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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
lewm
13,313 posts
 
Totem,
Yes, I thought about it. But the evidence of any wear at all on the thrust pad is so minimal (a dimple <2 mm in diameter and depth), that I thought the risk associated with removing the pad from the cap and flipping it over (associated with the evident difficulty in getting it out of the cap in order to flip it; it appears to be glued in place) was not worth the reward. I inspected the ball bearing under magnification last night and I don’t see any wear at all on it. I conclude that my bearing assembly is nicely broken in as is. If I flip the thrust pad, then the ball and pad would have to re-seat up against each other, which is akin to break-in all over again.

Did you remove the thrust pad in your unit?

chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
Luxman p444 has arrived. What a great turntable!
I’m looking forward to mount second tonearm.

Fitting in the Schick "12 tonearm with Argent MC500HS cartridge was not so easy, it took several hrs to play with alignment template comes with Hi-Fi Test LP. I haven't used this arm for a year or so, time to replace cheap Schick RCA's to Stereovox Xsadow RCA's, maybe. The sound is amazing with Saec SS300 mat. I don’t think this deck is worst than my SP10mk2, but Technics motor is more powerful, with Luxman it takes longer time to get the right speed from the start. The rest is just fine! I’m happy i don’t have to think about the plinth anymore. It’s state of the art turntable. Maybe i will replace side pannels with a proper exotic wood, but this is just a design.

It was nice to find out that Chris (Artisan Fidelity) already designed new wooden cabinet for PD444 (nice one), not sure if it’s better than Original PD444 style.
pryso
1,947 posts
 
chakster, in your 5/16 post you make reference to "armwands".  However it sounds to me like you refer to armboards?  To me an armwand is a single tonearm arm tube/headshell assembly, such as in the EPA-500 and other arm examples.

Anyway, congrats on the P444.  That was on my list when looking for a vintage DD table, but a SP-10 Mk 2 was much easier to find.
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
thanks @pryso 
oops, my mistake
6 times, sorry

I've meant metal armboards for PD444 :) 


Yes, this is one of those decks i've been looking for a long time and finally placed an order for PD444 with 3 ARMBOARDS. I've noticed those ARMBOARDS alone goes for crazy prices on ebay. I hope my Reed 3P with 3 screws mounting style will fit one of the ARMBOARDS. But for this arm i don't actually need any hole in ARMBOARD except for the mounting screws. I've heard that someone in Japan can make a custom ARMBOARDS for luxman. Do you know anything about it? 

I have 2 ARMBOARDS model TP-MT (3 fixing screws)
and 1 ARMBOARD model TP-SG  (medium size hole)

I would like to find TP-LH (large hole) for Technics EPA

dgarretson
2,605 posts
 

Chakster, The only differences between those PD444 armboards is the top plate that covers the locking frame that clamps the armboard to the turntable rails.  It's a simple job for a machinist to make interchangeable top plates from 3/8" to 1/4" thick and with holes of varying size to accommodate pretty much any tonearm.  For a particularly tall tonearm(like the Kuzma 4P), I needed to remove the top plate entirely and mount the tonearm directly down into the locking frame.

The PD444 is definitely a top performer.  You might try replacing the stock elastomer feet with Stillpoints or Audio Points.    

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