New TT - modding already . . .

[Opti-cal]

Hi guys and gals, I've been on the look out for a turntable I can just "chuck any record on" without worrying too much about the cleanliness of said record (within reason) or indeed the hours put on the needle etc.

So the hunt was on, here were the requirements:

Solid deck with reliable build quality.
Speed change switch/button (fed up of handling belts and removing platters).
Interchangeable headshell.
Potential to mod.
Non expensive.
After narrowing down a few more vintage decks on ebay and a few other sources I decided that to save any potential hassle of servicing requirements and so I'd be starting from "scratch" (sorry) so to say. I could do no better than this offering from Audio Technica. An LP5 to be exact. Audio Technica are a brand I've come to really appreciate in regards to bang for buck value.

Here's a few pics to keep you interested!

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This is from a budget range of turntables but by far the most refined of them. The others are very cheap plasticy offerings which are aimed at the first time vinyl to digital converter or the budding DJ who can't afford the real deal from Technics. Either way the same ethos of value is maintained but this is a deck with sound quality clearly at the heart of its design.

[Opti-cal]

Build/Specs:

It's a solidly built thing, not the heaviest but kind of looks like a stripped back 1210 (if you squint a bit). Machined aluminum platter, direct drive, speed change switch along with respectable wow/flutter etc (although I don't pay too much attention to these). There is no audible rumble from the direct drive motor and the platter spins up super quick and stops dead too.
It also has RCA out's which I like as I can stick a nicer cable on it rather than having to run Maplin-esque bell-wire on the thing. It also has a decent built in MM phono stage and came with a nice acrylic lid.
Nice "J" type arm in a black finish which looks solid enough.
Comes with an AT95ex cartridge (a successor to the widely regarded AT95e) which has been specifically designed for this turntable and arm.

All in all it is in my opinion an extremely competent package. Got it for under £250.00 too . . .

[Opti-cal]

Listening tests:

Did a few listening tests one evening with some well known records - Eagles - Fleetwood Mac - Chet Baker - Led Zep III - Dire Straits - plus a few more.

The biggest accolade I can pay it is that I listened to everything pretty much all the way through and pretty much thought sod the testing this just sounds good. I then had to A/B a few tracks back to back with my LP12 setup just to make sure I wasn't favoring my new bit of kit too much

Thankfully the LP12 does still sound better but the gap is no where near the cost difference. To be honest I was relieved it didn't better my #1 setup as if it had, serious questions would have been asked. It certainly performed way beyond expectation. Plus the added functionality combined with the "chuck it on and forget" factor is the icing on the cake for me.

[Opti-cal]

Modifications:

Like most of my equipment I couldn't leave it alone for very long.

Although I hadn't yet done it myself I know a lot of people have reported that removing the plastic around the needle of the AT95e cart yields significant sonic improvements. Slightly daunting snipping away some material so close to the stylus but after trying a scapulae blade which wasn't really making much progress I tried a sharp pair of short nose pliers and it came away quite cleanly. Although it doesn't look so clean in the pic. I then filed away some slightly jagged bits when it was back on the cartridge body.

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Well, there is certainly an improvement. I won't be more specific with generic praise like extension/air/transients etc because this is a budget deck and cartridge which I've just hacked apart for an experiment, however the gains are there and audible. Very happy and very surprised.

I have also ordered a new wooden body for the cart. May have some slight sonic benefits from reduced resonance but the main reason for this mod is to turn your half hacked away £50 cartridge into more of a "damn I bet that cost a pretty penny" one. Hopefully this will turn up this week from Germany and I can get it on!

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I've also put a cork mat in place of the heavier rubber one. The cork mat is probably 1mm thinner than the rubber one and has changed the VTA a tad but I think perhaps for the better. The cart and arm still ride perfectly horizontal to the eye but as the angle has changed a couple of degrees there will be some sonic change I can't tell if this is from the mat or the VTA change. Either way it sounded the best it had at all.

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So that's it for now, I'll put some more pics up when the wooden body for the cart arrives. I've got a lovely Ortofon head-shell that should set it off really nicely too.

Phono stage:

It also gave me the opportunity to mess around with the phono stage I'm using with it. It's an Ear 834p clone design. I've swapped the original tubes which were just generic Chinese ECC83's to a NOS Ei 12ax7 along with a Psvane 12ax7 Tii and then a NOS Sylvania 5963 in the V1 position. Having a 12au7 or 5963 in this position effectively lowers the noise floor and to my ears at least, deepens the soundstage significantly. Albeit possibly not great for true RIAA equalisation curve . . .

As my room is quite narrow having a super wide soundstage is not necessarily a great idea and this combo seems to nail it.
I've tried having all Gold Lion 12ax7's all NOS Ei 12ax7's and all Psvane 12ax7's in this stage but as soon as I tried this combination I knew it was a winner. Super extended highs and lows with a super rich midrange. Great synergy seems to be there.

Future mods:

I'll definitely be looking into how far I can take this deck now. Counterweight upgrades, arm modifications, plinths, feet and anything else I can think of!

Any suggestions always welcome of course!

Cheers,

Chris

[chris@panteg]

Just don't go too far with an eye on cost, but some mild tweaking is always worthwhile, difficult to suggest anything as I'm not familiar with the deck, an external psu springs to mind but can the on-board one be removed and put in a box? I'm guessing it's a smps type?

[Opti-cal]

Just don't go too far with an eye on cost, but some mild tweaking is always worthwhile, difficult to suggest anything as I'm not familiar with the deck, an external psu springs to mind but can the on-board one be removed and put in a box? I'm guessing it's a smps type?

Hi Chris,

yes its a fairly new design so not much out there in the way of tweaking tips. It's the kind of deck that could easily be overlooked but all the basics are spot on.

I would assume the power supply is SMPS but I haven't actually been inside it yet to inspect, possibly a job for the weekend.

Regarding other mods, it looks like it has a similar layout around the tonearm fixing point as a 1210 so a rega straight-arm replacement would likely fit however I think an SME type might fit my needs better as I wish to retain the ability to swap headshells.

Guess I've got no choice but to open her up and see what she's made of now!

Luckily I've got all my tools out downstairs as I'm also in the middle of putting an upgrade power supply, bearing and cross-brace in my LP12!

Busy bank holiday weekend ahead . . .

[chris@panteg]

A Rega arm if you can fit it would be interesting, worth a try if you have one spare.

[Opti-cal]

Yes a friend of mine has a rewired 303 arm on his 1210 Mk2. A couple of other supporting mods and it sounds glorious.

This is a bit of a workman deck project though, so like I say it'd be nice to retain the flexibility to swap headshells.

Example being I put a Shure Whitelabel DJ cartridge I had laying around on it the other day and was blown away by its detail retrieval considering you can backspin a record on it!

They always sounded good back in my DJing (mostly bedroom) days but I'd never heard it through a proper phono stage rather than a mixer before.