Building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot II

I'm baA-Aack! So, to get back to Ivor Tiefenbrun and the Linn, Bob (please excuse my earlier vehemence), let's resort to logic and evidence. What he brought to the party in particular was his philosophy of source first, with which I completely agree (within reason): Garbage In, Garbage Out as they say (this applies to the computer models so often resorted to in science as well). However, did he ever pit his Linn against a properly set-up idler-wheel drive (likely this would have been a Garrard 301 or 401)?

Idlers were already on the way out by 1974, already losing ground to the belt-drives due to bad press and economics (increased profits) for reasons mentioned above. 1974 was the year in which Tiefenbrun introduced the Linn, which was chronologically far behind the Thorens belt-drives and the ARs (each having its claim to be the first to issue a belt-drive, which, it turns out, was actally invented by....Lenco!!! :-)), not to mention the Aristons which legend has it gave Ivor the idea for the Linn in the first place (the story being that Ariston approached his father with a view to having him do the metalwork for their turntable, the deal fell through for some reason, and Ivor adopted the design). So we have to ask: were any serious comparisons ever done between properly set-up idler-wheel drives (and with decent tonearm) during this time and fairly reported, or did the belt-drive designers simply assume that battle was over and the belt-drive "proven" superior, and the reporters and industry go along and promote this view?

And from a practical point of view, place yourself in Ivor's place: and along comes Ariston with its copy of a Thorens TD-150, and you see an opportunity to get into turntable manufacture (don't forget my background is originally high-end and classic belt-drives). A belt-drive requires only very basic metal-work (a lathe, a folded metal subchassis, springs, a motor an an elastic band). So would Ivor even have any interest at all in producing an idler-wheel drive with its much more complex mechanisms, far more demanding metal work and specialized-for-record-playing motors? Since it was an impossibility to take idler production on, and they were on their way out anyway due to bad press and economic reasons, then likely Tiefenbrun never did do this comparison, or even thought it necessary. Which brings me back to an earlier statement: "It was the duty of the belt-drive designers (being experts, and this is true of all scholars and, indeed, Thinking Men on any subject) to think to reinvestigate the Fundamental Assumption of their craft (once the Assumption had been, like Perfect Sound Forever, trumpeted and accepted): that the belt-drive was superior. They didn't, and today we are saddled with $100K machines, an admission if ever there was one that the system is deeply flawed (else why the necessity for such extremes?)."

Now let's turn to another possibility and consider the reports of another early participant of the original thread:

"This evening is the first chance I have had to play with the beastie. I found (it took me a little while) the Origin Live modified Rega 250 that I bought two years ago intending to mount on an Empire 208 if I ever found one. I didn't.
I also found my little used Denon 103D. An hour later we were ready to go. No plinth. I precariously balanced the Goldring on two lead shot filled plwood boxes that I made ages ago to set a pair of Carver Amazing speakers on. The speakers are long gone, but the heavy little boxes thankfully remain. Albert I don't know what TT you had before the Goldring, but my expectations were certainly not high since I have a heavily modified Linn LP 12 with an Ittok arm and Koetsu Black cartridge. I have to say that the Goldring with the lesser cartridge (the Denon 103D at $225, while a very impressive cartridge is no match for the $1,500 Koetsu), unravelled the music and separated instruments better than the Linn with the Koetsu. At first I thought that was hearing over-simplification of passages, but when I started hearing things in the foreground that were either distant on the Linn or very subdued, I knew this was not the case. Separation of lead and backing vocals and clear enunciation of words seemed better on the Goldring. I think I have to switch the Ittok and Koetsu to the Goldring to be completely fair. But then I think that there would be an even greater bias towards the Goldring."

"I continue to be impressed by this TT - even without a plinth - which I know will improve everything. It's subtle for the most part and reveals everything with a very light touch, never screaming "look at all this detail". But when there are massive dynamic swings it is scary. For the ultimate test of just how scary, play "No Pasaran" from Joe Jackson's 1987 LP "Will Power". It will make you leap out of your pants. Also even in it's plinthless state it sails through those classic 'test' tracks like "Sad Old Red" by Simply Red and "Ride Across The River" by Dire Straits - both tough tests of the ability of a system to reproduce bass that stops and starts on a dime with no overhang."

