Who's up for a "Cheap as Chips" Challenge?

[Dingdong]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Just cleaned the nasty old grease off it and fiddled with the auto mechanism and it seems to work.
I've hooked up an old M95ED and it is producing some rather decent sound.

[spendorman]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

Just cleaned the nasty old grease off it and fiddled with the auto mechanism and it seems to work.
I've hooked up an old M95ED and it is producing some rather decent sound.

Brilliant purchase

[DSJR]

Mine was rather more expensive, but hopefully will work out ok once I finally unpack it.

Is the Lab 80 good for 1.5g then? I've been pondering which cartridge to fit, and settled on the M55E as a possibility.

For anyone else wanting a cheap-as-chips vinyl spinner from the likes of Garrard, there are loads of SP25's on fleabay of various ages and conditions. Not the quietest running by any means, but with a Pickering V15-EV, Stanton 500V3, Ortofon OM Pro or Shure M44, they're safe enough, if not really modern-standard HiFi in all honesty. The AP76 comes up quite often and once the Garrard-Glue is removed and the auto trip is spotless, it's actually quite good with modern AT's, the Shure M97XE and I suspect most other "magnetics" tracking at 1.5 - 1.75g or so. A tragedy that Garrard's tolerances were so sloppy by this time.

[Dingdong]

There is a small weight in the headshell of mine. Couldn't tell you how heavy as I'd have to take it apart again. It seems to be made for the headshell and is attached by the cartridge screws. I set the force with my Shure balance thingummy and it works well. I tried to balance it up without the weight, but I couldn't bring the weight far enough forward.
I still get the tiniest bit of rumble that can be heard on the start and end of records. So far, and I only picked it up yesterday afternoon I'm preferring it to my TD160/3009II/VST-V.

I've got a couple of SP25's. One for 99p. The platter seems a bit lightweight to me. But I don't really know much.

[Dingdong]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I very nearly took a gamble on this yesterday. I got outbid near the end.
Could have been a huge bargain, or a beaten up old SP25. I'll never know.

[DSJR]

The SP25 mk1 and 2 used a solid cast 10.5" approx top platter on top of the pressed driving platter from the Autoslim donor. The result was an increased flywheel effect, slightly less rumble and a posher, more "laboratory" look The lab 80 has a full sized solid casting I think, which is obviously better. Most of the "autoslim" Garrards went over to a 10.5" steel platter riveted to the inner by the late 60's.

The SP25mk3 onwards had an aluminium top-platter on top of the driving platter, but there may have been refinements in the motor to suit. Certainly, the performance was at least as good as the earlier ones and the arm linkages underneath had been improved.

I lost touch with these after the 125SB, a belt driven version with flimsy arm (which had lower friction than ever) and felt the GT55P to show everything good and bad about the brand by the mid 70's - gritty controls but good potential in the basic design still not fully realised. It was around this time I discovered the utter joys of the Dual 1229, which out-performed all the Garrards by a substantial margin. This led on to finding the lovely late 60's Dual 1019, which is still a lovely item to own and use.

[Reid Malenfant]

Just got a good one Pre & power amp in one, i can sort this

[Alex_UK]

wow - gives you a lot of budget for source, speakers and cables, Mark!

[Reid Malenfant]

My system is on the way to coming together Just sourced my old Audax 5.5" bass mid drivers & a car power amplifier & active crossover i built years ago for a grand total of diddly squat I just payed out a massive £13.98 for a brand new pair of Audax tweeters on fleabay, pity the delivery was free or they'd have been cheaper

So that gives me 4 power amplifiers with built in heatsinks, an active crossover, 4 x 5.5" Audax drivers & tweeters. Looks like i'm going MTM & active...

Just need to find a transformer & capacitors, rectifier etc to power the things from the mains rather than an SMPS from 12V DC which is what i built for the car amp Looks like i just need a source & some MDF, glue, screws etc

wow - gives you a lot of budget for source, speakers and cables, Mark!

As you can see Alex i'm going to be building speakers Not again

If i can find a decent set of reasonably sized bass drivers i can use the power amp in that receiver to power them. I can stuff the active crossover in the receiver & use a couple of the input sockets as pre outs for mid & treble Here are the £13.98 tweeters btw They still haven't arrived yet but i have no doubt they will...

So far it looks like i have spent £15.18, but i still have to sort PSUs for the HY60 power amps & factor in the costs of MDF, glue, screws etc

Ah well, plenty of time yet

[Dingdong]

Just got a good one Pre & power amp in one, i can sort this

Wow. That's £5.30 cheaper than my amp. I mustn't have tried hard enough. Good luck with the repair. I managed to fix mine for nowt.
My Garrard is coming along nicely. It's lost its auto mechanism now and I've spent a bit of time polishing and cleaning the bearing and added an earth wire.