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View Full Version : Mike new Bearings and Platters (an important update)!



Mike_New
24-07-2010, 12:43
I have to announce that David Cawley has decided to no longer represent the sales of my High Precision Bearings and platters in the UK and Greater Europe, where he had the sole rights. Which is probably the better decision on my part.

I notice that Dave Cawley has posted that he “has a change of supplier for the SL1200 bearing and Platter”, I and friends will be very interested to see what he comes up with. Unfortunately David was unable to meet the requirements of our recently signed agreement for the manufacture of platters in the UK so we parted ways. I had insisted that I was kept in the loop in regard to the identity of the short listed machinists of the platter so that I could monitor and check quality control and machining methodology at the quotation phase, but he was unfortunately unable to do this.

I was not able to supply any platters (or bearings for that matter) to those people in the UK or Europe because I had an informal marketing agreement with David not to do so and I kept to my part. However I am now free to supply my High Precision Bearings and Solid Machined Platter to all of you.. And in fact I have shipped the first one to the UK two days ago.

David, for reasons of his own, refused on this forum to provide the sample platter I provided for this purpose, or to co-operate with the contributors on this forum in respect of providing the results of tests which he had conducted and which he informed me of by email, implying that they were very good, but instructed me not to release them. Once again I did the right thing and complied with his requests.

David says in his last paragraph in his recent post in the trade section. "That he cannot provide any service or backup or warranty/guarantee for my bearings after the year 2010". In other words he is just dumping all of you after that date, unless you agree to buy his new bearing. Nice eh!! That should endear confidence in everyone!!! Suppose he changes his ‘suppliers’ of External Power Supplies, or Tone Arms. Are you all going to be taking your TTs apart to return the bits for trade-ins. I don’t think so.

Obviously I am happy and eager to take up all of the above commitments for warranty, service, and backup, Excepting my bearings do not need any backup or service that I can conceive of. I have now sold over 40-50 Bearings to people in the US, Canada, Australia & NZ and have had no problems. I have been informed by David, however that he had a bearing where the holes were incorrectly positioned and one with a leaking oil ring (a Spanish customer whom I dealt with). I have never received these bearings back for replacement, so I cannot comment on what was wrong, if anything.
.
I do not want to stretch the rules of this forum by discussion of my products at the commercial level here. So those of you who are interested, please see my posts in the trade section concerning the new UK prices of my Bearings and Platters, I also have come up with a clever idea for the improvement of the stiffness of the SL1200 chassis and bearing mount, which also increases the height of the platter surface, making it easier to fit alternative tone arms.

On the subject of whether his new bearing will be better than mine, I doubt it, for the simple reason that there is only a very constrained amount of space into which one can fit any re-engineered bearing and I believe that I have achieved the optimum use of available space, so his new suppliers will need to virtually follow what I have done, if the bearings are to fit into the existing plinth/chassis as mine do, interesting.

kininigin
24-07-2010, 12:53
:popcorn:

chris@panteg
24-07-2010, 13:59
Hi Mike

I wish you all the best ' and your bearing and platter will be very hard to improve on! so it will be interesting to see what dave comes up with .

More choice is a good thing and i don't see any need whatsoever for anyone to change your bearing as it should last a lifetime .

Mike_New
24-07-2010, 15:23
Chris,
Thank you for your support, you will not believe this but I have recieved orders for two bearings and a platter since posting the update.

chris@panteg
24-07-2010, 15:29
Mike ' its an excellent product and at a good price

Citation16
27-07-2010, 14:53
Interesting to see Dave, who previously sold Mike's products -
is now going on his own to more or less copy Mike's platter & bearing and to claim it will be improoved.... such is marketing...

having seemingly got all the info and specs on Mike's platter and bearing.

I suppose it will be more choices for us the consumer....

But we are audiophiles - will we be be happy to be obliged to abide by the purchasing rules & prices of Dave ?
...while Mike does not, it seems impose such restrictions on us poor souls...

The English pound exchange rate, in North America, is very expensive - you can get an excellent power supply from KAB for $250 US

Let their be competition - no matter what great turntable company makes the parts for Dave, this great TT company will have to use the same tools and possibly re-outsource the parts - we will never know - wont we?

But really are we not all on this discussion board to help each other solve our audio problems and improove and get new ideas ?

So may the best product win they say -

and each live with their audio KARMA and the consequences of their actions....

Yves

Citation16
27-07-2010, 15:11
case in point :

http://www.soundhifi.com/sl1200/index.htm

Platter This fantastic new black anodised Timestep HR platter will be available mid/late 2010 £649.00
(EU laws are such that we can only supply if the intended deck has/will have a Timestep SL-1200 PSU fitted) Updated 21-05-2010

This is a gem of marketing - you cannot get the platter without purchasing the power supply :scratch:

Thank god for competition, so us audiophile mortals will be able to get a custom platter without such restrictions...

