Timestep Hi Fi Forum

Hi guys,

This is just to introduce Dave Cawley's new forum to all our resident Technics T/T aficionados, where amongst other things, you can get up-to-date info on the latest SL-1200 mods, such as the new platter and HE power supply, as well as chat to the man himself.

Dave has decided that the best way to facilitate discussion of his products is to provide a friendly platform for this on his own site. Both AOS and Dave are passionate about the continual development of the SL-1200 and excited about what can be achieved by maxing-out the performance of its core mechanical design and transforming it into a truly exceptional turntable.

We therefore wish Dave every success with his new venture, where both AOS and the Timestep Hi Fi Forum will work together to provide the latest information on these exciting new modifications for the SL-1200 and keep Techie fans here and on Dave's forum happy. So, guys, let's offer Dave our support by checking out and joining his new forum :):

http://www.time-step.net/forum.php

Marco.

I didn't wish to mention it for fear of opening recently healed (?) hurts..

Hi Dave,

That's all over with now, as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure Dave feels the same way. We must move on and focus and develop our mutual interests :)

I notice you've joined Dave's forum, but then you always were somewhat of a 'forum tart'! :lol:

Is there any audio forum out there you're not a member of? ;)

Marco.

One or two, but I only usually frequent this one now unless summat from elsewhere piques my interest.

I'm an outsider on Dave's forum tbh, as I've finally got the TD125/R200/Nagaoka headshell going with an old but mint tipped Ortofon MC30 Super. I just enjoy talking about my long standing life-interest. Apologies if I go on too long.

With new Thorens belt, a platter-damping "belt," and as careful as I can on the exit cable termination and dressing, the TD125 actually sounds really good, in a gentle civilised kind of way - and no wavering pitch!!!. The isolation is significantly superior to the SL-150 and even if I tap the top plate or playing record, only a very, very muffled thud comes through. I have to sort the glued-in springs though as the suspension is inclined to "shimmy" rather than "bounce." This'll take all my LP12 experience to sort I'm thinking.

I'll sort a piccie or three when the "office" PC has sorted itself out (it lost IE8 this morning for some reason) and I can transfer some images over and "remaster" them :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marco

Hi Dave,

That's all over with now, as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure Dave feels the same way. We must move on and focus and develop our mutual interests :)

I notice you've joined Dave's forum, but then you always were somewhat of a 'forum tart'! :lol:

Is there any audio forum out there you're not a member of? ;)

Marco.

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Are there any you're not banned from? :lolsign:

Hahahaha.... One or two!

Have you suddenly embraced smilies? :eek:

Marco.

I thought I'd use them sparingly, just to make it clear when I'm not being deadly serious.;)

Liberal usage, selectively applied, is what we advocate :)

It'll be an avatar next! ;)

Marco.

It'll be one of Nigel Blackwell singing 'Irk The Purists' (;))

Lol - go for it!

Marco.

NOOOOOOooooooooooo! :eek: ;)

All the Best to Dave Cawley with his new venture - not yet a member of the Techie club but never say never!

Alex, your Planar 3 once fettled will be surprisingly good :D

As for your 401, FFS get it sorted and properly plinthed!

If I'd got a 401 I'd probably not bother with a Techie.

Neither would I, if that's what I'd started off with :)

The potential in Alex's 401 is phenomenal... Like Dave says, he just needs to get off his butt and do something with it! :eyebrows:

Alex, it's time to cut back on the wine, women and song, and invest the money in your 401 ;)

Marco.

That 401 you got is well worth the effort Alex

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marco

Neither would I, if that's what I'd started off with :)

The potential in Alex's 401 is phenomenal... Like Dave says, he just needs to get off his butt and do something with it! :eyebrows:

Alex, it's time to cut back on the wine, women and song, and invest the money in your 401 ;)

Marco.

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Alex has already cut back on the wine. Now all Alex needs to do is just cut out the singing! :eyebrows:

Failing that sell the 401! :(

Regards

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Barry

Failing that sell the 401! :(

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No chance! I am however putting the dosh I save on wine into a little fund... which the woman in my life will then spend, and then I can go sing for my 401 upgrades! :lol:

I have a few 401 related questions, so may resurrect my original thread.

