New Maplenoll Ariadne owner needing advice

I have an Ariadne that was recently purchased for me by my wife for our anniversary! Anyway, the previous owner had owned the table since new and apparently this table was used at a Chicago CES almost 20 years ago. He said he bought the table directly from Bob Dilger. The owner said that this table was plug and play and it rarely required adjustment. Anyway, I took the turntable home and was able to quickly set it up (1/2 hour) and it played amazingly well for a couple of hours. I put on an old Grado Reference Sonata and I never heard it sound better. I was really captivated by the performance of this turntable.

Then the original silent pump overheated and no longer works! I can't believe it!

I called Lloyd Walker who told me that it was a 1/6 horsepower Refrigerator compressor with the coolant drained and with oil poured in as a lubricant. The pump has wooden decorative exterior cover. The pump itself is attached to a small air chamber and there are 2 larger air chambers (the very large one was apparently called a Scud by Bob Dilger) that are connected by 500 feet of hose. Anyway, my question is if anyone else has replaced this pump with a modern equivalent refrigerator compressor? Any other suggestions regarding air pumps. My version has the 50 pound platter.

Also the original owner said he never used the oil trough because it was not worth the trouble and sonically it really didn't make that much of a difference. Would like to know your opinions of the oil trough. Bob

Baranyi--Not sure if anyone ever called a maplenoll a plug and play unit:>) However, i do think the maplenoll ariadne is one of the better tables out there. I currently own the white ariadne reference, grey ariadne signature, and the apollo heavily modified by Lloyd Walker.

Your first question, i changed out my air pump to a JUNAIR compressor back in 2006 and have not looked back. The compressor is one used a lot in the medical/dental field so is pretty quiet, reliable, and clean smelling (not always the case with the original pumps). If you look on this string you will see MEDO and WISA pumps also mentioned. I like the Junair because it has a rather large surge tank and great pressure control regulator that matches well with my air system. Clean, pulse free air at a pressure your arm likes is key to keeping these machines happy. The Junair uses a synthetic oil that is odorless and does not bleed off very much even with heavy use.

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 maplenoll with 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.

Hope this helps

Well, Baranyi brought the Ariadne from me, and for me it was indeed plug and play. Set it up on a stable shelf, and just play your music. No tweaking or fiddling involved. It sat in my music room for 10 years, as was just as it was when I set it up when Baranyi acquired it.

My oil trough notions were rooted in a blind listening test (as per usual), back in the day. We played the same track with and without the trough, and didn't hear a bit of difference, though one person claimed the treble was smoother, after asking "Was that the oil one?" It did help stiff-cantilevered Grados like the TLZ track a bit better, but that was about it.

I think you can fiddle with these things and MAKE them more complicated than they need to be. But the beauty of them for me is that they are big, heavy, inert and relatively fiddle-resistant. Set it and forget it.

Your mods are nice ideas. Carbon fiber linear tracking arm? Pretty slick. Would love to see pictures.

I think that Lloyd Walker's work is the ultimate realization of these turntables, and I probably don't ever want to hear one, since I'd rather spend $35k on a car or something. He's brilliant.

Is there anyone out there that can provide the measurements for an Ariadne Signature where the sub platter is driven by the belt ?

Still wondering about buying another refrigerator compressor to replace my bad compressor. I had an HVAC person on another website say that draining the coolant (R22) would cause the compressor to fail. This dies not seem to have been a problem with all the Maplenoll Super quiet pumps that have functioned for so long. Any thoughts?