened now to three different armboard materials, the sonic presentation that they offer is quite distinctive and marked. The aluminium one, which with the Jelco I'd been using for years, is good only up to the point that you hear something else which highlights the slightly hard edge and 'mechanical' signature it imparts on the music. There is plenty of detail, no obvious sonic nastiness, and everything appears as 'present and correct', but with certain recordings it can sound tonally bleached and not allow the natural colour in voices and instruments to fully 'bloom', thus the musical picture is presented to the listener somewhat monochromatically, than in more realistic and vibrant full 'Technicolor'.

Fitting the birch ply armboard cures the hard edge and somewhat mechanical presentation, imparted by the aluminium armboard, and without subduing any detail and information, allows the natural tonal colour in voices and instruments to 'mature' more, resulting in music sounding more convincing and believable, and thus more interesting to listen to. Basically, it removes a layer of coloration responsible for making recordings sound like recordings, rather than closer to real music.

What the ebony armboard does is takes that effect and runs with it further, making all music sound immediately 'right', as if at last the partnering tonearm has the perfect foundation on which to perform optimally. It does everything the birch ply armboard does and more, and in a way which imparts a gorgeously wide-open, massively detailed, tight and dynamic sound, with no sense of bloom or 'thickness', masking fine detail and destroying the music.

In that respect, good though the birch ply armboard was, the ebony one makes music it produces (in conjunction with the partnering tonearm) sound somewhat muddled and confused in comparison, particularly when midrange and high-frequency detail in recordings are being reproduced, and thus in that respect, the birch ply armboard, in comparison, throws a slight veil over proceedings. With the ebony armboard, there is absolutely none of that effect. It simply allows the tonearm and T/T to shine a bright light onto recordings and serve up huge dollops of grin-inducing musical insight.

Nothing of course is perfect, and thus one must always accept that all music reproduced through a hi-fi system is a compromise, but try as I may, so far, I can find no negative sonic aspects whatsoever with this armboard - it simply does its job without drawing any obvious attention to itself, and so it's difficult to pay it a better compliment than that.

In conclusion, I'm absolutely delighted with the ebony armboard Steve has made for my SL-1210, as both sonically and aesthetically it is in the highest rank. I would wholeheartedly recommend it to all Techy users looking to extract maximum sonic potential from their turntables, and crucially, address (and cure) what I firmly believe is an area of previously unidentified weakness in the way aftermarket tonearms are typically mounted onto the existing chassis. In that respect, Steve's ebony armboard should be considered as the de facto standard for all modified Techies.

Thanks again to Steve for doing a wonderful job - you deserve to sell many more of these babies...!

Right, I'm off now to listen to some more music!

Marco.

[Magna Audio]

Yes, inevitable - too many bits and pieces. I saw it when I locked the workshop up last night! Will do.


Sounds all right then That's good.

I knew that I'd end up leaving something... The birch ply armboard, alignment ruler, screws and my little allen keys, are all on the table in your garage! So if you could pop them in the post for me, I'd be much obliged! + gobsmacked at what I was hearing.....

[Marco]

'Good' is an understatement, dude!

Wait until the allen bolts arrive, and send the whole lot up in a Jiffy bag. A this time of the year, it's probably best to send it Registered First Class 'Signed For', otherwise it's likely to go walkabouts... Churz, dude!

You've got my addy, haven't you?

Marco.

[Tim]

So Marco, did you drive all the way from Wrexham to Guildford just to pick-up the new arm board?

A this time of the year, it's probably best to send it Registered First Class 'Signed For', otherwise it's likely to go walkabouts...

Re the above.... not known to most people, but the Royal Mail recorded/signed for service is no 'safer' than ordinary mail and is subject to the same delivery standards/methods. The only difference is that you can have proof it gets there and it's easier to take up a claim with Royal Mail should it not arrive. 'Registered' or what most people understand as the old 'Registered' service is the Royal Mail Special Delivery service .... tracked, fully insured with guaranteed delivery times and dealt with entirely differently to standard mail, which is where the recorded stuff goes. I personally wouldn't send anything of value by recorded mail, as it really is not much better than standard mail with a certificate of posting, as the compensation value is exactly the same - i.e. £46.00.

Recorded is really only helpful with low value eBay deliveries, as you can have proof that it got there, should your buyer be less than honest

[Marco]

So Marco, did you drive all the way from Wrexham to Guildford just to pick-up the new arm board?

Yup, but not just to collect it. I had to wait until it was made and then fitted, hence why we went for a nice relaxing lunch in a country pub, while Steve did the necessary, and then we did some shopping locally (well, we only made it into an antique shop, where I spent 2 hours sifting through about 1500 classical records, and bought 75 them, for a steal!)

Then we had a nice sesh at Steve's place, listening to music on his system. All-in-all, it was a lovely day out, so the drive was well worth it!

Marco.

[Tim]

Yup, but not just to collect it.

Hats off to you fella, that's dedication to the cause and it's really pleasing to hear that old fashioned craftsmanship still pays dividends.

A good days work indeed