New Maplenoll Ariadne owner needing advice

sorry, took to long to get back to you. couple of points. First if you hear air from the bottom then you are either leaking at the connection or you have too high of pressure at the platter. One way to optimize is put a needle valve on the platter and close it. At this point there is no air going to the platter. See if you can hear any. There should only be air going to the arm. you should be able to keep 45psig with the arm alone. Assuming this is the case, turn on your motor and slowly open the air until the platter lifts. You might have to spin the platter with your hand to get it started. Listen for a rub. if it is not rubbing, lower the air until you hear a slight rub. then raise the air slightly to the rub sound stops. remember the arm can siphon a lot of air away from the arm.The needle valve will help you fix this.

Finally make sure you are perfect level. If not, it takes a lot more air to float the platter.also, make sure you clean the arm spindle and arm bearing housing. You will find that you can lower the air some by doing that also.

I’ve just acquired a grey base Ariadne Signature with QP. I would like to learn what to look for in order to assess the condition so I can plot the changes needed to get this table reach it’s potential.

through the kind help from Scott Leventhal I’ve got the correct owners manual with some recommendations. The thread has folks (like Crem1 and Oilmanmojo) push this to greater highs still. For instance:

“Concerning oil trough, i find it is a very good tool to get the utmost out of the system. it tends to solidify the bass in my opinion. I personally do not like the tonearms that came with the maplenoll and have modified both the ariadne to carbon fiber arms and relocated the oil bath to directly below the air spindle using a tapered pen similar to current walker tables. This way, the mess of the oil trough is eliminated. Its a little complicated to do this modification but i get a maplenollwith on the fly VTA adjustment, better dampening of the arm, and a stiffer assembly with the carbon fiber arm and headshell. There is a difference with using the oil trough versus not.”

Plus there is talk about  outboarding the motor and L Walkers suggestion about the Arm & Bearing, anything to helps get this table back running properly would be greatly appreciated - thanks!

I had a Maplenoll Ariadne Special Edition with 50 lb platter back in the late 90s. Here are a few tips. When I first set mine up the large metal piece that is part of the platter support didn’t fit right and I had to order another one. I used 500 feet of air tubing with 2 air buffers and high quality pump. I isolated the Ariadne on a 1 Hz iso platform that included 100 lb of ballast. I used an oil bath for the tonearm with the paddle just barely immersed in the oil. I had a Grado cartridge and naked Quad 57s on Arcicci stands and upgraded power cords. All tube electronics with regulated everything, including filament supplies.

Hi,
Does anybody know of how to clean up the plenum please? Also, what materials does the manufacture put inside?
It looks completely enclosed and there is no way to open it up to clean inside.
Thanks,
Calvin