Vintage DD turntables. Are we living dangerously?


I have just acquired a 32 year old JVC/Victor TT-101 DD turntable after having its lesser brother, the TT-81 for the last year.
TT-101
This is one of the great DD designs made at a time when the giant Japanese electronics companies like Technics, Denon, JVC/Victor and Pioneer could pour millions of dollars into 'flagship' models to 'enhance' their lower range models which often sold in the millions.
Because of their complexity however.......if they malfunction.....parts are 'unobtanium'....and they often cannot be repaired.
128x128halcro
Hi Lew,
I sincerely hope you've solved the problem permanently...👀❓
I seem to remember some 'false' hopes previously....❓

Whilst you are making up your attached platform....it is easy enough to mount a tonearm on something like...oh, I dunno....a can of asparagus so that you can get the table running and see what you think....😎❓
You are perhaps referring to my innovative tt "feet", made of small cans of Mandarin Orange slices in water. I think Del Monte brand sounds best (joke here), but you may have different brands in Oz. I still use them under my Denon DP80 and Lenco L75, both of which are mounted in slate slabs. Actually, I do one thing further: the bottom of each can (3 per tt) sits on a tiptoe so as to isolate the sides and rim of the can from the shelf. I think you guys or the Brits say, "Works a treat". In this case, if you're unhappy with the feet, they are STILL a treat: you can open the cans and eat the contents. Oddly enough, when you remove the paper labels, the cans look quite avant garde and art deco. One visitor to my home thought they must be very expensive boutique footers. (Cost = ~$2 per can.)

Have you seen the Denons remounted in elaborate wood plinths, by PBN Audio? They've done a beautiful job, and I have no doubt that the Denons are much improved by getting rid of their cannister shield, just as are the Victors. But PBN go much farther to improve performance, other than merely removing the cannister, albeit at a very steep price. I've got to remove the cannister from my DP80, as well, even though it runs "like a top". I think the cannisters are a sonic negative, regardless of how they may or may not affect function.
Henry, You're correct. There was one point in the past where I did think I had the problem solved, or more fairly, I did think that after all the re-soldering and fussing either I had accidentally re-soldered the exact right bad connection so as to actually fix the problem without knowing it, or the beast had cured itself in some mysterious way. At that point, the TT101 in its QL10 plinth was sitting on our kitchen counter. However, when I then moved it to its point of use in my basement, it turned out still to be possessed of evil spirits. If you recall, we also speculated on the vagaries of my household AC lines or the role of RFI, as causative agents. At one point, you removed the canister/shield from your unit, and I thought you reported that it ran more reliably in the nude. Isn't that when you discovered the wonders of the TT81? We talked at that point about the fact that the canister itself acts as a shield for RF generated inside the TT101, etc. Anyway, nude is advantageous for sonics as well as for reliability (no failures now in 4 days running off my basement AC), and I'm leaving it nude.
Today its freezing and raining and gray outside. I took the opportunity to re-mount the now nude TT101 back into its heavily re-enforced plinth. Lo and behold, it still works. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Four days and the TT101 is still running reliably in the nude, back in its QL10 plinth. I realize no one gives a damn but me, but I just thought Halco would appreciate my keeping his thread alive.

I am convinced that the bottom canister cover, now discarded, was putting some stress on the wiring harnesses, such that an existing marginal solder joint or cracked wire was pushing or pulling so as to cause an intermittent circuit issue. I really don't care to find it (only because I and Bill Thalmann have already spent so much time looking for it with no luck), if things continue to go well.