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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
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
Hi Harold,
Congrats on joining the "Living Dangerously" Club..🎉😜
We await your reports with excitement and trepidation...🤔

Regards
harold-not-the-barrel
895 posts
 
Thanks Halcro, it´s my pleasure :)

First impression: the speed is always spot on no matter the music´s quantity, from weakest whisper (of flute) to most furious (jazz-rock) fusion and heaviest symphony orchestra passages. Its speed is rock solid - technically faultless. Impressive.
harold-not-the-barrel
895 posts
 
Hi Dave, this is all your fault ;) 
My PD444 has a hard "Relief" mat (a Goldmund Relief Mat copy?) glued on platter. With Reso-Mat on it this old Japanese monster is, in every meaning of the word, a terrific performer. I have waken up my good old Ultra from hibernation and now is back in service. This inquiry needs the best tracker available to determine the real sound quality. Already at this starting point everything sounds just fine. I will give my full report soon...

I have the latest saddle design with smoother underside. What do mean by the "slider with banded bearing cups" ?

audio_d
56 posts
 
definitely living dangerously...
a good friend has a technics sp10 mk2 that has needed to be repaired twice at $500 a time.
he still uses it
;)
dgarretson
2,598 posts
 

Harold, you already had the disease. It just mutated....

On Terminator the inside corners of the aluminum angle "thrust pads" on which the two needle bearings pivot, are replaced by thick, tensioned horizontal rubber bands. The pivoting needles fix their locations during break-in by slightly penetrating into the rubber. I assume that this new approach adds damping, and-- after the needles have seated into the rubber-- imposes a small dynamic counterforce against the wand’s vertical travel. I can imagine that the dynamic weighting could be helpful to a short wand of light vertical inertial mass..


Audio_d, I hope your friend had all the electrolytic caps replaced in his SP-10. Aging electrolytics are probably the biggest risks in living with a vintage DD. I routinely replaced them all in PD444, LO7D, and SP-10.

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