dimkasta
10-07-2014, 08:42
I got my SL1200 used a few years back and absolutely love it...
I am a DIY junkie so modding it was a matter of time :)
I started with the feet, where I use some custom made graphite cylinders by Chameleon Audio.
The next mod was to rewire the arm. I initially used straight run shielded Cardas litz from the tags to the Eihman silver bullets. The tags were Cardas silver.
A few days ago I rewired the arm with some twinaxial solid medical grade silver wire. Unfortunately the 32AWG silver is too stiff, so I had to rewire the arm with cardas, and use the silver wire from the pcb to the RCAs.
Tags were replaced with some very nice quality gold plated industrial grade D-sub connectors.
On the chassis side, I permanently removed all plastic covers from underneath the platter, and I keep the dust cover without hinges, so that I completely remove it when listening.
The bearing is modified with a 0.5mm teflon disc on the thrust pad (I have not decided if I like it yet), and I have added a ball of beeswax under the bottom plate so that it is damped with the chassis body. The last one was a big improvement.
I used Singer oil, but it is very thin and gets quickly off the axle. I am now using some 15W moto fork oil from Bellray, but I would like to try some proper SAE30 thick oil too.
The transformer is in an external box with a 30uF CRCRC filter a'la 6L6 with 1N4007 rectifier. The fuse is ceramic by Cooper Bussman (I love these). Power is transferred as DC through an XLR connector and 2mm thick wires.
The internal switch is no longer functional, but I plan to add a switch right next to the fuse on the external PSU.
The internal regulator is replaced with a 317 circuit again a'la 6L6, and I plan to also add the tracking prereg once I make the layout a bit more robust.
The pitch controller is isolated and I intend to also remove all lights and not necessary pcbs.
The main PCB will also eventually be completely recaped.
Eventually I will seal all outer cavities with metal plaster and veneer the entire chassis with some Indian Rosewood.
Internally, I plan on filling the transformer cavity with some kind of dampening material, and also apply a thin-ish layer on the entire internal metal surface. I am thinking beeswax again, but I will have to research a bit about this.
I also plan to add some more vibration control on the bearing, but I have to work on this a bit more... The chassis is a bit confining to that area...
Oh and by the way, I use a Clearaudio Virtuoso with an audio Technica needle feeding a VSPS 300 phono, and a Shelter 501 MK2 feeding a Phonoclone v3
I am a DIY junkie so modding it was a matter of time :)
I started with the feet, where I use some custom made graphite cylinders by Chameleon Audio.
The next mod was to rewire the arm. I initially used straight run shielded Cardas litz from the tags to the Eihman silver bullets. The tags were Cardas silver.
A few days ago I rewired the arm with some twinaxial solid medical grade silver wire. Unfortunately the 32AWG silver is too stiff, so I had to rewire the arm with cardas, and use the silver wire from the pcb to the RCAs.
Tags were replaced with some very nice quality gold plated industrial grade D-sub connectors.
On the chassis side, I permanently removed all plastic covers from underneath the platter, and I keep the dust cover without hinges, so that I completely remove it when listening.
The bearing is modified with a 0.5mm teflon disc on the thrust pad (I have not decided if I like it yet), and I have added a ball of beeswax under the bottom plate so that it is damped with the chassis body. The last one was a big improvement.
I used Singer oil, but it is very thin and gets quickly off the axle. I am now using some 15W moto fork oil from Bellray, but I would like to try some proper SAE30 thick oil too.
The transformer is in an external box with a 30uF CRCRC filter a'la 6L6 with 1N4007 rectifier. The fuse is ceramic by Cooper Bussman (I love these). Power is transferred as DC through an XLR connector and 2mm thick wires.
The internal switch is no longer functional, but I plan to add a switch right next to the fuse on the external PSU.
The internal regulator is replaced with a 317 circuit again a'la 6L6, and I plan to also add the tracking prereg once I make the layout a bit more robust.
The pitch controller is isolated and I intend to also remove all lights and not necessary pcbs.
The main PCB will also eventually be completely recaped.
Eventually I will seal all outer cavities with metal plaster and veneer the entire chassis with some Indian Rosewood.
Internally, I plan on filling the transformer cavity with some kind of dampening material, and also apply a thin-ish layer on the entire internal metal surface. I am thinking beeswax again, but I will have to research a bit about this.
I also plan to add some more vibration control on the bearing, but I have to work on this a bit more... The chassis is a bit confining to that area...
Oh and by the way, I use a Clearaudio Virtuoso with an audio Technica needle feeding a VSPS 300 phono, and a Shelter 501 MK2 feeding a Phonoclone v3