We're waiting..................

Hmm..even the forums of big manufacturers can be pretty quiet places.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alex_UK

No chance! I am however putting the dosh I save on wine into a little fund... which the woman in my life will then spend, and then I can go sing for my 401 upgrades! :lol:

I have a few 401 related questions, so may resurrect my original thread.

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It's ok Alex.. people think money grows on tree, it aint no cheap job properly sorting a '401' ;) Anyway sorry for butting in this topic.

For some of "us" here Andre, fettling a 401 is just a matter of diverting disposable income for a few months - a matter of priority. Even if I got my 401 back from under the pile of Elcassette machines and Isobariks (sarcastic comment) I still couldn't find the grand or two to properly sort and plinth it.

Dave,
I'm sure that if you did all the work yourself including building the plinth it won't cost
anywhere near 1-2K. It sounds like it would be the perfect winter project for someone
who enjoys these turntables.
There has to be a lot of good information out there which will help greatly.

You can do a slate plinth for around £200 using a stonemason. Otherwise try a birch ply sketetal plinth for peanuts. The rest of the fettling it dis-assembly, lube and re-assembly. It does not need to cost a lot.

There's a company in Watford that's done several slate plinths for a friend of mine at about £200 each. They are of similar quality to my Slatedeck plinth.

So what's holding our Alex back then ???? :lol:

I know, I've had the TD125 for nearly two years and only just got it going..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DSJR

So what's holding our Alex back then ???? :lol:

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Mrs Alex & Alex's Avatar! Mind you, If I spent less time on the internet... :)

Go for it, Alex, because, trust me, when you get that 401 properly fettled, and build up your vinyl collection, the 'digital paraphernalia' in your system will soon gather lots of dust! ;)

Marco.

No it won't Marco, Alex will be spending twice as much time listening to music :)

Na i loved vinyl at one bit but listerned to more CD. Even though Vinyl does seem to sound great on a good system, i'm sorry to say CD does actually give the most indepth better listerning for me.

Lol - my remark of course was tongue-in-cheek... :eyebrows:

However, IMO, a properly fettled 401, with a decent arm and cartridge, playing mint well-recorded vinyl, would smoke ANY CD player!!

I do agree though that once Alex gets his Garrard up and running properly, it will simply be another quality source for him to enjoy his music on :)

Marco.

P.S Dave, I was looking for your thoughts on my post #13 here: http://theartofsound.net/forum/showt...?t=6965&page=2

Cheers! :cool:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marco

However, IMO, a properly fettled 401, with a decent arm and cartridge, playing mint well-recorded vinyl, would smoke ANY CD player!!

I do agree though that once Alex gets his Garrard up and running properly, it will simply be another quality source for him to enjoy his music on :)

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One important aspect thats been over looked & thats money, it's one thing having a '401' but to get one properly fettled & housed complete with the right arm cost plenty cutter mi bruvver.'401's do need a power supply cos the speed does tend to drift at first. If you wanna just chuck it in any old bannana box with any old arm it's not gonna sound very good is it! Spending on turntable like this is fine if you have plenty income spare etc etc.I could never aford to attempt a '401' now even if i wanted to, not that i would anyway, i had enough of the last one to last me a lifetime...They are asthetically one of my fav motor units but they also sound no where near as good as CD i listern to.

For the record my '401' was in both a Loricraft & one of my own multi-ply plinths with Fidelity Research FR64S arm.

In all reality what would you rather do save xxxx pounds & a whole load of ball ache or stick listerning to CD buying yourself a good few hundered CD's instead. I know what i'd do.Hobbies are also compromised when you have jobs & kids

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andre

One important aspect thats been over looked & thats money, it's one thing having a '401' but to get one properly fettled & housed complete with the right arm cost plenty cutter mi bruvver.'401's do need a power supply cos the speed does tend to drift at first. If you wanna just chuck it in any old bannana box with any old arm it's not gonna sound very good is it! Spending on turntable like this is fine if you have plenty income spare etc etc.I could never aford to attempt a '401' now even if i wanted to, not that i would anyway, i had enough of the last one to last me a lifetime...They are asthetically one of my fav motor units but they also sound no where near as good as CD i listern to.