"I am a long time Linnie. I have own LP 12's for 28 years. My current Linn has an Origin Live DC motor and a Cetech carbon fibre subchassis. On a whim I bought a GL 75 and put an Origin Live modded Rega 250 and my beloved Koetsu Black on it. Holy shit, better bass, much better leading-edge dynamics and pretty remarkable imaging. This is all without a plinth. I'm just resting this beast on two lead-filled boxes. I am about to make a decent plinth and see where it goes."

"I STILL haven't built a plinth for my GL 75, OL Rega, Koetsu Black. But I'm playing it all the time. And I get more impressed with every LP. I should mention that I went from thin, model train oil to Mobil 1 grease and then a combination of the last two. My last choice seems to be the best. When I eventually get around to building the plinth it will be on this site. Just listened to Dire Straits' "Brothers In Arms" and Little Feat "The Last Record Album". I'm hearing things that were not there AT ALL on the Linn. Buggeration. Is that possible ?"

END OF SEGMENT. So let's consider the context here: a Lenco with no plinth at all, precariously balanced, with a Rega tonearm simply plopped into the original hole, STOMPS a fully-tricked latest-edition Linn LP12. Now no one would say the latest Linns aren't a TREMENDOUS improvement over the original Linns, so we have to come to some conclusion. And, the conclusion is this: either a proper and fair showdown was never done between the belt-drives of the day, or it was and they lied. At some point, somebody, somewhere, lied, or at the very least misdirected. By this last I mean they focused entirely on the noise issue by which the idler-wheel drive was discredited and character-assassinated, and simply failed to mention the fact idlers had in fact more dynamics, better bass and better timing and attack than belt-drives. If they focused solely on the noise issue, as I wrote up above, and ignored/pretended there was no loss, then this is negligence and prejudice. If they lied, then it is quite simply a crime (like the introduction of CD ;-).

Perhaps the world just works this way, and a newer system which allows greater profits wins every time. But, being an Idealist, I say this then provides us the perfect arena in which to re-examine the way our western Consumer Society works (and re-introduce the concept of job satisfaction, pride and fulfillment in knowing you are contributing to a quality product), about the concept and Myth of Progress on which our Consumer Society depends, and how we might begin to rethink our attitudes to both quality and integrity.

So, to get back to my original thought: "As I have repeatedly written since the beginning, in adopting the belt-drive they threw the baby (music: PRaT, SLAM, bass, gestalt) out with the bathwater (noise), and ignored the evidence of their senses, i.e. that with the [purely theoretical] banishment of the noise, they had lost the musical POWER. They lied to themselves, convincing themselves there had been no price, no losses." Since the evidence shows that idler-wheel drives ARE superior in terms of PRaT, slam and bass (after all, it was a cheap little Garrard SP-25 which converted me, with original tonearm, and I get e-mails all the time from fellows who remember how powerful their father's idler-based system sounded in their youth), if not, in their original form, better at high frequencies, silence and detail, then many did indeed deceive themselves and convince themselves there was no comparative loss, and in the process deceived others. The same happened just a while back, no?, when Compact Disc was touted even by owners of good belt-drives as superior in every way, shape and form to their record players. Even Digitophiles will today admit LPs have a warmth and listenability today's much better digital players lack, but they didn't back then when the fight was fresh and on.

So, thanks Bob and Richard for a chance to air out these old arguments, it's good to dust them off and air them out occasionally, and better, due to your promptings and excellent questions, delve into them further, this is much of the reason I had started the original thread (not just to ram point A up certain persons' asses ;-)), as a chance to re-examine and analyze what had happened. But, before we could get to this stage, we had to prove that something HAD in fact happened, i.e. that idler-wheel drives were in fact incredible machines, and, according to me anyway, quite simply the best LP-spinning system we have yet devised.

