2. analog
  3. 1078279938

O.K. Fess Up. Come Clean. Sing Like A Canary.

In the last several days I have gotten myself involved in a couple of threads regarding lifting (or forgetting about lifting) the stylus at the end of play. One individual was considering getting rid of his existing turntable, and replacing it with an older semi-automatic model.

He considered himself "lazy & forgetful".

Another individual was very upset with himself because he allowed himself to forget about the stylus for "20-30 minutes" after play.

He considered himself a "moron".

Am I another "lazy and forgetful moron"? Or is this just something that happens on occasion when you choose to endure the world of analog?

As of late, this does not happen to me anymore. I installed a "lifter". Problem solved. But before this point?

I can recall sometime back, arriving home after a weekend in Manhattan with my better half. It was Sunday evening about 11:00pm. We had left the previous Friday evening. We walked through the front door, I put down the bags and noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I looked over at my stereo and exclaimed "Uh-Oh".

Needless to say, I turned on the lights, walked over to the stereo, and as I looked down at the turntable (my head now spinning in a circular motion in unison with the rotating LP), had realized that this phenomenon had been in occurence over the last 50 hours or so.

I then cued the stylus, placed the tonearm on it's rest, turned off the turntable in disgust, sighed, and silently acknowledged the fact my NEW $800.00 Grado was toast.

Alright. I admit it. I can and did admit to such a mistake. Well, the word "mistake" sound a little extreme. Let's call it an "inopportune loss of mental focus". Now..... Let's see who else will step up to the plate.

What is the longest period of time that you have forgotten your stylus in the "rotating circle of death"?
128x128buscis2
consttraveler
250 posts
 
Buscis2:

My problem with the lifter may be equipment related as well as personality related.

I tried to mount it on a Rega P-25 with the RB-600 arm. That arm is tapered, with a relatively wide cross section where the lifter needs to sit. A combination of the width and the slope of the arm where it meets the lifter (the mateing surfaces are not perpendicular) resulted in my Clearaudio Discovery bouncing off of the record surface a couple of times, which further resulted in blood pressure spikes.

The lift would be much easier to install if the design was more throughly thought out. For instance, the central column could be attached the same way as the tonearm, with the height adjusted from the top using an internal thread and a set screw. Ten minute set-up is my estimate (including drilling the hole maybe 15 minutes).

Something that would have been nice to get with the lift would be a simple, paper template for locating the center of the lift. There really are not that many arm-to-spindel dimentions that they could not be accomodated on a sheet of 8-1/2 by 11.

The personality part is paying $90 for $1 worth of parts and machining, that requires three hands and two sets of eyes to install.
buscis2's avatar
buscis2 OP
468 posts
 
Consttraveler, I just experienced a blood pressure spike myself. With all do respect, WHAT ARE YOU DRILLING? Are you drilling the plinth? I mounted the Lifter using a small dab of Blu-Tak, That is it. And it has not moved. Sal from Expressimo suggests using a dab of clear silicone adhesive. I would not and will not drill a hole in this plinth for ANY device.

Using the Blu-Tak allows minor movement Of the Lifter and rotation around it's own axis for minor adjusting. The smaller model works extremely well with my RB900 tapered armtube.

You and I are in absolute agreement regarding the price of this thing. And I would think that the reason he is not providing more accurate mounting information is because these things are so universal. I do believe that he feels if he machines it, you should mount it. Whether that's right or wrong is a whole other subject.

As I had said to another Agon'r earlier. Sal is a very nice person. He will do anything within reason to try to help you out. I would not write this thing off until I called him. I have heard of Sal going as far as machining little spacers or brackets to help facilitate mounting one of his products.

I would say it would be worth at least a phone call, because when properly setup, these things work like a dream.

Best of luck. Regards, Ed.
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,379 posts
 
Funny, When I talked w/Sal the gist of the message was, "Try it and I'll refund if it doesn't work out". He didn't have any experience w/the Nottingham design, and sounded far to busy to be messing w/spacers etc. for me. Certainly nice guy, just really busy.
I tried "The Lifter", it didn't work w/my table, but I sold it to a friend w/Basis table, where it fits fine. Guess the one I tried was the smaller one.
Guess I got what I deserve buying a table that doesn't even have a power on switch ;-)
Cheers, Spencer
consttraveler
250 posts
 
Buscis2, Ed:

I have not drilled anything, and I am not recommending it. However, mounting the lifter in the same manner as the arm (I know, I know, on my Rega it would require drilling the plinth) is my opinion of the "best" installation. Once set-up, the little bugger isn't going anywhere.

Murphy's law ("whatever can go wrong, will") says if I use blu-tak or anything temporary, it will fail to function when the arm/cartridge is directly in the line of fire. Talk about a blood pressure spike! Just the thought of the needle being pushed down and across my Super Session album makes my skin crawl. Compared to that, drilling a hole in my P-25 causes me no worries.

I really doesn't matter any way, the lifter is designed to be mounted on the top of the plinth (my Rega is safe and my Thorens TD-520 lifts by itself). Someday when I'm in the right mood, I may dig it out of the closet and try again, you never know.

Dave
twl
3,251 posts
 
Ed, before I got the Teres, I had a Linn LP12 with a Monitor Audio Stylift installed(the original "Lifter"). Prior to that, I only fell asleep one time while listening, and woke up after about 20 minutes - so no damage. For me it is a very rare occurrence to fall asleep while listening, so it's not a big deal even if there is no safety measure in place.

Recently, I got a Audio Technica "Safety Raiser" from A'gon member Lugnut, and have been using that on my Teres. I like it better than the Lifter or Stylift, but it gets in the way of playing 45rpm singles.
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