My 2019 Update Thread - My final system I think.

[Gazjam]

another brick in the wall

(Vinyl) Walls all now in place now yeah.

The Ortofon Quinetet Blue carts sounding pretty great with some time on it now,
No real itch to upgrade, at least for the foreseeable.

[struth]

(Vinyl) Walls all now in place now yeah.

The Ortofon Quinetet Blue carts sounding pretty great with some time on it now,
No real itch to upgrade, at least for the foreseeable.

need to get fit enough to visit myself... looks great system anyway..well done

[Gazjam]

Some minor turntable upgrades/mods coming up, see if I can eek out more from the vinyl setup.
Quite a good forum community for Project stuff, cool.

See how it goes, put some pics up soon.

[Gazjam]

Sounds a bit Scratchy...?

https://youtube.com/shorts/ubiK9WJrF...QBA5TDcZ8rtqAF

[Gazjam]

[Puffin]

The secret is to always be well lubed up for smooth operation

[struth]

Sounds a bit Scratchy...?

https://youtube.com/shorts/ubiK9WJrF...QBA5TDcZ8rtqAF

itchy and scratchy??

[Gazjam]

The secret is to always be well lubed up for smooth operation

[Gazjam]

Used this stuff to lubricate the counterweight
Call it an oil, but its very high viscosity stuff (100k), really thick n gloopy.

Used for radio control car differentials (apparently), just wanted something to damp the rattly counterweight and stop any micro vibrations possibly getting to the arm.
Every little helps, right?

Weight feels solid and smooth, with no play between it and the arm stub.
Job jobbed.





Metal counterweight is damped with a ring of sorbothane, the metal tracking force dial is stuck on to a central plastic shaft.



Positioned to the front the metal actually contacted the tonearm tube, so I removed it and rebalanced the arm.
Use a digital tracking force gauge anyway, these dials are never the most accurate.

Nice improvement, top end more solid, and soundstaging better.
A more Direct Drive type sound if that makes sense.

Nice wee upgrade for about £15 and a half hour of time.


Next up,
Platter mat.

[Gazjam]

With my Rega deck, I ran with the stock white felt P10 mat, until my Dealer suggested I tried the red Collaro mat, as they preferred it to Rega's own.
Sure enough, it was better and I fitted that and didn't think about a new mat, job done.

New turntable though, heavy mass deck the opposite to the P10, so wondered if the thin Collaro mat on the heavy damped Aluminium platter was still the best option.
Sounded good - better than the stock Pro-Ject for sure, but not the best for a metal platter.

Did a bit of reading, and the Funk Firm (ex Pink triangle) Acromat kept coming up.
Michael Fremer, American turntable reviewer, recommended the Mat in his review of my exact turntable.
Good enough for me I thought,
good reviews all around and supposed to work great with metal platters so picked one up.

I bought the 5mm version, apparently more effective than the 3mm one, which was for decks with no VTA adjustment.
Sits fairly thick on the platter, so need to adjust the VTA of my arm.
Easily done, loosen two hex bolts on base of arm, adjust to suit then retighten.

Interesting "blurb" sheet that came with it?

Construction is interesting?
Bottom layer which sits on platter looks like acrylic, and its topped off with a layer of what looks like vinyl, but feels different as under its surface skin it looks like hard vinyl foam.
the idea I think is that air bubbles there dissapted vibration as heat.
Its from the Pink Triangle guy, figure he knows a bit about turntable platters and the like.

Two layer 5mm construction



Top Surface with indent for the label, so the LP sits as flush as possible to the mat. Good idea that!


Underside, showing acrylic surface. All the shineys...


To stop the LP spinning on the similar material platter mat, very thin double sided stickers come with it, and the instructions advise on placement.
Not perfect but close enough, not overthinking this one. If its stuck down its stuck down.


Decided to leave tweaking VTA and setting the deck all up again till tommorow, hit it early with a fresher head and better light.
Been playing around with tweaking Roon and my digital setup, so will enjoy the digital stuff tonight.

Like how the Mat makes the turntable look more "serious", tapping my knuckle on the platter its a lot more damped than with the red felt mat, hopefully this should translate to improved sound quality.

I really like this Pro-Ject deck,
with the balanced connections and linear PSU its really something, if the matt eeks out more performance I'll be a happy man.

Good to know too that the deck can take serious cartridge upgrades, but thats for the far flung future if I ever get there!