"Revival of the Terminator" Rated PG

[Qwin]

.
I had another attempt at setting up my Terminator.
There had always been issues regarding wire drag and drifting settings in the past.
I got some new tonearm wire, which was much more flexible, but while setting things up, I noticed the arm mounting was flexing/bending.
No wonder the settings were not consistent.

I re-designed and made a new mounting for the arm:

https://www.jkwynn.co.uk//Terminator/Pics/Term_19.jpg

https://www.jkwynn.co.uk//Terminator/Pics/Term_20.jpg



Here it is assembled.

https://www.jkwynn.co.uk//Terminator/Pics/Term_22.jpg



And fitted to my DIY Direct Drive Turntable.

https://www.jkwynn.co.uk//Terminator/Pics/Term_18.jpg

Its rock solid now and the new wire dressing runs smoothly, its made a huge difference and this is now my best vinyl set up.

See my Terminator project here: https://www.jkwynn.co.uk//Terminator/Term_01.html

And the Turntable I designed for it here: https://www.jkwynn.co.uk//Tech3_HTML/Tech3_Thumbs.html

[Chas B]

Looks very interesting, i'll give it a read.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Well done that man!

[Ali Tait]

Looks great Ken, would you be able to make another?

[Qwin]

Sorry Ali, it was a one off, with my hands the way they are, it took me a couple of days to get over the making of it (Outside in almost freezing conditions).
I bought 200mm of Aluminium off ebay £11.86 delivered, for equal angle 3" x 3" x 1/4" and got a local machine shop to mill the 3 slots and cut it to length. They charged me £40, but did it the same day as receiving the angle from me. I did the shaping with hacksaw/files/sandpaper and a small belt sander. The finish was done with a Scotch Brite plastic abrasive pad. If I had a milling machine, I would have done the slots myself.
The two fixing slots are for a bolt pattern unique to my deck, but can easily be made to suit others.
Only the front 5mm wide slot needs be cut accurately, as everything else is cosmetic, so give or take a mm or so is unimportant, but you know me +/- 0.1mm on everything, even by hand.
The R30 curve on the top face needs to be made fairly accurately as it lines up visually with the curved VTA adjuster markings. And the M3 blind tapped hole needs to be central and perpendicular to the base. It took me less than a day to do all this, once I had the slots machined in it.
Here is a drawing I knocked up for another enquiry, I've had them from as far as Australia and California and its only been posted on my blog less than a week. https://www.jkwynn.co.uk/Terminator/Pics/New_Baseplate.pdf
Feel free to use this drawing for personal use and in a non commercial way.

[Macca]

Ken brought this TT and arm at a NEBO many years ago and it was monumental, even with the dodgy arm piece that he's now replaced.

Possibly best deck I ever heard, certainly in top 3.

Playing a Kansas album and they just materialised between the speakers like on a star trek transporter pad.

You can't beat linear tracking done right, it's how the record was cut.

[Ali Tait]

Ok thanks Ken, I’ll take a look.

[Ali Tait]

What’s the wire you used Ken?

[Qwin]

Hi Ali
From my blog:

I eventually sourced some tonearm wire suitable for the job, from a seller in Portugal.
Its very thin and very flexible:
36AWG Silver plated OFC Copper.
x7 strands of 0.05mm dia wire inside a PTFE jacket.
The OD of the insulating jacket is only 0.28mm.

ebay supplier:https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266699645568

After contacting him, I got 600mm of just 4 colours, he did me an offer price for this.
I don't use a ground wire. (£21.82 delivered)

Its quite easy to strip/solder.

[Qwin]

@Macca
"You can't beat linear tracking done right, it's how the record was cut."

:thumbsup:


It sounds ridiculously good with an AT33PTG II and only slightly better with my much more expensive VDH MC One Special.
There seems to be some synergy with the AT cartridge.

[Ali Tait]

Hi Ali
From my blog:

I eventually sourced some tonearm wire suitable for the job, from a seller in Portugal.
Its very thin and very flexible:
36AWG Silver plated OFC Copper.
x7 strands of 0.05mm dia wire inside a PTFE jacket.
The OD of the insulating jacket is only 0.28mm.

ebay supplier:https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266699645568

After contacting him, I got 600mm of just 4 colours, he did me an offer price for this.
I don't use a ground wire. (£21.82 delivered)

Its quite easy to strip/solder.

Thanks Ken, I’ll get some ordered.

[Qwin]

@Ali Tait
I just made a 700mm long pair of Silver phono leads to go from the Terminator to my phono stage.
WOW!
Combined with the 550mm Silver plated Copper wire on the arm, the sound is fabulous.
My Pass Phono and Pre are fairly neutral, maybe very slightly on the warm side of neutral, but not excessively.
The Silver leads are not sounding bright or lacking bass or any of the usual complaints folks seem to use against Silver.
Maybe it's the Copper in the arm wire or the 1% Gold added to the Silver interconnect wire I used, or the Pass gear, but I had goose bumps listening to some old favourites last night.
This combination of wire/gear is working so well for me.

