Restoring a Roksan Xerxes (original)... Wow!

[pankon]

I have recently restored my Roksan Xerxes, which I had purchased in the UK during my MSc studies in 1989. The exact model year of the turntable is unknown, but I estimate it to be around 1987.
So what I did is the following:

• Changed the blobs, which were rather stiff, with new Roksan blobs X3bi
• Cleaned and re-lubricated the main bearing with a few drops of oil
• Changed the belt with a new one from Origin Live
• Changed the tonearm (perviously Rega RB300) with an Audiomods Series 5, especially tuned for the new cartridge
• Changed the cartridge (previously Dynavector DV10x4 MkII) to a MusicMaker III

After all that, I sat to listen some of my old records. I have to admit that over the last years, my Roksan was somewhere in a corner, because at some point one of my kids had accidentally damaged the cantilever of my Dynavector cartridge and I had not done anything about it since then. It seems that I had grown accustomed to the ease-of-use of the CD and downloadable music from Spotify and Apple Music.

Well, it took only a few seconds of playing a record on the restored Xerxes again to remember what I had been missing...

Compared to the CD, the soundstage was wider and deeper, more palpable, more real, more convincing, with better separation of instruments and voices. Everything was much better. And the supposedly annoying record pops and clicks were so few that I would simply ignore.

Yes, people who still favor analogue sound are not crazy. And even if they are, I am happy to be one of them. Again!

[pankon]

One thing that concerns me though is that when I tap the top plinth of the turntable with my finger while a record is playing, I do hear the thump coming through the speakers. I wonder to what extent this is expected or whether I should try to remedy it. Does this mean that my tonearm and cartridge are not properly (acoustically) decoupled from the top plinth and this negatively influences the sound?

Could / should this be improved and if yes, how? I have put a rubber washer at the arm base, but it did not seem to make any real difference. I wonder whether the bearing is too tightly screwed on the top plinth...

Any advice from other Xerxes owners, please?

[struth]

i got that with the thorens. dont think its anything to worry about; it happens with some decks

[pankon]

i got that with the thorens. dont think its anything to worry about; it happens with some decks

Hey, Grant.

Thanks for the feedback. I wonder that if I could remedy this, which might mean that there would be better decoupling of the cartridge from the plinth, I would be able to achieve an audible improvement..?

[Pete The Cat]

I ran an original Xerxes for a while. I wouldn't be concerned that you can hear the tapping, it's hard to see how the design could be materially decoupled further. You've done well with the restoration, I didn't ever get round to replacing the blobs on mine since the basic set-up process on its own was fiddly enough and took me several attempts (and they say LP12s are a pain). An under-rated deck these days, may the enjoyment continue !

Pete

[jandl100]

sounds good - any chance of a photo or 2?

[pankon]

Yes, gladly.

Here are a couple of photos of the turntable. It sounds pretty good I can tell you. I just wonder whether it can be further improved...

The drilled holes you can see at the back of the top plinth are due to my effort to fix the notorious plinth sag of the early Xerxes models by bolting a metal shim to level the plinth parts. I eventually ended up running a screw horizontally from the back of the plinth towards the center over the gap (cannot be seen in the photos), so the holes where useless any more.

Roksan_Xerxes_1.jpgRoksan_Xerxes_2.jpg

[jandl100]

Thanks for the pics - looks great

Some wood filler for those holes, maybe?

Interesting that you found a fix for the notorious Xerxes plinth sag, I'd got the impression it couldn't be done!

[struth]

Hey, Grant.

Thanks for the feedback. I wonder that if I could remedy this, which might mean that there would be better decoupling of the cartridge from the plinth, I would be able to achieve an audible improvement..?

as above, I doubt its gonna leave the deck. It is what it is, design wise. If is sounds great then its not an issue unless you like tapping the deck

[pankon]

Thanks for the pics - looks great

Some wood filler for those holes, maybe?

Interesting that you found a fix for the notorious Xerxes plinth sag, I'd got the impression it couldn't be done!

Well as a matter of fact, it seems that it can be done after all. And all is needed is a long (approx. 5cm) screw for wood.

My Roksan suffered from a 3mm sag and now -after the fix- it's completely level for more than 3 months. You can see more details at the attached photos about how I did it.

You can also see the Origin Live DC motor attached on the top plinth with some rubber supports to minimize motor vibration and noise. I now wonder whether it would be worthwhile attaching the motor to the bottom plinth, but I am afraid that this is not such a good idea, because it may yield minute sheer stresses between the two plinths, which will be translated to speed variations (not good).

IMG_1846.jpgIMG_1847.jpgIMG_1848.jpg

Initially I used two screws (see photo below with the screws running across the plinth cut, bridging the two parts), but then I realized that just one screw would be enough...

Roksan_Xerxes_horizontal_screws_for_sag.jpg