Micro RX 5000 Renaissance?

@amg58, I forgot that the BL-91L originally had different and more substantial feet to begin with. Perhaps these were the MSB-100, I’m not sure. But the standard feet on the BL-91 are really crappy in my opinion. From the description of your cherished 91L I’d say you made a great deal on it! Oh, and could you please  tell me where you sourced those improved belts?

This conversation has been characterized as just an ’ode’ to Micro (subtext: an ode to ourselves for having such excellent tastes), while much of what has been exchanged is about making improvements. But the basic design and engineering principles were apparently ’sound’, especially considering their age. Some of us can appreciate this achievement. Maybe it’s just ’nostalgia for the old folks’, as we are becoming ’vintage’ ourselves. But - again - it might also be the reason why some modern brands are still taking ’inspirational cues’ from some of these designs.

@rauliruegas, I guess I’m taking the bait again, but your ’defense’ is weak. The dictionairy may be ’fact’ in your universe, but language is a living thing. In everyday speech used by us regular folks, being ’ignorant’ generally means the same as being ’stupid’. Are you trying to convince us that you don’t know this?

Dear @edgewear: You really have a misunderstood on those words: stupid and ignorance, because both are way different and the meaning is totally different.

Ignorance level on any life subject means only to be unaware of that subjects or its ignorance level is higher in that subject that other person but ignorance just DOES NOT MEANS that person is stupid. No way, stupid word is used on very different sentences by any of us.  You can read here about:

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/stupid

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/stupid


I own many vintage audio items that I bougth not because I'm stupid but because I was totally ignorant of the facts that many of those vintage were behind in its true quality level performance and was years before that I learned about an puts some on sale and been sold.
But I have to learn and took me several years to do it and in the mean time I was not only hap´py with but exited to own it.

What happened when I learned ( step by step/tests. ) about?: simple that my ignorance levels on those different subjects improved and lowering that ignorance level.

After learned with the MS TT you can be sure that today I don't receive it not even as a gift no matter what ( only to put on sale and make money with. ). 

You said:

"  I’m sure this will also be the case with the heavier plateau of the RX-5000, although you might need the heavier CU-500 mat for this. But Micro apparently knew very well what they were doing......"""

that statement speaks that you think tha " MS knew very well what they are doing.."".  Certainly MS did not know what they were doing because if they knew  what they were doing never been designed that terrible ringing platter, the design is FAULTY just from the begining.
They were ignorant about, had not  awareness on the subject but were not stupid.

Btw,  NO ONE is stupid only because is ignorance level is high against other person that's lower and of course that exist persons that are unaware/ignorant of something and at the same time stupid. Stupid is a person not able to learn for whatever reasons.

So, ignorance is not synonimous of stupid.

R.

 

rauliruegas

You really have a misunderstood on those words: stupid and ignorance, because both are way different and the meaning is totally different.

We're aware of that Raul. It's clear that English isn't your first language, so let me be polite and simply explain that your understanding of the word "ignorant" is incomplete and rather ignorant itself, notwithstanding your reference to an English dictionary.

@rauliruegas, thank you for the explanation. English is not my native tongue, so perhaps I was ignorant of the correct meaning. I stand corrected!

I’m not a member of the ’Congregation of MS Acolytes’ and their products are not at all sacrosanct to me. Even so, trial and error have convinced me that even the humble RX-1500 sounds better TO ME than the various modern turntable I’ve tried. These had cost me more, albeit nowhere near the $40k of the table you endorsed. For the people who are prepared to invest that kind of money in a turntable I should hope they get better sound than the RX-5000 or its derivates that cost less than $10k. But such a comparison doesn’t make any sense (I can think of 40.000 reasons why......).

About those Micro plateaus. When I first installed it I was horrified about the ringing. As expected, when used ’naked’ it really sounded terrible. Adding the standard issue DISK-SE rubber mat ’killed’ the ringing to some extend, but it effectively ’killed’ the music too. So at first I was very disappointed about the sound quality (and about the purchase I might add).

Then someone was kind enough to inform me that I really needed to add the CU-180 (or CU-500) copper mat. It took some effort finding it, but I’m glad that I did. Things immediately fell into place. The uncontrolled and restless sound of the ’naked’ plateau disappeared, while retaining the liveliness and dynamics that were killed with adding a rubber mat (or cork, or leather, I tried all usual suspects). The resulting sound of this gunmetal/copper ’sandwich’ (a kind of constrained layer damping avant la lettre?) must have been fully intentional.

Many manufacturers in the 80’s were using various materials to dampen their plateaus (e.g. my Pioneer PL-70L II has some bituminous material underneath it). We can safely assume that Micro was perfectly aware of this and apparently decided against it.

So my assumption is that they left their gunmetal (and stainless steel) plateaus undamped on purpose. My listening experience suggest as much, BUT I do think that these copper mats should have been an integral part of the package and should never have been sold separately as an ’add on’ accesory.

The unfortunate result of this faulty marketing strategy is that there are probably many Micro owners out there who do not hadve the copper mat and consequently have no idea what their table is supposed to sound like.