My own limited experience parallels what you're saying, Jean. When I "upgraded" (I thought) from a beat up old Rek-O-Kut to a VPI HW-19 Jr., I was disturbed to find the VPI wasn't as good in just the areas you emphasize - PRaT, SLAM, bass, and gestalt. I had to spend a couple of $k more upgrading the table, arm and cartridge to turn the VPI into the better sounding machine, and even then the Rek-O-Kut beat the VPI in sheer dynamism. And then just recently I've had the experience of transfered my Koetsu Rosewood Signature from a VPI Mk.IV to the Giant Lenco. It was like going from John Denver to Pavorati! I've heard (maybe here in the thread)that Koetsus were made for idler wheel drives in the sense that Sugano listened with and "tuned" his cartridges using a Garrard turntable. Now I believe it.

You're getting into some heavy reflections in your analysis of how things went so wrong: the duty to validate Fundamental Assumptions, the need for a deep reexamination of how our Western consumer society works, the nature of progress. Those are reflections I completely agree with that apply far beyond the realm of audio. For example, the most basic assumption of most economists today is that economic progress means increasing GNP. GNP (slightly oversimplified!) is essentially the rate of flow from resource extraction through product production to the garbage dump. This is completely wrong. The object isn't to maximize the rate of flow, it's to maximize stock quality - the quality of goods and services and the quality of life. To the extent that that can be done with REDUCED flow rates by making quality things that last longer, using energy and materials more efficiently, etc., the better. And any society that narrowly maximizes on short-term profit to the exclusion of non-economic values like honesty, integrity, and fairness is blundering down a self-destructive path. So the idler wheel story is a case example of the bigger story that we need to see. But, Oh My, this is getting far too far afield from building high-end 'tables cheap at Home Despot!
Bob

Well I have to admit – I did it !! I helped the idler drive tts die. But in my defence I’ll say you had to be there ………it was a different time ………

Since the 50s I had listened to records on a typical British radiogram, cheap idler drive tt, full range speaker and valve amplifier. Through the 60s this kept me alive, playing Kinks and Who 45s at full blast, teenage rage satisfied. But it rumbled like a train.

Time passes, and when it comes to buying a hifi the last thing I wanted was something old or looked it. The early 70s saw the hifi industry go mass market. Adverts for hi-tec Japanese products filled the magazines, old fashioned looking British and European gear just could not compete. One or two like Quad and SME survived because of reputation and high quality. But Japanese tts had SME-alike arms, looked great and were affordable, what’s not to like?

In 1974 I was given a Garrard 301 with valve amp in an old cabinet that my brother in law had found at the local dump. It moved around the garage for a while, then one day I tried it out into a pa speaker using the Leak arm and cartridge that it came with. I didn’t finish an lp side because the cartridge was hopping around a lot, but one section of the disc played ok. I later reported during one of those late night hifi conversations that the bass was like concrete, hard and unyielding! I knew the 301 would never get to the lounge :) so when a friend said 301s fetched good money in Japan and he knew a guy that exported them. ?? £70 was a lot of money in 1975 when you’re setting up home, so bye bye 301.

I snagged a second hand TD150, fitted an SME 3009 and thought I’d never need another tt. Problem was at parties when we would listen to the old 60s 45s they didn’t have the same bite I remembered. I figured it was an age thing.

When the Sondek came out in 74 it did not cause that much of a stir. The doo doo didn’t hit the fan until an article came out in 76, one of the reviewers had been Linn-napped for a weekend, and forced to listen to records until he got it. (BTW rumble figures from back then could be quoted in several different ways, the Linn was definitely quieter than a stock L75.) It’s as well to remember that in 76 the Linn wasn’t being compared to idler drives because there weren’t any to compare it to. I know a few still existed, but a stock 75, while it has something, couldn’t hope to be in the same ball-park as a Linn/Grace/Supex. It won’t even work with a decent cartridge for goodness sakes. No dealers would have an EMT on hand to use, and the SP25 would have self destructed at the thought of it, after the crowd stopped laughing.

The manufacturers weren’t conning us about idler drives, they were conning us about direct drives. And these are what the Linn found easy to beat. The Linn bearing was the jewel in the crown then, and still is.

