To those with multiple tables/arms/cartridges


How do you 'play' your system?
For 30 years I had only one turntable, one arm and one cartridge......and it never entered my mind that there was an alternative?
After upgrading my turntable nearly 5 years ago to a Raven AC-3 which allowed easy mounting of up to four tonearms......I decided to add two arms.
RAVEN
A few years later I became interested in Direct Drive turntables and purchased a vintage 30 year old Victor/JVC TT-81 followed shortly after by the top-of-the-line TT-101 and I designed and had cast 3 solid bronze armpods which I had lacquered in gloss black.
TT-101
By this time I had over 30 cartridges (both LOMCs and MMs) all mounted in their own headshells for easy interchange.
STORAGE

Every day I listen to vinyl for 3-4 hours and might play with one cartridge on one arm on one table for this whole day or even two or three days.
I then might decide to change to a different arm and cartridge on a the same table or perhaps the other.....and listen to the last side I had just heard on the previous play.
I am invariably thrilled and excited by the small differences in presentation I am able to hear....and I perhaps listen to this combination for the next few days before again lusting after a particular arm or cartridge change?

Is this the way most of you with multiple cartridges/arms listen?......or are there other intentions involved?
128x128halcro
Nandric, I did not know that Einstein made a phono stage with more than one phono circuit inside. That's a bit more difficult to achieve with tubes than with solid state. (The DSA units are solid state.) I have never seen that particular model of Einstein phono stage for sale or mentioned on the internet. The one we usually see is cylindrical in shape and accommodates exactly one tonearm/cartridge. But I guess you can double up on those cylinders and thereby gain additional inputs. Yes, I think you can run two cylinders off of one Einstein power supply module. This could be done to achieve balanced inputs for a single tonearm or to accommodate two tonearm/cartridges in SE mode. Am I correct (even though I also am no Einstein)?

Halcro, I agree that I too am unlikely to want to use the pitch controls, but the obsessive/compulsive part of me wants my TT101 to be working perfectly on all functions. Perhaps after I re-cap it, the pitch control will repair itself. Or Bill may have to replace the "Fast" switch, which he says he can do.

I've got a total of ten SC3042 chips on order, 5 from each of two different vendors in China. These are "clocks" for the servo, formally known as "624 MHz sine wave differential clock". I ordered from two sources to be more certain of getting the right part from at least one source. Assuming I end up with ten correct pieces, I will want to keep one for myself, but any and all Victor TT81 and 101 users are welcome to the remainder. It's probably best to contact me privately at my Yahoo email address. By the way, anyone can do what I did to find this part; I just Googled the part number "SC3042". You have to be willing to do business with a Chinese person whose command of English is limited (but then again, my command of Chinese is limited to zero).
Dear Lew, Some time ago I was shoping with my dad on those street markets in Serbia. My dad was always haggling. 'What do you ask for those tomadoes' he asked the farmer. The farmer: '50 cent per kilo sir'. My dad: 'you probably think that I am Rockefeller'. Have you any idea what only two of those Einstein 'cilinders' cost? You probably think that I am Rockefeller able to buy 4 of them.
OK, I am no Einstein, and neither of us is a Rockefeller. So is there some other model made by Einstein that supports two phono inputs without buying 2 or 4 cylinders? (Do you need four cylinders to do two tonearms in SE mode? Four cylinders could do two tonearms in balanced mode, unless indeed each cylinder can only do one channel in SE mode. Perhaps that is the point I am missing.)
My Manley Steelhead has 3 phono inputs and a line input that can take another phono input for a total of 4. front panel R and C and gain plus variable output gain, remote control and tubes for a lot less than $15,000. Who could ask for anything more.
Hey Mab33,
I notice that you own both the Technics EPC100 Mk3 and Mk4?
Would you be kind enough to describe the differences as you hear them?

Also....are you running the TT-101 nude or in a plinth?

Regards
Henry