Hi All,
Just thought I'd share my (currently contained!) excitement at the news that I should be taking delivery, in the next couple of days, of a long awaited arrival in the form of my Onkyo PX-100M turntable.
It's been quite a journey to get to this point...literally. I placed a speculative advert on the Hifi For Sale website, on the off chance (and let's face it, long shot) that someone may have a PX-100M for sale. I've lusted after one of these 'tables for years, but at the time didn't realise that they were quite as rare as they are. Well, after about three weeks, I received an e-mail from a guy in...Austria(
) telling me that he had one for sale. His e-mail was in German, so I had to run it through a couple of online translators to be sure he was actually offering it for sale.
Eventually, the sale was agreed with one snag...he didn't want to post it, for fear of it getting wrecked by Parcel Farce
The only solution available was for me to collect it from Eisenstadt in person, which meant a near 1000 mile journey
: . I hooked up with a good mate who kindly agreed to accompany me and, with a Morrison's Big Breakfast guzzled, we set off via the Chunnel. It took us a couple of days to get to Eisenstadt, where we spent a pleasant evening visiting the local bars. Next morning we met with the vendor - a chap called Roland - who kept referring to us as 'Hifi freaks'
(probably quite accurate...I mean, driving across Europe to collect a turntable is a tad freaky, I guess)
It was down to business and I was relieved of the wad of Euros burning a hole in my pocket. After a pleasant evening re-visiting the aforementioned bars, we made it back to Blighty within 24 hours...thank goodness for Autobahns
It was great to put 'The Beast' (Y reg Rover 75, no less
) through its paces...
There is, however, a cautionary tale here and one which other members of this forum have hinted at...old stuff often doesn't work or is, quite often, FAULTY
(That's why we buy the Technics...)
Yep, I discovered a fault with the speed stability. I was sure that this had not been present in Austria, but it mattered not...I had a duffer!
Now, since the purchase, I have made contact with a few owners of this rarity, and probably 80% report issues with speed stability. However, what really rubbed salt in the wounds was that the remaining 20% (2 owners, that is) report that the deck is a killer. One owner - a high end tonearm manufacturer from Germany - describes it as the quietest turntable he owns; and he boasts top model Clearaudio units in his collection. Bugger.
What to do? I was really struggling to think of who would be able to help. I decided to call Richard at Vantage Audio, knowing him from his work with Trio/Kenwood L-07Ds. I've read the comments of a few people who have contacted Richard on this forum for advice and I knew that the owner of L-07D.com (the magnificent site detailing the Kenwood L-07D) had sent Richard his first AND shattered plinth'd L-07D for repair - the restored unit firing his love for this venerable 'table. Richard kindly agreed to meet me to take the Onkyo in for repair. Now, I don't think even Richard knew what he was letting himself in for
...........
The Onkyo is a magnificent beast, but it came about at the wrong time. Onkyo launched it at around the time CD was born, so the deck never truly had the chance to evolve - it is a bit of a working prototype. Axel Dahl of The Vintage Knob (amazing resource) thinks that about 50 or so were made - I have number 33! As a result, this deck should carry a health warning. I'm sure many of you have heard of Hifido - the Japanese used audio site. I believe that they employ some pretty competent engineers, who service many of the turntables et al which pass through the portals of this drool inducing emporium. A Google search one evening revealed that they had, some time ago, been in possession of an Onkyo PX-100M. I pinged an e-mail to them, asking if they had any advice relating to servicing the 'table. They informed me that the unit they had in had been faulty - speed stability issues - and that the engineers had GIVEN UP trying to fix it....GULP
Over to Richard at Vantage. I cannot fault the guy - he could have thrown in the towel without shame, but he persisted and this stickability has been proven to be well placed. He has restored my unit to original spec and, using what technical data I had managed to obtain, has managed to get things spinning as intended. Genius.
Not only has he fixed the Onkyo, he kindly (and this will be of interest to some here) loaned me a fully modded Vantage Audio Technics SL1210, with bespoke power supply, modded platter and bearing - something which didn't really register with me until I realised (via this forum
) that there is an industry around modding this turntable. I have to say that I was extremely impressed with the Technics; I'm a bit of a collector of Japanese Direct Drives (I keep this quiet at work
), and Richard's Technics really holds its own in company it has no right to.
That said, I'll be happy to return said Technics and replace it with the Onkyo, which is something to behold. As soon as I have it plumbed in with my SME 312, for which Richard is making a new tonearm lead as I bought it sans lead, I'll get some images posted in the gallery. I'm hoping to fit my Dynavector DV505 in the near future - Richard has made a facsimile of the original Onkyo armboard in bronze, which will house the Dynavector...it will look stunning and - hopefully - sound just as good as it looks.
Anyway, sorry for rambling on...just wanted to share with you my delight at this impending return...I will keep you all posted and I may meet some of you in the bar at Whittlebury Hall on Saturday (now, why am I presuming you'll be in the bar??
)
Paul.