View Full Version : Hello from Leigh Norton
Hi Everyone
I've not had much quality music for the past 8 months but now my extension is complete I am thinking about setting up my listening room.
Just bought some old Tannoy studio monitors which are sounding nice even being fed by my laptop, so am looking forward to connecting a real turntable up!
Hi Leigh,
Welcome to the forum :)
It's good to have you here - helps bring back the good old days!
Oh, and feel free to advertise the Airpower or any other Norton products in the trade room, or recommend them to members where appropriate in the main discussion areas of the forum.
Marco.
Filterlab
27-02-2008, 19:20
Hello and welcome! Your link is already up and running in Creative Collections.
Thanks.
I should point out that I am not currently making anything and don't have any plans to, but I'm always happy to help anyone making their own AirPower. There are details on my site.
Filterlab
27-02-2008, 22:31
Yeah I saw that on your site, still your advice will be much appreciated. :)
Leigh knows plenty about lots of things, so his experience will be invaluable to many people. Keep looking in on us, mate :)
What about the kits for the Airpower, are you still doing those?
Anyone running an LP12 would do well to listen to one. Lingo, Hercules, or Armageddon? Pah, forget it!
Marco.
DAVEDWACK
27-02-2008, 22:54
Thanks.
I should point out that I am not currently making anything and don't have any plans to, but I'm always happy to help anyone making their own AirPower. There are details on my site.
Hi there Leigh....Hehe, I think it was maybe me who bought your last Airpower.:lol:
Cheers.....Dave
What about the kits for the Airpower, are you still doing those?
Sadly not as I don't really have the time.
Hi there Leigh....Hehe, I think it was maybe me who bought your last Airpower.
Could be Dave!
Vinyl Grinder
28-02-2008, 14:32
Leigh knows plenty about lots of things, so his experience will be invaluable to many people. Keep looking in on us, mate :)
What about the kits for the Airpower, are you still doing those?
Anyone running an LP12 would do well to listen to one. Armageddon? Pah, forget it!
Uh! though that's all they basically were!
Nope - the Airpower had a much larger mains transformer! Consequently, it sounded much better than an Armageddon, and also a Lingo for that matter. I know because I've owned all three :)
Marco.
I would attribute any advantage the AirPower has over the Armageddon to having 2 separate transformer secondaries with different values (more info on my site). The Kit Airpowers used 2 very small transformers and there wasn't much in it compared to the monsters in production units.
Yep, those production units weighed a bloody ton and made an Armageddon feel like a toy!
In my system, when switched on they had a tendency to blow the internal fuse (which was an 8A slow-blow, if I remember correctly). It even tripped out my RCBOs once such was the amount of current it drew on switch-on!
Leigh will remember my fuse dilemma at the time with some affection, I'm sure ;)
Marco.
Vinyl Grinder
28-02-2008, 15:52
Nope - the Airpower had a much larger mains transformer! Consequently, it sounded much better than an Armageddon, and also a Lingo for that matter. I know because I've owned all three :)
Marco.
All the same though that's all they basically were Armageddon's!
All the same though that's all they basically were Armageddon's!
Not quite. The circuit differs from the Armageddon in 2 ways.
The Armageddon needed a series current limiting resistor as the secondary transformer voltage was (imho) too high, probably becuase Naim used an off the shelf transformer rather than a bespoke item. The Airpower transformer was designed for the purpose, so the secondary voltage was correct, therefore the resisitor was not needed.
The AirPower had either 2 transformers or one transformer with 2 secondary windings, each having a different voltage. This is to compensate for loading effects of the phase shift capacitor. The Armageddon did not do this and the result is more vibration from the motor.
Leigh will remember my fuse dilemma at the time with some affection, I'm sure.
No, I'd just managed to forget :cool:
LOL. I must say that you were very helpful at the time and sorted the situation out no problem :)
Marco.
Vinyl Grinder
28-02-2008, 16:34
Always amuses me why people go to lengths with the Linn! It's tripe what ever you do to it...Why bother with AC motors anyway! i know DC have there weaknesses but what DC give you make up ten fold..
Sorry for hi-jacking your original post
:)
Thanks. You were easy to work with!
Your Avatar looks like Technics arm, but which one ?
Is this getting beyond a hello thread ?
Always amuses me why people go to lengths with the Linn! It's tripe what ever you do to it...Why bother with AC motors anyway! i know DC have there weaknesses but what DC give you make up ten fold..
To some extent I agree. The Linn motor is cheap & nasty, at least for a supposedly high end deck. I have done experiments with other motors and the LP12's performance can be elevated massively by using something better, driving the outer rim (I had excellent results with the Papst motors used by Michell). The improvement over an AirPower difference was bigger than Valhalla-AirPower. Havn't tried any dc motors but I seriously doubt it is as simple as 'dc is better than ac', more likely 'motor a is better than motor b and it happens to be dc'.
Vinyl Grinder
28-02-2008, 16:53
Your Avatar looks like Technics arm
Leigh tell him he needs an arm with a proper anti skate :lolsign:
LOL. You're a very bad boy, Andre :ner:
Leigh,
Yep, I've gone all direct-drive these days! And much for the better... ;)
Marco.
Interesting. I'm using an idler,also for the better (a.c. motor though!).
