Originally Posted by
DarrenHW
I have seen threads where people have braced the chassis, I've not looked into this but I did put a shim with a blu tack "damper" between the base of the spindle and the lower plinth. I only tried this as a quick and easy experiment but found it reduced noise and improved bass, (the choice of "damper" did have an effect on the bass, I tried sorbathane, felt, neoprene and cork but overall preferred blu tack) I don't see why further improvements couldn't be achieved with better bracing. Detaching the motor could only be a good thing as far as I'm concerned and will be something I look into when finalising the plinth design.
My 401 is on the back burner at the moment but I only have modest plans for it. I need to source another idler (I have 2 401's but only 1 idler) when I have I'll have it redressed and install new bearings, this will complete the service as all other springs and bushes have been replaced. I do intend to look at the wiring, nothing revolutionary, just really re-routing maybe fixing the wiring to the lower plinth instead of suspending it off the motor and chassis. I'm still interested in the PSU, but have no plan to progress with this in the near future. One area I would like to investigate is having a copper top plate bonded to the platter with the hope that it would act as an electrical shield? This is just something I'm mulling over, I guess the material and machining cost would be £2-300 and it would mean sacrificing a platter if the results were negative.
How's your search for a 401 coming on?
