Vintage DD turntables. Are we living dangerously?

Banquo363,

I never had a QL-A95 so I cannot be sure. Most of these tables have ribbon cable connectors from tonearm to the main board so you can disconnect them and the table will work manually. You can just add a armboard to cover the hole and a cut out for your am. The mod should be reversible. Most JVC arms are 10" so a typical VPI 10.5 or similar should work. I have the a QL-Y66F and the automatic electronic tonearm never works right so I uninstalled it by disconnecting all the ribbon connectors and I just need to machine a piece of armboard for it. Another approach is to make a larger plinth and so you can keep the stock arm and mount another arm in the back. The A95 plinth seems to use a lot of wood around the motor unit so adding arm shouldn't be too hard. The stock arm seems like a mechanical arm and should be reliable, unlike the electronic one that uses field coils to adjust VTF and azimuth and damping. The Y66F arm on mine was a nightmare! The Y66F is a bargain, arm or no arm.

Some pictures of the QL-Y66F showing the tonearm attachment.

http://photoshare.ru/photo11191273.html

http://stat001.ameba.jp/user_images/20140126/12/kzaxiom/eb/3f/j/o0800060012825505017.jpg

Cut away picture of A95:
http://audio-heritage.jp/VICTOR/player/ql-a95.html

.

The best example about integrated turntable is the Lenco. Most Lenco models are integrated tables with stock tonearm but once audiophiles ditched the arm they are liberated and you can find all the creations in LencoHeaven site. I wish people start paying attention to other DD tables. Even with the Technics SL-1200MK2, people replace the stock tonearm.

.

But the gems, as far as pure turntables are concerned, are actually in the integrated turntables such as QL-Y7, QL-Y66F, QL-70A, etc., all have coreless motor and smooth sonic.

Hiho, I'm not sure what you mean by "integrated turntables"?
The QL-A7 I bought for my son has the tonearm integrated with the table and has an electro-mechanical device integrated into the plinth which operates the armlift up and down....and also automatically lifts the arm and stops the platter at the end of the record. All without interfering with the structural integrity of the arm itself...😊

Forgive me if I'm wrong....but I thought that only the TT-101 had the coreless motor?

Aigenga,

Halcro, get yourself either a single purpose turntable wall shelf (like the Solid Steel that I use) and spike the turntable to it, or a good stand and an isolation pad like an SRA or Symposium. I would put my naked TT-101 against any plinthed DD and be sure of a favorable outcome.

You're right of course and this is indeed a recommended method IF one has a dedicated rigid wall shelf like yours.
The problem occurs in a situation like mine where the shelf is shared and not dedicated...or where the shelf is heavily loaded because of the mass of the armpods (again like mine).
Mass-loading a shelf induces stresses within the shelf strata and these stresses (mainly the tensile ones) induce low-frequency 'noise' or vibrations in the shelf material.
A massive plinth can help absorb these vibrations without itself resonating especially if the plinth is mounted on slightly resilient feet.
A very low-mass plinth (like my steel cradle) is easier to precipitate into its resonant frequency and steel spikes do little to hinder this.
Most turntable manufacturers are aware of this structural feedback issue and attempt to combat it in various ways like mass, sprung suspension, air isolation feet etc. Rega believes a low-mass plinth (or even skeletal) is best when mounted on compliant rubber feet.
This structural feedback issue is so important that Mark Doehmann has designed his new turntable with a Minus K stand inbuilt into the plinth.

At any rate, I have been doing a lot of testing lately and, because I can do nothing about my shared shelf and its mass loading....I need to try and devise a solution to creating 'mass' for my cradle situation...👀⁉️
A tricky problem....