The wire is made by Mundorf and available at HFC.
It's a single 0.5mm strand, made off 99% Silver 1% Gold in a PTFE sleeve.
I made an unshielded twisted pair, I find shielded cable for the very small signal from LOMC cartridges produces a shut in sound. Remove the shield from a cable used in this way and it suddenly opens up and I mean remove, not just disconnect. The deck/Phono stage is at the top of my stack and there is not much in the vicinity to warrant a shield anyway. I get zero hum or interference. Have a look at my blog Ali, on how I made this cable, its under "Premium Phono Lead" on the cables page, here: https://www.jkwynn.co.uk/Cables/Cable_01.html

As an aside, I told you my Neurochrome Monoblocks both had a slight mechanical hum.
Don't know if you noticed, but they were silent at NEBO and are silent when back in situ at home.
Maybe I had some signal cables running alongside mains cables, what ever it was its gone, they are both as silent as the grave again.

Did you receive your arm wire from Portugal?
I'm thinking of getting some more, to hold in reserve, I'm very impressed with it.

Cheers

[Qwin]

I've been doing more experimenting with the platter on this deck.
The manufacturer recommends placing 300mm LP records directly on to the 300mm diameter Acrylic platter. I found this a bit to euphoric.
I have a 3mm Copper mat which I tried and found this better, but a bit shut in with a narrow sound stage.
A smaller diameter 3mm Acrylic mat was placed on top of the Acrylic platter, this allows the thick edge bead of an LP record to overhang and the record to make surface to surface contact with the mat. This sounds best, with a wide sound stage and very, open, transparent sound, that gives a detailed, dynamic presentation. It no longer sounds euphoric, the better contact adds just enough damping, but not so much as the Copper mat, which slightly deadened the sound, when combined with the Acrylic platter. The Copper mat does work well on my idler drive, which has a more lively die cast Aluminium platter.

https://www.jkwynn.co.uk/Project_Images/Tech3/Tech3_042.jpg

Here it is installed, looks good and sounding even better.
Combined with the new arm wiring and Silver interconnect I made, this deck is really singing now, the best it has ever sounded, which means its the best vinyl set up I've had.
And yes Martin, it's sounding as good, if not better, than it did, when you heard it, way back at the NEBO meeting. Only now it has more reliable and repeatable performance, that doesn't drift off and need constant fiddling with.

My Lenco/Mission idler drive sounds very good, this set up is slightly better.
When working correctly, these Linear Tracking Arms produce wonderful results.
The nay Sayers try to knock it, with arguments about unequal Vertical and Horizontal mass being an issue, but they are missing something, because it works so, so well.
All Turntable/Arm design is flawed, as long as it works well, who cares, just enjoy what it does and more importantly, enjoy the music it produces!

[Macca]

Linear tracking does require a serious engineering solution to work well - but then that's what you do :)

I think it's beyond what a lot of the companies making the stupidly expensive decks are capable of - which is why they shout it down.

Even if they could do it, it would eat into their margins too much.

[Ali Tait]

@Ali Tait
I just made a 700mm long pair of Silver phono leads to go from the Terminator to my phono stage.
WOW!
Combined with the 550mm Silver plated Copper wire on the arm, the sound is fabulous.
My Pass Phono and Pre are fairly neutral, maybe very slightly on the warm side of neutral, but not excessively.
The Silver leads are not sounding bright or lacking bass or any of the usual complaints folks seem to use against Silver.
Maybe it's the Copper in the arm wire or the 1% Gold added to the Silver interconnect wire I used, or the Pass gear, but I had goose bumps listening to some old favourites last night.
This combination of wire/gear is working so well for me.

The wire is made by Mundorf and available at HFC.
It's a single 0.5mm strand, made off 99% Silver 1% Gold in a PTFE sleeve.
I made an unshielded twisted pair, I find shielded cable for the very small signal from LOMC cartridges produces a shut in sound. Remove the shield from a cable used in this way and it suddenly opens up and I mean remove, not just disconnect. The deck/Phono stage is at the top of my stack and there is not much in the vicinity to warrant a shield anyway. I get zero hum or interference. Have a look at my blog Ali, on how I made this cable, its under "Premium Phono Lead" on the cables page, here: https://www.jkwynn.co.uk/Cables/Cable_01.html

As an aside, I told you my Neurochrome Monoblocks both had a slight mechanical hum.
Don't know if you noticed, but they were silent at NEBO and are silent when back in situ at home.
Maybe I had some signal cables running alongside mains cables, what ever it was its gone, they are both as silent as the grave again.

Did you receive your arm wire from Portugal?
I'm thinking of getting some more, to hold in reserve, I'm very impressed with it.

Cheers

Hi Ken,

Haven't ordered any wire yet, been too busy decorating my man cave. I had good results rewiring my 774 with Ikemi silver wire so I'm not surprised you got a good result, I'll try some of that too. Yes I'll take a look at your blog, thanks for the heads up.

Good news on the amps, nothing more annoying than unwanted noise!