New Maplenoll Ariadne owner needing advice

You are right about the table. I have been working on getting a good compressor hooked up with it but using my shop air system the sound is pretty impressive so far. I understand what you are recommending and i will implement some of the ideas you passed on. I have noted that carefull setting of the air pressure is key to getting the platter moving freely. I have heard several comments around the higher pressure for the arm vs platter. I have also found that leveling the system is also very key in the free movement of the platter. I like the idea of cleaning the air ways especially the small ports since a little pressure drop can go a long way in this system. As I said to Greg, these hobbies can get quite consuming! thanks again for the suggestions. I am already enjoying what I am hearing and look forward to bringing this system up to even higher levels.

Oilmanmojo : The information you have is light-years ahead of others. May I suggest that you contact Mr. Walker, as well as, Mr. Sprey for their recommendations regarding a air pump . Both are gentleman that give of their time and judgements w/o reservation , time permitting . I believe that you may have the finest Ariadne-- Next to mine off course . I have heard almost every incarnant of TT's on the market since the 1970's. Unless you are willing to spend Kilo bucks for a Ravin TT and Schorder tone-arm... Forget about it ! The Ariadne warts an'all comes damn close to to the SOTA but it has a lot S--- to deal with. Be happy you own one of the finest TT's ever made.

Crem1,

what is special about this particular table, and yours, as opposed to other Ariadnes?

Oilmanmojo,

would you care to share the "letter from Lloyd Walker outlining potential improvements to the table"?

Also, for anyone interested, Oilmanmojo has another thread re: air compressors for air bearing TT, where I've outlined what I've done to my Signature Ariadne.

Incidentally, I just replaced the motor mount to great effect. I had had it mounted outboard atop two long bolts attached to the lead motor mount I had removed from the plinth which was attached to three Mapleshade Heavyfeet. This arrangement allowed the vibrations in the motor to resonate considerably and be passed noticably into the belt and shelf. I replaced this with a 3 inch diameter cardboard mail tube section bracketed with 1" thick cherry wood end caps with the motor screwed to the top one and a 2"x2" steel block inside acting as a weight to anchor the thing. Lead shot with a bit of sand will be replacing the steel as soon as I can lay hands on some. The difference in the sound was noticable with a lowering of the noise floor and cleaner focus and dynamics.

Piedpiper : My remark was was a tad cheeky but I do feel the early tables may have more lead & perhaps were more tricked out for the reviewers. The TT I have was auditioned & purchased by Fred Kaplan who wrote an article for TAS later selling that unit to me. I believe that I may have aquired all the options including the smokey Retro Plexyglass Cover and an origional unused shipping carton. In my case I am never satified so over the years with the help of a tool&diemaker we redesigned the head-shell, the VTA adjustment screw , the trough paddle and the lower-plate center pin. The air chambers have been redesigned via the walker method and the top plate of the air bearing in the plith was epoxyed to eliminate the small air hole. The table rests on a hand made maple block. Soon I intend to put a bottom plate on the VTA adjustment bracket and redo the feet adjusters. Sometime in the future I intend to re-balance the lead platter. Kudos to you Piedpiper I enjoy reading your recomnendations.

The letter from Lloyd highlighted three key areas for performance improvement. I will work to scan the document to make it available via email. The first tweak was to firmly attach a brass threaded rod to the "brass cones" or feetand then tighten until the cones will not turn. This should strengthen the support system. The cones are set into lead disks. The right front cone is the one used for level adjustment. The second tweak is focused on improving the damping from the pump to the arm/platter. Lloyd recommends using the a plenum(resonance chamber) for the airpump discharge then splitting the flow to the platter and arm. The line going to the arm should be very long and should have an additional resonance chamber. The implication is the arm is much more sensitive to pressure fluctuations. I heartily agree with this approach based on my experience with directly hooking up a "too small" compressor to the system with the single plenum in the pump discharge versus using my "shop" air compressor which has a very large surge tank and pressure regulator to smooth out the pulsations. The performance of the arm dramatically improves with the higher pressure and use of the additional plenums. I also recommend installation of a pressure regulator between the pump and the plenums. The air line going to the platter should have a needle valve to maximize the air pressure to the arm. The final tweaks involve stiffing the tone arm connection to the VTA adjustment bracket. These tweaks include installing a bottom plate on the vta adjustment bracket, epoxy the top plate, trim the plastic plug in the back of the tonearm such that the metal part of the arm contact the vta bracket. Once adjustments for VTA are optimized, then actually epoxy the back of the arm to the vta bracket. This approach is meant to stiffing the system. The final tweak is dependent on the nature of the counterweight arm. If it is hollow, fill it with Mortite. Again I will try to scan the document and attach since the letter has some drawings that help one visualize the tweaks.

As for the vintage of the table, Greg informed me that the original owner was a person affilated with Absolute sound and he was the second owner.

Right now I am just enjoying the table as I have recieved it but I will implement some of the ideas that others have successfully completed. My first priority will be to adjust the lead platter as it appears during the shipment process, the platter was banged up a little. Being a solid lead plate should make this pretty easy. I have already smoothed out the platter so the record lies flat and the bottom does not rub but i do hear a little rumble near the damaged section of the platter when i lower the pressure to the platter air bearing. As the pressure is increased the rumble virtually disappears.
Thanks again for the ideas.