Garrard, Lenco, TD-124? :)
Mine is a heavily modified SL-1210 with a separate dedicated PSU, Cardas silver linz rewired arm with silicone fluid damping and customised brass counterweight balance.
It pisses over every other T/T I've ever owned.
Marco.
Vinyl Grinder
28-02-2008, 23:21
Garrard, Lenco, TD-124? :)
Mine is a heavily modified SL-1210 with a separate dedicated PSU, Cardas silver linz rewired arm with silicone fluid damping and customised brass counterweight balance.
It pisses over every other T/T I've ever owned.
Marco.
Get some headphones on the quiet passages you'll soon change your mind :lol:
Garrard, Lenco, TD-124?
Lenco. It doesn't piss all over every other turntable I've heard but does offer the best overall balance of virtues for me. It also has potential for improvement and only cost me about the price of one new LP, so I'd say it takes some beating in terms of value.
Lenco's seem to be popular at the moment. I've never heard one, but apparently when fettled correctly they're capable of top-notch performance. What arm and cartridge are you using?
Marco.
Lenco's seem to be popular at the moment. I've never heard one, but apparently when fettled correctly they're capable of top-notch performance. What arm and cartridge are you using?
Mine is completely unfettled at the moment. I'm using with OL Silver Taper and vdH Grasshopper IIIGLA. Not exactly the traditional fund allocations, but it works for me.
Now that's an interesting and somewhat off-the-wall combo!
What kind of plinth have you got it in - do you have any pics you can post?
I bet it's got great bass, something I find is a trademark with older decks, particularly idlers and direct-drives.
Marco.
What kind of plinth have you got it in - do you have any pics you can post?
Yeah, I was hoping you wouldn't ask that! It's currently in it's original plinth which was damaged in shipping - completely missing the front panel! I intend to make a constrained layer damped plinth sometime but life is getting in the way of that at the moment.
I bet it's got great bass, something I find is a trademark with older decks, particularly idlers and direct-drives.
Yes, bass is good as is pitch stability. In fact, timing is so spot on that I really wonder what people mean when they describe timing as the LP12s great strength. It is also excellent up top which a Garrard 301 I used to have was not. This might be to do with some ahem, decoupling of the arm due to the fact it is mounted in a wooden SP10 armboard and screwed to the Lenco plinth.
Vinyl Grinder
29-02-2008, 11:18
What Lenco we talking about here chaps?
Either a Lenco L75 or a Goldring Lenco GL75 (an OEM L75) - can't remember which.
It's a Goldring. Told you it wasn't pretty! The arm has changed since the picture was taken.
http://www.cherrynorton.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/Lenco3.JPG
StanleyB
29-02-2008, 17:58
It's a Goldring. Told you it wasn't pretty! The arm has changed since the picture was taken.
http://www.cherrynorton.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/Lenco3.JPG
What did you do with the arm, and why did you change it? I have been looking for one of those for a while now.
I sold it a while back. It was a fascinating arm to own - the engineering and features are stunning. I sold for a couple of reasons
1. The Grasshopper III is very heavy and the Technics could not balance it without additional weight being added to the counterweight.
2. While the sound is good, I missed the 'tonal colour' of my previous OL Encounter, so when the Silver Taper came up at a good price I bought it.
Vinyl Grinder
29-02-2008, 21:53
The motors rumble like crazy don't they?
Vinyl Grinder
29-02-2008, 22:52
In a word, no!
You're joking Shane!They are crazy motors!
Odd, yes, but beautifully made. Providing you have a decent plinth, the minimal amount of vibration produced by the motor can be sunk into it. The problem with idler turntables was that they always used to be bolted to highly resonant chipboard plinths which acted as sound-boxes and amplified the problem enormously. If you ever see an SME 2000 plinth system, which was supposed to be the be-all and end-all for Garrards, try tapping it. It's like tapping a guitar body! One of the reasons for the success of the Slatedeck plinths is that slate is a brilliant material for absorbing vibration, being massy, lossy and non-resonant.
Vinyl Grinder
29-02-2008, 23:44
I've played about with Garrards & find the smaller the plinth the better, i've farted about with 'GL-75' & could not completely silence that motor Shane!
I used to make Thorens, Technics 'SP-10 & Garrard plinths for a living at one bit but could never settle with a plinth for any of the Lenco units...
could not completely silence that motor
You did unto the motor transit screws didn't you ? :)
Seriously, I do not experience any problems with rumble. My understanding of the term rumble is unwanted low frequency noise. The general noise floor may be slightly higher/of a different quality to other decks I've used but this is a wideband noise of the vinyl roar kind experienced to some degree with all turntables. Whether the motor is contributing to this, I don't know but I wouldn't describe it as rumble. Either way, it is a small effect and massively outweighed by the way the wonderful sound quality.
Vinyl Grinder
01-03-2008, 10:28
The small effect turned out to be a big deal with a lot of customers, the reason i never pursued a plinth for the Lenco..
the reason i never pursued a plinth for the Lenco
What type of construction were your plinths ?
Having just signed in..as it were..
Can I just say thanks to Leigh for the what must have been the last kit Airpower.
Still in stirling service, and wrapped beautifully in a Dino+ box, it sounds grand.
Steve
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