The Mike New Technics Bearing

[The Grand Wazoo]

Michell Turntables do have this feature.

I know!!

[magoo]

My bass is not wooly at all with the Sumiko HS-12/ Isokinetic Stabilizer. It is tight and deep. You have the 103R and maybe that is a different story in your setup, but here it sounds great. If I put the 18g AT headshell on, I would still need a spacer bacause of the VTA. That is way too heavy even with my 22g aux weight.

I also use the Isokenetic with a 103R on a stock headshell, and its excellent.....and clearly much better than the 103R on an Ortofon LH6000 headshell. Not to mention its rather cheaper than said headshell

[Marco]

I'm pretty sure there will be a way of testing the BBP, roughly, by not gluing it down too firmly, in order to listen to its sonic effect, and then once one has decided that the effect is desirable, fixing it more permanently.

With any luck, an MN bearing base-plate will be successfully fitted tomorrow to my T/T. So stay tuned, folks, for a full report on the sonic results achieved (including pics)!

Marco.

[Audio Al]

Marco and sonic

[Tarzan]

Marco and sonic

That is too tall for Marco.

[Marco]

Hey, including ma big dome (posing as a head), I'm 6ft 2ins tall!

Marco.

[Tarzan]

Hey, including ma big dome (posing as a head), I'm 6ft 2ins tall!

Marco.

[Audio Al]

Hey, including ma big dome (posing as a head), I'm 6ft 2ins tall!

Marco.

I have to be carful with my big dome , I keep passing out , as there is not enough blood for both of us

[Marco]

Bearing base-plate now successfully fitted, thanks to AnthonyTD!

My reaction to the sonic improvement:

More tomorrow!

Marco.

[Marco]

Ok folks, as my time is at a premium at the moment, I'll keep this reasonably brief.....

When I took my turntable down to Anthony's to have the bearing base-plate fitted, we carried out the same process we did the last time, when the Paul Hynes regulator boards were being fitted, which was to listen to the T/T 'as is', using some familiar music, in order to assess the then 'current state of play', as it were, and use it as a benchmark from which to judge what difference fitting the BBP made, if any.

Fortunately, when they occur, Anthony's system is very revealing of these types of differences. Therefore, I count his as one of the few systems I can use for reference purposes, as usually what I hear there is also experienced when trying the same thing at home - and on this occasion it was no different. Anyway, we enjoyed listening to various pieces of music, for an hour or so, which I'd brought with me that I'd chosen specifically to highlight different aspects of the T/Ts musical presentation. Therefore, having noted that and enjoyed listening to some tunes, my SL-1210 was then transported to the 'operating table', or rather Anthony's workshop.

The plate itself was relatively easy to fit, once one had read Mike's instructions and digested them properly, and so when the job had been done, we took the T/T back into the listening room, hooked it up to the system again, and proceeded to play the same tracks we'd been listening to earlier. The subject of one's ability to possess a 'musical memory' [essentially a 'sound inside your head' of how you expect certain pieces of music to be presented, due to an instinctive familiarity of such], is an interesting one - and it is a skill which some of us are able to utilise more effectively than others. However, that subject probably warrants a separate discussion on its own elsewhere.

Anyway, as I said before, the albums I'd brought with me were specifically chosen because I knew them inside out, both in terms of musical content and sonic presentation, one of which was Eric Clapton's 'Unplugged Live' album, from 1992, which is simple (very well recorded), acoustic blues music, but shows up a T/T and system's ability to portray voices and instruments realistically, as well as create a 'sense of the venue' and 'live feel' of the performance, as it were.

It became obvious within the opening notes of 'Tears in Heaven' that both Clapton's guitar and vocals possessed more presence, emotion, texture and 'body', with in particular the plucking of guitar strings being portrayed with a greater sense of energy, leading-edge definition and 'attack', such that the illusion created that one was listening to a live performance, rather than merely a recording of such, was better accentuated and thus more believable. Not only that, but the overall sonic presentation had gained significantly greater depth, weight and solidity, which combined to make the whole performance seem more 'real', essentially through the associated mechanisms of music replay, via my turntable, having gained an improved 'platform' from which the music itself was more able to be accurately reproduced.

Furthermore, it also became obvious that, after the bearing base-plate had been fitted, a 'hash'/subtle background noise, which wasn't apparent before, but which must have manifested itself previously in the replaying of musical information, had been removed, allowing for a cleaner and ultimately more accurate/convincing rendition of the music itself, and with it, a more detailed insight into the whole of Clapton's live MTV performance. The extra insight provided simply succeeded to increase one's 'involvement' in it and enjoyment of this superb album, due to the fundamental nature of the musical improvement achieved by the fitting of the bearing base-plate.

In summary, the reasons I suspect for why the improvements gained were so marked is most probably because the BBP successfully addresses one of the main areas of weakness of any SL-1200 or 1210: namely that with no base-plate in place, the bearing (either stock or Mike New) is only being supported on three raised threaded 'dimples' (which screws fit into) on the chassis - therefore it is impossible for the bearing to 'mate' flush with the surface of the chassis - and so that rather flimsy and imprecise arrangement is all that is supporting the bearing, and therefore less than ideal from both a sonic and engineering perspective.

Quite simply, by firmly bonding (with the use of a strong adhesive glue), together with long Allen bolts, and screwing down the base-plate so that it sits fully flush onto the chassis, the bearing itself, in conjunction with the above fixings, can then be attached to a much more secure platform, thus increasing overall rigidity/mechanical integrity, and in turn the bearing's ability to perform the job it was designed to do. The resulting sonic effect, in terms of the reduction of noise (and thus distortion), when music is reproduced, is easily heard in a high-resolution system. I'd say that before the base-plate was fitted, I was perhaps only realising 70% of the capability of my MN bearing, as its efficacy was fundamentally being restricted by the weakest link in that part of the chain [the bearing/chassis interface].

In summary, therefore, my opinion would be that if one wishes to realise the full sonic capabilities of the superbly engineered and highly effective Mike New bearing (and in turn that of your SL-1200/1210), the purchase of the matching base-plate should be considered as mandatory. Had I known that fact when I bought my MN bearing all those years ago, that's exactly what I would have done, so please don't make the same mistake I did... If you're buying an MN bearing, make sure that you also grab a base-plate, and do the job properly...!

Right, I'm off out now to cut the grass! Laters, muchachos

Marco.