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Location: Near Saffron Walden, Essex
Posts: 7,090
I'm Dave.
Much the same as what Jonny at Audio Origami told me, he said the "knock off" belts are no more than large O rings used for plumbing and instead of having a totally smooth surface they tend to have a rough edge due to the way they were manufactured. The white Rega belts are the way to go in my opinion.
As the late Colonel Sanders once said
"I'm too drunk to taste this chicken!!"
So it all came together beautifully.
Been playing the RP2 for a while now and it certainly is a sweet sounding TT. Able to draw out lots of detail, good imaging and overall presentation. Nothing shabby.
Got the spare belts including the motor suspension belt. All easy to fit. One of the tonearm wires had come adrift but sorted with a quick soldering. Locked down the tonearm wires and RCA cable (no sellotape in sight now), fitted the subplatter belt, did a rough cartridge weight (approx 3.5g) and fired it up. Always anxious at this point - it either goes bang, or only one channel or silence. But no - sounds from both channels. Result! Sounding good.
Then set aside some time to tune things. Set tracking weight to 1.75g (roughly midpoint that Ortofon recommends for this cart) and then overhang, alignment etc. With luck I still had a MFSL Geo-Disc thing so all quite easy.
Fired it up again and massive improvement from the initial trial. More detail, dynamic range opened up and generally things 'flowing' more easily. Less tracking weight (1.75 vs 3.5g) results in less surface noise being picked up but still lots of detail.
But - sound still not up to my digital setup. Missing some bass with top end a bit glaring and midtones somewhat 2 dimensional. Certainly not up to the Gyrodec (pickering cart) I was listening to recently. I expect, as mentioned in this thread, that a better cartridge will improve things a lot. But overall an engaging and musical sound.
The Hadcock lift mechanism is a bit grungy. Need to look at that but not sure how to clean the internals. May try a drop of penetrating oil.
Motor not totally silent. Need to investigate if replacements are possible .
Really appreciate the help and hints given in this thread. Thanks v much.
Current: [P20] Roon/Tidal > Custom PC> Chevron Paradox NDF16 > Phast Pre > Neuro. 686 > Tannoy Berkley (RFC tweaks)
Well done Edward ! So you’ll be keeping your vinyl now?
You know it makes sense!
"lack of passion is fatal"
Vinyl: Thorens TD-124mk2 / SME-312 Aluminium 'special' / SME M2-9R / STEREO: Etsuro Urushi Cobalt / Shure M3D / Ortofon SPU A95 / Cartridge Man Music Master / Shure - SC35C (US) / SAEC C3 MC MONO: Miyajima Zero B 0.7mil mono / Miyajima Premium 1.0 / Amps & SUTs: Radford STA25 mk3 / AD Audio 'Satchmo2' pre & LCR phono / Hashimoto HM-7 SUT / ETR-MONO SUT Digital: Audio Note 4.1 (with DAC5 upgrades) DAC / Roon / Tidal Speakers: Tannoy 12" MGs' in RFC custom 'Rutland' Cabinets with RFC crossovers / Tannoy ST-100 Super Tweeters Cables: LFD Grainless phono / RFC Mercury / Duelund DCA16GA tinned copper / Kimber 12TC / SW1X Audio Design USB-SPdif / Duelund DCA20GA interconnects / SW1X Audio SPDIF Aero 6 / Mains Power Conditioner / Box Furniture rack / Audiodesk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner / a very beautiful & understanding Wife!
Not sure Adam.
I've now remembered that with vinyl one has to get up every 18 minutes or so.
Current: [P20] Roon/Tidal > Custom PC> Chevron Paradox NDF16 > Phast Pre > Neuro. 686 > Tannoy Berkley (RFC tweaks)
The exercise will do you good though. What i like about vinyl is the fact that you can't just skip past tracks you "think" you don't like, that might sound a bit daft, but i find some tunes need a few plays before you fully appreciate them.
anyway i'm please your deck is working, the motor probably just needs a clean and oil, also i would recommend fitting a thrust bearing it helps reduce motor noise, the best thing to totally remove the motor noise is to use something like the SRM Tech "Silent Base" it's basically a sub plinth if that makes sense, the motor is mounted in a stiff rubber cup on the base and you adjust the height so the pulley sticks through the hole in the plinth at the right height for the drive belt, i use one and in my opinion it does a fantastic job.
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As the late Colonel Sanders once said
"I'm too drunk to taste this chicken!!"
Very interesting Mike. I get how that works with the sub plinth and totally isolating the motor from the turntable. The Gyrodec has a similar implementation but with the motor off to the side but isolated from the main chassis.
I've been reading about what the guy in the following link has been doing. Very interesting and seems pretty state of the art engineering.
http://www.fidelitydesignsltd.co.uk/...bplatters.html
But to be honest I don't want to be investing too much in the RP2. If I do dive into vinyl again much I probably want to go down the Garrard route (having listened a bit recently to various (Tom's and Adam's) and just love the 'vintage' sound. So probably only small/incremental changes to the RP2. I think a better cartridge for the RP2 for now is on my shopping list.
But I'm also gonna check out the SRM Tech stuff as well. Thanks for that.
Current: [P20] Roon/Tidal > Custom PC> Chevron Paradox NDF16 > Phast Pre > Neuro. 686 > Tannoy Berkley (RFC tweaks)
Yes Ben from Fidelity Designs is a great guy and a skilled craftsman, he lives just down the road in Preston, he made the subplatter for me and my acrylic platter, the biggest upgrade sonically though is the silent base, it improves everything, deeper bass, better seperation etc. and the silence between tracks is uncanny there is literally no motor noise at all being picked up.
As the late Colonel Sanders once said
"I'm too drunk to taste this chicken!!"
As the late Colonel Sanders once said
"I'm too drunk to taste this chicken!!"