Yves

anthonyTD
27-07-2010, 20:06
hi all,
IMHO i sugest that mike and dave sort this one out between them instead of one or the other trying to score points here, AOS can only be seen to be looking out for their members interests on this one, and that is all that can be asked of us.
both mike and dave should be allowed to present the facts on their current situation, and how they plan to look after their existing customers, also what they propose to offer 1210 owners in the future.
A...

anthonyTD
27-07-2010, 22:25
bump...
hi all,
IMHO i sugest that mike and dave sort this one out between them instead of one or the other trying to score points here, AOS can only be seen to be looking out for their members interests on this one, and that is all that can be asked of us.
both mike and dave should be allowed to present the facts on their current situation, and how they plan to look after their existing customers, also what they propose to offer 1210 owners in the future.
A...
for all concerned this statement stands and will not be brushed under the carpet no matter how much one protests!
A...

drrd
25-09-2010, 07:07
...Obviously I am happy and eager to take up all of the above commitments for warranty, service, and backup, Excepting my bearings do not need any backup or service that I can conceive of. I have now sold over 40-50 Bearings to people in the US, Canada, Australia & NZ and have had no problems. I have been informed by David, however that he had a bearing where the holes were incorrectly positioned and one with a leaking oil ring (a Spanish customer whom I dealt with). I have never received these bearings back for replacement, so I cannot comment on what was wrong, if anything...

Hi Mike. I got the bearing with a hole out of position, Dave swapped it for me and I've been very pleased with the replacement. I did take a picture of it to show to Dave, I might still have the pic somewhere if you want to see it but it was simply one of the holes was out by a few degrees so wouldnt line up properly.
Btw noticed your comment elsewhere about using SME V and that you have a Benz cartridge on order. I'm using the same arm and Benz LP-S and the system sounds really excellent (so it should :))

Mike_New
25-09-2010, 08:36
Hi drrd
For a moment there you had me confused, when my email notification pointed me to you post on this thread, all I could see was my original post in it’s entirety and I thought, Marco’s website had gone bananas, but I knew that could not be so!!!

If the holes were out by anything at all, it should not be, as they are index drilled on a jig. Send me the pic if you have it.

As for the SME V I am about to order the ‘Benz Micro Wood 0.8’ A store in the US (as always) has offered one to me for $1200.00 normal price $1500.00. I delayed buying because I could not decide whether I could justify paying the extra, over the Straight Micro Glider for $1000.00.

An interesting point about the venerable SME tone arm. I have now made a number of 4mm thick single-piece solid copper arm boards to specifically fit the SL1200 for those who felt that something a lot better that the current offerings could be obtained and therefore contacted me. Accordingly these were made to the SME specifications, (four 4mm mounting holes for the arm). Imagine my surprise when I got my own ‘V” and discovered that the actual socket head bolts they supply are only 3mm!! 4mm cannot be fitted.
This means there is so much wasted space around the arm plate mounting holes, which could be used for greater clamping force, since 3mm washers are not very large in diameter. The drilling jig/template is also supplied with 4mm holes. I guess they do it this way to allow for errors by DIYers.

drrd
25-09-2010, 13:22
Hi drrd
For a moment there you had me confused, when my email notification pointed me to you post on this thread, all I could see was my original post in it’s entirety and I thought, Marco’s website had gone bananas, but I knew that could not be so!!!

If the holes were out by anything at all, it should not be, as they are index drilled on a jig. Send me the pic if you have it.

Hi Mike. Chopped down the quote on the last email :)
I've found the picture, how do I email it to you or can attach it here?

Mike_New
25-09-2010, 22:40
Russell,
You can send it to me at mhnew@bigpond.net.au
If you have an SME you will be interested in my 'Bearing Base Plate' see details on the sticky post at the top. It is designed to not only provide a much stiffer base for the bearing, especially when using my new Platter, but also raises the overall height by 6mm thus providing more room for VTA on SME arms when fitting them to a SL1200.

drrd
26-09-2010, 07:05
Sent the pics Mike.
Bearing base sounds interesting, just not sure about aesthetics with the standard platter raised 6mm :scratch: Strapping something to the underside sounds more interesting but not sure if that's compatible with the bearing alone.

Marco
26-09-2010, 08:08
Having now discovered some very disturbing (factual) information regarding the business practices and almost complete lack of integrity of Dave Cawley of Sound Hi-fi in Dartmouth, I would advise any potential customers to be very wary of dealing with this man.

For specifics on this matter, please see this thread:

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=8099

And the later entries here: http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?t=5135

Suffice to say, though - BUYER BEWARE!!!

Marco.