SME armboard Thorens quest...

[tlscapital]

I'm tempted, not determined yet, to switch from my original acrylic SME armboard to either an alloy one or a dense wooden one.

I find that I could open up my sound some. There's not much else I see to be done to bring up some "color" or resonance to my sound while still avoiding "ringing". I've already got ridden of the grommets BTW.

Anyone with advices and cautions ? I can't afford to buy some few and then find myself displeased with trials to put them on the shelf to gather dust.

I understand that solid one piece carved and cut is preferred to stuck and glued on ones. Alloy works nice on some combos and on others they are disgraceful.

I doubt that a wooden armboard would actually open up my sound, right ? Mind you my SME3009 'Imp' is converted into a heavy mass one !

[AlfaGTV]

What turntable are we talking about here? And the grommets you mention, are they the ones used for attaching the SME sliding plate onto the armboard?
Cheers /Mike

[tlscapital]

What turntable are we talking about here? And the grommets you mention, are they the ones used for attaching the SME sliding plate onto the armboard?
Cheers /Mike

Hi Mike, my turntable is presented in my "signature" with my phono set-up here below. It's a tweaked Thorens TD145 and yes the grommets are supposedly placed in the screw holes of the bed plate (slide) to fix the tonearm on the armboard. Cheers, Tim

[AlfaGTV]

Oh, apologies! I use Tapatalk which among other thing spares me from signatures! ;)

But upon looking at your sig, i would bother less with the tone arm plate and start peeling away some of the mats you have stacked upon the platter?
(And i would personally put the LP on top! ;))

[tlscapital]

Oh, apologies! I use Tapatalk which among other thing spares me from signatures! ;)

But upon looking at your sig, i would bother less with the tone arm plate and start peeling away some of the mats you have stacked upon the platter?
(And i would personally put the LP on top! ;))

Dampening the thick'N'heavy metal platter with thick and heavy mats is rather an important factor for me. Firstly for practical reason; I need on top a soft and non static (felt is dreadful) mat as I play only 45's and I drop them as I pick them up while the motor is running. That was actually my last buy; the leather mat (came in with THE LP 'Johnny Thunder live' as package !). Prior to that I bought that cork mat split with felt on the other side. But that left me not so happy alone.

After a while I just bought that great looking and to my great surprise soft enough leather mat and topped the cork and felt one with it. But it was still not right. In the end I pulled out the LP of it's cover and test different combinations of mats with it. The original Thorens mat (I sold on) is a well thought IMHO thick and heavy rubber matt. Which I understand serves as damping, weight and height. But it's not a a top material to drop your records on. So it's actually progressively with trial and errors that I got "build-up" this combo of 4 mats.

In the end I did find that the "ringing" (not resonance really or "airy" as such) was totally killed (good point all together with the dampening of the tonearm wand to great effect) and my very magnetic (DL-102) cartridge didn't suffer there anymore. So, on my mats combo, I'll stay there for all those reasons. That is why I'm trying to find an "improvement" on the armboard as I've read many reviews about it, but never had the chance to hear/see one of them alloy or dense wood in action. My original quest !

[Arkless Electronics]

Personally I'd be ditching the speakers!!!

[walpurgis]

Personally I'd be ditching the speakers!!!

I agree. The old Leaks may be interesting, but the sound leaves a lot to be desired. Not exactly the last word in analysis.

[Arkless Electronics]

I agree. The old Leaks may be interesting, but the sound leaves a lot to be desired. Not exactly the last word in analysis.

"dead" sounding in some areas and "shouty" in others... with an obvious mid suck out due to trying to crossover from a 13" heavy bass driver to a cone tweeter... also inefficient and lacking power handling and rather bass light for a speaker of this size. Good bass control though.

[tlscapital]

Personally I'd be ditching the speakers!!!

I hear you. Even though I do find them good to say the least. Even more after our ingenious quality recap. Yet I hear you. Even more on your last descriptive reply. I'm on a budget and my whole phono set-up has costed me to this day way more money than I first intended... For great pleasure still. So I understand gooder speakers come with gooder money and that is a no-no at thi$ moment. Cheers !