SP10 Mk II vs Mk III

Dear Radicalsteve: I dn't doubt on what you posted on the Victor TT-101, I never heard about it but I heard the TT-801 that looks like the Denon DP-80 but with better specs.

Now, for those times the SP-10 was only one of the great DD TT: Denon DP-80/75, Kenwood 770/880/1100, Pionner 70L, Yamaha 2000L, etc, etc.
We are talking on the Sp-10 but some of these TTs are better yet than the SP-10s.

As always IMHO it is not write the last word on TTs: DD, BD or Idler ones, which one is the last word?, very very hard to say because no one is perfect and all of them have its own design advantages and disadvantages too. Of course that the design execution is a critical subject but everything the same it is a very hard and complex " call " for say the least.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Raul, if you cruise around the vintageknob website you can see some great DD tables from Japan in the 70's and 80's. All of which attract horrendous prices these days if you can ever find a good one. As an indicato,r one of supposed greats is the Sony PS X9 - and recently I acquired a PS X-70 as a cheap and cheerful table for my upstairs second system and while I am sure it is not in the same league as the big Sony, you get a flavor for how good these decks and arms can be.

Here is a quote off the vintageknob website (a good place to cruise around and experience the feelings of audiolust):

"Myth has it that there were only fifty PS-X9 ever made but that is myth and myth only - even if not as succesfull as Denon's DP-100M or Pioneer's Exclusive P3a, many X9s found their way into radio stations and in a few audiophiles' rigs. I know of someone who has critically listened to all of the usual suspect (L-07D, DP-100M, Tt 1000, PD-555, SP-10mkIII, EMTs et al) and finally sttled for his own deck on... a PS-X9."

Interesting ....... As you say Raul, there is no "best" - like art or ballet we should appreciate each for its merits and our own perceptions of its beauty and performance. And like the ballet, audio systems and performance are a synthesis of individual components and the synergies between them. That is why it is so hard to get into rating the performance of an arm, or table or cartridge, because there are usually a lot of variances in the total system. That's why I am suspicious of equipment reviews as a finite mark on a product. I know that in my system, the final sound from a cartridge might be subtly changed by the capacitance of a phono cable.

But you know all that already Raul, so apologies for the Sunday morning philosophy rant!

Steve

Raul, you still have not explain how you mount your tonearm. Care to tell? I am all ears.

Dear Radical, I had the impression from your first description that your SP10 plinth was made of some kind of metal, which is why I suggested you try wood or slate, not because I thought the mass was too low. So, what is it made of, in fact?

Raul, you and Albert may have arrived at the same endpoint in different ways. In Albert's wood plinth (which can be seen on the Sound Fountain website), he employed a steel rod that is threaded so it can be tightened against the bottom of the SP10 chassis. That rod is also attached to a dense metal block at the base of the plinth, so as to drain energy from the SP10 chassis. In a way, that achieves the same end that you achieve by sitting your chassis right on the three feet. I am trying to figure out how to do something similar with a slate plinth.

Dear Hiho: This Sp-10 comes ( from original owner: not me. ) with a square 1" MDF attached to the SP-10 up square plate where ( right side ) the tonearm is mounted, not very orthodox but works fine.

Regards and enjoy the music.
raul.