For the record my '401' was in both a Loricraft & one of my own multi-ply plinths with Fidelity Research FR64S arm.

In all reality what would you rather do save xxxx pounds & a whole load of ball ache or stick listerning to CD buying yourself a good few hundered CD's instead. I know what i'd do.Hobbies are also compromised when you have jobs & kids

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A 2nd hand arm for say £100 plus £200 for a slate plinth plus a little work is what's needed, cartridge too. I bet folks around here have items to sell at a good price. A power supply is NOT required. Sure Garrards take 15 mins for the speed to settle. Don't mess with the power, no light bulbs in series or anything silly like that.

Na they want doing properly..£100 use arm aint properly

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andre

Na they want doing properly..£100 use arm aint properly

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Ok, stretch the budget to £150, it should be possible to get a Hadcock with patience (which will be required for the setup too).

:lolsign:

Hey, I've just thought of summat... :idea:

Andr'e, you used an FR64S and found CD vastly better! HiFi Dave used an SPU - IN AN FR64S and found the combo wanting..

I'm wondering if the FR64S is just not cutting it in terms of sound quality. Forget the cachet of such an arm for a minute, I'm talking of an arm which actually may not be as good as 1970's golden memories of it are....

P.S. My favourite 301/401 combinations were with SME's with properly matched cartridges, the Transcriptors "Fluid Arm" with ADC XLM and a couple in Bastin plinths with NAS tonearms (the old Omega Point arm/Decca was an awsome combination with a Garrard).

I'd agree with Andr'e about mains voltage affecting 401 motor speed and before too long I'll locate the early 70's article and scan it to post here as proof. The 401 didn't use a beefed up "Synchro Lab" motor, just a heavy-duty induction type as I recall and these are sensitive to mains voltage changes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DSJR

I'd agree with Andr'e about mains voltage affecting 401 motor speed and before too long I'll locate the early 70's article and scan it to post here as proof. The 401 didn't use a beefed up "Synchro Lab" motor, just a heavy-duty induction type as I recall and these are sensitive to mains voltage changes.

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301/401 use a shaded pole motor. It's very insensitive to voltage fluctuations, I've run it from a variac, I had to trim off 60V to get it to slow appreciably. It's more sensitive to mains frequency.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DSJR

Hey, I've just thought of summat... :idea:

Andr'e, you used an FR64S and found CD vastly better! HiFi Dave used an SPU - IN AN FR64S and found the combo wanting..

I'm wondering if the FR64S is just not cutting it in terms of sound quality. Forget the cachet of such an arm for a minute, I'm talking of an arm which actually may not be as good as 1970's golden memories of it are....

P.S. My favourite 301/401 combinations were with SME's with properly matched cartridges, the Transcriptors "Fluid Arm" with ADC XLM and a couple in Bastin plinths with NAS tonearms (the old Omega Point arm/Decca was an awsome combination with a Garrard).

I'd agree with Andr'e about mains voltage affecting 401 motor speed and before too long I'll locate the early 70's article and scan it to post here as proof. The 401 didn't use a beefed up "Synchro Lab" motor, just a heavy-duty induction type as I recall and these are sensitive to mains voltage changes.

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I don't need 'golden memories', I've got the gear here and now....:doh:

Dave, when you're up in your barn-loft, please can you look out those mags I was reading and see if you can find the article I'm banging on about. I mentioned it to you at the time and as it was only late last year I know I'm not mistaken on this one.

Clive, I know I haven't made this up and promise faithfully to get this thing scanned for you all to read. I'm not doubting you for a minute, but there was a definite concern regarding the 401 motors compared to 301 motors (I thought they were much the same).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DSJR

Clive, I know I haven't made this up and promise faithfully to get this thing scanned for you all to read. I'm not doubting you for a minute, but there was a definite concern regarding the 401 motors compared to 301 motors (I thought they were much the same).

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No worries Dave, probably there's a minor difference which at the time seemed significant but compared to a typical belt drive with clock motor I expect it's immaterial. :)

What article is it you want ?

If it's not readily to hand, don't expect me to get it out of the loft. I hate f'ing spiders and creepy crawlies of any sort......:eek: