Need to re-discover analog - please help

Denis,

This seems like a perfect opportunity to jump inside your table and do the repair yourself. Even though I have no experience with a SOTA I would venture a guess that the pulley and motor are an integral combination and that proper alignment is done by a simple adjustment to tilt the motor, thereby aligning the pulley. Certainly any number of us could walk you through cartridge installation by phone and I'd venture a guess that aligning the motor/pulley is a no-brainer in comparison. This would not only allow you to gain experience and get it up and running sooner, but also eliminate the risk of other damage through shipping.

Pat, I'll follow your advice. Sota faxed me a one page instruction page which isn't very helpful - although they did overnight me 2 belts gratis - and I cant reach Kirk as they're moving to WI. Anyone out there re-aligned the motor assembly?

Ok, I have just finished reading this thread from top to bottom and it has been a helluva story, but what gives? We need a follow-up!!!

As a digital guy who is eager to get rolling into the vinyl club, this story was made for somebody like me. A bunch of you guys really should take a bow for being fairly impartial, anecdotal, and really inspiring to Springbok. Man, this was a good read, and a great example of how hobbyists can often band together in order to help pull a guy through his unexplored part of the journey.

With that said, it is also a great break from a lot of other threads that are often polluted by absolutisms and mud-slinging.

So Springbok, please give us an update.

-Jake

You ready for this? The Sota Sapphire could not be fixed by me, so I had to ship it back. Kirk Bodinet (the owner) said the motor was so badly mis-aligned during transit that I couldn't have fixed it. After going to all the trouble and reading about the Cosmos, I decided to go for broke, especially since the Digital sound with the EMM gear was so good, and so I ordered a new Sota cosmos in mahogany. It arrived in 3 weeks, 3 days before the stipulated time and looked beautiful. Took forever to mount, because it has 3 pointed feet which have to be balanced by gravity on little shoes and inserted on plates. This is all on a cabinet that requires the wires to be blind elevated 3 feet and caught by a tongs behind the phono preamp. In mounting the armboard, one screw fell into the suspension and required 2 hours of using a headlight and very fine forceps to pull out. Done. Had to change VTA. Move table and 6 feet components to fit on shelf perfectly. Table worked great, vacuum sucked vigorously. Put on first LP - cherished Kleiber Beethoven 5th. Lifted cue device and stylus screeched across LP, audibly straining those Kharma drivers to spine-tingling cacophany............why? Because the tonearm lift device setscrew had gone - disappeared, lost somewhere in the damned space between the armboard and the suspension.Even though I never had cause to touch it. Didnt even know it was there. Called dealer - promptly over-nighted me an M4 secscrew. Didnt fit. far too big. Called OL in England - told "No, yours is the Mk I, it uses an M3, not an M4 - that's the new OL Illustrious arm." A machinist friend, despairing of my plight, cut me 6 M3s today and it fit but wouldnt screw in. Pitch must have been wrong. So I have this gorgeous turntable, unusable wirhout cuing device(because setting it up with wire placement, feet insertion, etc is a 2-3 hour job - and I'm not doing it 4 times - but dangerous to health of LP, stylus and speaker driver health - and now I'm waiting for a one penny M3 with correct pitch to be flown from England first to the dealer and then to me.
Contrast this experience with plug-n-play Digital set-up 10 minutes )and it's a mind-numbing venture in frustration, cursed expletives and questioning of my sanity. But the bright side: The dealer (Jay at Audio Revelation), owner (Kirk Bodinet) and OL's Mark have all been totally responsive, understanding and responsible and shipped me evey missing/broken part over-night at no charge. Lack of support from them would have had me send the whole kaboodle back to England/Chicago/San Diego and happily clasp my CDs to my chest and ears for ever, never to darken my mood again. But having started this quirky journey, it must be finished to determine the final aural result - worth it or not? The only next act in this Russian (actually the Russian input from Sergeui in the form of Indra i/cs has been steadfast througout this play )drama that can occur - and dont think I haven't thought of it - is that the M3 setscrew from OL wont fit because the thread may have been stripped from endless trying wrong-sized 3 and 4 screws, in which case the toneram sans mounted Shelter 901, will be back on its way to California for Jay to figure out.......
You vinyl junkies may regard this all as a day's (actually, 6 weeks) work in the tweaking pleasures in setting up the vinyl miracle maker, but right now I'm ready to jump back into digital and never have a platter, VTA, tonearm or stylus-force guage, 3 mm setcsrew with variable pitch or nuances of setting the variable input EAR 824's mm sized controls at the back of the unit set correctly, darken my listening room doorway ever again...........but, like the obstinate, insane, obdurate soul that both old and determined new vinyl "victims" are, I will see it throgh to the end. But the expected bar of listening reward gets higher with each hitch and had better be sky-high/close to orgiastic after all this...........)
Sorry you asked, Rottenclam?

P.S. Anyone working with a Sota turntable, have a fine mesh net between the working space and the gap between armboard and hole in the side of the plinth to catch errant miscroscopic screws!) And if Jay hadn't been so good, I would tell you to buy your vinyl rig locally and have the dealer get the migraine, chest pain and belly cramps by setting it up in-toto in your house. But that seems against the ethic of vinyl voodoo - the pain is part of the rites.......)
Now the final follow-up will be whether the end justified the perilous journey.

Wow, now I kinda am sorry I asked. What a royal pain in the ass! And yeah, I hear you with wanting to tear your hair out after putting the cash down, waiting, and then doing the setup as best you can; only to find that the stumbling blocks are of the most mind-numbing variety. Man, I would probably go crawl into a bottle or something after those kind of (mis)adventures.

Still, your commitment is really admirable. I think putting the setup onus on the local dealer is the way to go, at least as a newbie. You seem to have the patience of Job though, so the end to your journey should be quite rewarding. Good luck and keep us informed.

-Jake