Gromit's music centre...

[MartinT]

Richard - Hugo is right, the Neglex is a poor arm cable and is holding back the sound. The Techie should not sound bland or boring with the Jelco arm.

[DSJR]

I also see that the AT91 has a carbon cantilever - I was under the (false) impression that Rega had added this, or at least persuaded the big AT to do a run of them.

I think the AT91/Carbon was conceived to be as kind and universal as possible in a huge range of different turntable systems. The lower output of these compared to the AT95E and AT105/110E may have something to do with this too although I have no idea otherwise.... As yet, I haven't directly compared the AT91 (3600) to the Carbon to see how similar or different they are, but I remember the comments of dull yet hard being thrown at the 105 back in the day - not something I agree with judging by my sample anyway.

Arm/cartridge matching is a funny thing. The AT120E was damned with faint praise in 'Choice a short while ago, yet in the old Garrard AP76 with its lightweight but flimsy arm, it tracks and sounds a treat, with no bass issues nor treble spitch or peakiness. The mechanically similar and supposedly superior Garrard Zero 100 I've just got hold of is far far worse for cartridge compatibility and stability; the arm, despite extremely low friction and with other refinements over the lower models in the auto mechanism, needing two grammes for best stability, the high inertia working against the flimsiness of the headshell on it's pivot and possible centre-of-gravity issues affecting stability of the stylus in the groove.

Seriously, with the better base in which to mount the arm pillar, and I think a hardwood board on the techie, the jelco should start to show what it can do. I don't know the neglex wires, but the pro-patch Johnnie uses in his plain looking but excellent replacement exit cable is superb for this purpose and apparently beats the boutique stuff SME use with their better arms out to the amp..

[jandl100]

Bland, boring and flat are the last words l would use to describre the Techie, at least with the standard arm.....................

+1

It seems to me that you've mentally committed yourself to an upgrade path, Richard, when perhaps leaving well enough alone would be more sensible given budgetary constraints?

Mayhap revert to the synergy of the Techie arm / Rega cart and avoid blowing ever increasing dollops of cash just to retrieve the musical enjoyment you used to have?

Just a thought.

Been there, done that. Maybe time to sit back and reconsider?

[Gromit]

Bland, boring and flat are the last words l would use to describre the Techie, at least with the standard arm.....................

It's a strange one Andy (and this is clearly more evidence of us listening for different strands in our music) but it's exactly what a standard Tecchy sounds like to my ears. Every time I hear a bog-stock one I keep feeling it needs to be woken from its slumbers.

[Gromit]

Been there, done that. Maybe time to sit back and reconsider?

A PL71 or PS-6750 would be nice.

[Gromit]

Ok here goes...

1. Opened up the top of the damping fluid reservoir - it's nearly full of fluid, or certainly looks to have a lot in there. Remove arm, turn it upsde down and wait 20 mins for the fluid to drain out. Result? A bit more zest to the sound.

2. Remove the standard feet, replace with RDC cones (none-threaded unfortunately) which whilst a bit precarious has tidied things up - more transient impact certainly and less 'hash'. Best compromise seems to be to use the top board off my Audiotech table and put the cones under that.

3. Fit M75ED - bit soft and woolly (as one would expect I guess) but less shouty, and more pleasant to listen to. Think the stylus isn't in its first flush of youth as there's a fair bit of sibilance and distortion on peaks. Still, whilst it won't stay in the arm it's a valuable exercise.

4. Been getting channel imbalance - change records and one channel dies. Check arm cable, there's a duff connection. Swap channels on back of amp, dead channel follows cable. There's also a small amount of distortion on that faulty channel too, indicating possible weak connection which won't help the sonics.

5. Going to borrow a low mileage Dyna 10X5 off a mate this evening to hear a more demanding cartridge in the Jelco. He also says he might have a spare arm cable which I can borrow.

[jandl100]

A PL71 --- would be nice.

Ouch.

[DSJR]

Are you using the deck without lid attached? These lids aren't as good as the earlier 70's examples and neither do the feedback any good at all.

[Gromit]

Ouch.

Sorry Jerry - only jesting.

I'd probably take the Sony over it though...at a push.

Seriously though, this is turning out to be a bit of a 'fun' morning...

Now reckon my amp's on the blink - the channel losing signal (yes the arm lead's not helping) is always the r/h one but it comes and goes, as though the system is going out of phase momentarily, but only on one channel. I know that sounds daft, but if you could be here to hear it you'd recognise it straight away. It loses h/f extension for starters than gradually fades away. Still sound there, but the level drops - it's doing it through headphones too so would indicated a pre-amp section problem.

Switch the amp off, then back on, and it clears again. Sad thing is that before I do anything else a new amp could end up being on the cards - for what it would cost to fix I'm not 100% sure it would be economical to do so.

[Gromit]

Are you using the deck without lid attached? These lids aren't as good as the earlier 70's examples and neither do the feedback any good at all.

No Dave - always remove the lid completely.