Linn were fighting the same war that is being waged today, and we should thank them for that. If the vinyl high end had not existed in 1985, then vinyl would have disappeared completely by now. It’s not their fault they didn’t know about idlers, no-one did, or more importantly wanted to! The unfortunate result of Linn winning the war then, is that today the collective conscious as regards vinyl has a belt drive bias. Again you can’t blame people for that, we all signed up for it, and having paid our dues we think it must be right.

So having stated that the new (direct drive) technology was a mirage, and belt drive done right is where it’s at, they did all they could do. Think about it and you’ll see that the flag has been kept flying, long enough for us to re-look at an even older technology.

Like it or not, if they hadn’t done that we would not be having this conversation.

PS I like playing my 60s 45s on a Lenco.

Amen Bornin50
Can there be anything else left to say?

Fascinating look at what was going on inside the living rooms of the audio-enlightened at the time, Colin! And as I suspected, the Linns were never compared with idlers (at least not publicly), as the issue was already pretty well dead by then. But let's not forget the context: just as the industry and press combined touted Perfect Sound Forever and won over the overwhelming mass of the population with Perfect Sound Forever, so the industry and press back then touted the belt and killed the idler before the Linn ever hit the stands (and again, against a background of idlers, someone - i.e. press and industry - had to have heard the diminution in the sonic areas already listed). That perceived loss of slam PRaT and bass was dismissed by you and the public because you relied on the expert testimony of the press and industry there was no sonic price, and so though you and others heard it, you dismissed it as an unrelated aberration and moved on.

Innocent and against an audio background which was utterly unaware any Audio Battle of Systems had even occurred, other than commercial DD vs BD competition, (I used idler-wheel record changers as a kid, but not being from an audio family or even aware there was such a thing as an "audio magazine" I knew nothing other than that more pennies had to be taped to the tonearm to prevent the cartridge from skipping :-)), I all-unaware bought a Garrard SP-25 at a flea market thinking it was a belt-drive and took it home to match up to my NAD/Boston set-up.

As background to this, I had never been an audiophile until the mid-80s, and happily used my Akai belt-drive/Kenwood receiver system in what I think of as The Days of Innocence (happily listening to the MUSIC blissfully unaware of any audio losses or distortions). Then Digital came out and I was looking forward to it as much as anyone. A friend of mine was the first to buy a CD-based system and paid quite a lot of money for a new [what we considered state of the art, not being audiophiles] Yamaha/AR system with Yamaha CD player. At the Unveiling Party (he invited Everyone in the neighbourhood to hear the First of the New Paradigm), while everyone ooohed and aaaahhhhheed, I found myself offended at the cold, clinical sound which emerged, all hard edges with NO atmosphere, and I asked everyone "Do you not hear it?!?" No one agreed, and so I bet the owner of the new machine that I could assemble a turntable-based system for the same money which was superior (without even knowing of the existence of such machines, I was so angry). I researched, discovered audio magazines, discovered high-end audio shops, and was finally led to then Shit-Kicker Rega Planar 3 with its controversial RB-300 tonearm (the controversy being those who said it was a true high-end tonearm, while the price-conscious denied this). Not having a lot of money at the time, the best I could do as buy the Rega Planar 3 and keep my old cartridge. Mounting my Acutex to the Rega, I was astonished to discover tons of information, details, entire instruments which I had never heard before. Having switched my cartridge from the old to the new underlined just how much the record player was doing, and in that moment my Audio Innocence fell away and I became an audiophile, eventually buying a Grado, a Musical Fidelity A1, and a pair of Infinite Slope speakers (today Joseph Audio markets these). My friend heard the Rega in his system and today he is even more anti-digital than I am, and won't allow a CD player in his house! He started with a Revolver/Sumiko MMT/Grado set-up, and evolved through the Maplenoll Athena to a Lenco today.

