Pioneer PLC-590

[337alant]

Picked up a very nice Pioneer PLC-590 the other day and couldn't wait to get it home to hear how it sounds
The PLC-590 is another classic Jap Quartz locked DD turntable form the 80s, built on a die cast aluminium chassis it feels solid and well made, it comes with an aluminium armboard which is attached with 4 bolts so its easy to interchange arms if you make more arm boards

Pioneer PLC-590 by 337alant, on Flickr

I initially fitted it with an Rega OL251 as the armboard supplied had a cut out at 222mm straight off the arm deck sounded good, I have 2 x Ortofon Kontrapunkt B carts so the same cart and phono stage was used, a comparison was made with the same tracks on my Garrard 401 12" Jelco 750L

IMG_0006 by 337alant, on Flickr

The sound was not as transperant and dynamic as my Garrard 401 so I looked at the armboard which was bolted down to the top plate so I put spacers in there so it is suspended from the top plate, I also looked at the platter which had quite a ring to it so I added dynamat damping sheet to it, this cleaned the sound up better but still not in the 401 league.

IMG_0010 by 337alant, on Flickr

So I decided to fit my Audiomods arm and that was a nice step up in performance the deck was sounding much better now and starting to give the 401 a run for its money

Audiomods 1 by 337alant, on Flickr

IMG_0025 by 337alant, on Flickr

Now I have a SME 3009 but no arm board to try it in, I ordered some 6mm Aluminium plate which came yesterday so I set out making an armbord for the SME in the workshop

SME 7 by 337alant, on Flickr

SME 6 by 337alant, on Flickr

SME 5 by 337alant, on Flickr

So then I started to fit the SME but noted that 2 of the tone arm wires had parted at the SME connector when I tried to repair them the wires just fell to pieces (nightmare) so I had to do a rewire, fortunately I had some wire in that I bought a while back, I also took this opportunity to get rid of the SME connector and fitted a 5pin Cardas plug on a made up adapter plate.

SME 8 by 337alant, on Flickr

SME 4 by 337alant, on Flickr

So finally got round to fitting the SME 3009 and WOW what an immediate all-round improvement this arm just sounds so transparent and vibrant with a lovely mid range
Im loving this turntable now and its a keeper for sure

SME 3 by 337alant, on Flickr

SME 1 by 337alant, on Flickr



There is still loads of tweeks I want to do to this deck over the coming months, similar to the 1210 removing the Transformer from the deck better regulation and a recap are all on the cards

Alan

[belloire]

lovely deck.i had one but sold it to somebody on here as i wasn't using it.

some nice work on the armboard there, did you make a new piece for underneath too?

[brian2957]

Absolutely beautiful turntable and fantastic workmanship Alan

[337alant]

Belloire
No it wasn't supplied with the lower mounting board which in the manual looks like plywood? all I have used is spacers on the bolts so the arm board just floats a few mills above the top plate. I have some ply and will make one just to see if it sounds and different

Alan

[belloire]

yeah, just a piece of wood of some sort.

not sure if it affects sound, or was just for lining the arm up easier

[vinyljunky]

the turntable we seen at nebo4 i have to say it looked and sounded superb.Alan this turntable is a work of art i'm tempted to look out for one to mod

[Macca]

Yes the pictures don't actually do it justice. It is one gorgeous deck. If Lexus made turntables they would come up with something like this for the flagship.

[mido]

Beautiful Turntable!

Alan, I tried to PM you, but your inbox is full.

[337alant]

Thanks mido, mail box now cleared sorry about that

Alan

[Fulci]

Do you think the SME 3009 is actually better than the Audiomods or just a better fit and match to the Pioneer?