By the time I tripped over the SP-25 I owned both a maxed-out Maplenoll Athena and an Audiomeca Roma, was a confirmed member of the Belt-Drives are Superior to All Club (the only alternative I was aware of being DD), and was using a variety of high-end MCs. That particular SP-25 was defective, and when I opened it expecting to repair a simple belt-drive (by this time I was the unofficial Maplenoll technician for my city), I was astounded to be confronted with a WHEEL and a host of complex and bizarre gears, levers and springs. I didn't know what the Hell I was looking at, and only knew I had no hope of repairing it...conventionally at least. So, testing and experimenting, I decided to simply throw out everything which did not drive the platter directly and get rid of the non-functioning automatic system entirely, and stripped it down to the on/off switch, speed control, and motor and wheel, a little pile of metal parts, springs and grommets sitting by its side. I had made the little fully-automatic SP-25 a fully manual machine, and in the process got rid of all the rattly/noisy little bits. In addition, I soldered a better cable to the terminals. Then I mounted a decent cartridge (a Glanz), hooked it up to the little system not expecting much, and found myself ASTONISHED. I KNEW instantly that this as a superior system (given the relatively cheap construction of the little machine with its cheap tonearm), that both my highly-regarded Maplenoll and Audiomeca 'tables were beaten, had never heard such speed, such "clarity" (razor-sharp transients), such DRIVE, such tight bass!

Those were fun days: I got to know many of the high-end audio personalities of Helsinki, and found myself marching around from high-end shop to high-end shop with the little Garrard SP-25 under my arm (it didn't weigh much), with an Audio Technica OC30 (superior to the OC9) now mounted to the tonearm (this tonearm/MC combo was admittedly bright, but the detail, transient speed and SLAM were entirely audible), and proceeded to demonstrate it in high-end systems. There was no rumble, and some were so gobsmacked they asked if I could adapt the system to their existing belt-drives. I remember demonstrating it in a system which totaled some $200K in one shop, and there was some high-level meeting happening upstairs (it was a chain of high-end shops across Scandinavia). As the little Garrard began to play, the door to the meeting room opened and all the attendees marched out and asked what was playing, asking if it was the new high-end CD player they were obviously expecting. The salesman pointed to the little Garrard sitting on the floor, and the management simply stared for a few moments without speaking, as if it were an extraterrestrial, and simply walked back into the meeting room without saying a word and closed the door. The salesmen owned a Thorens Reference (one of the biggest, most massive and most beautiful belt-drives ever made) and asked me if I could make it an idler-wheel drive.

A freind of mine who had Made Good (now very wealthy) came to Helskini to visit me, heard my little system and was astonished as well, saying "The hairs are rising up on my arms!!!" He asked how much I needed to do the research to develop the technology/'table, and I began, eventually finding a Lenco to experiment with for the proposed new company, which was abandoned as many big companies stopped production of turntables (Thorens) and cartridges (Shure), which truly seemed to be The much-predicted End for vinyl.

Which is all to say, modded, even a humble SP-25 can make the case for the idler-wheel very effectively, that the sonic price which was paid by converting to belt-drive had to have been very audible to the few who were involved in the design and promotion of belt-drives, which was why the noise issue was emphasized to the exclusion of all else by both press and industry.

As to Linn carrying the Vinyl Standard, let's not forget that just before the Digital Dark Ages and through its beginning there was an explosion of new designs, headed by the likes of Roksan with its challenge to the Linn dominance, the Rega RB-300 tonearm (which matched to the Roksan struggled with Linn/Ittok for the crown) which hit the market like a sledgehammer (high-end performance and superb engineering at a budget price which brought the high End within the reach of audio masses), Pink Triangle with its introduction of the first acrylic platter and I believe DC motor. With this explosion of designs (add Maplenoll, VPI, Sota and various unsuspended designs from the American side), came a fortuitous and coinciding re-explosion of interest in quality vinyl (anyone remember the constant "Now is the time to buy your Final Turntable before the End, they have never been better" articles?), and this contributed greatly to the survival of the High-End Vinyl Standard through the Digital Dark Ages. And through all THAT foofarah, some few British companies carried the idler standard underground and behind the scenes with small adverts at the back of British audio mags, with Loricraft offering their wooden plinths and rebuilds alongside various stone plinths.

It seems the Audio Gods were [wisely] smiling on us all along and continue to do so! Vive la Vinyl!!