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want new plinth ideas for direct-drive turntables


By now, the idler-drive genre has enough ink on them without me adding anything new to the topic. What is little talked about is the "guts" of direct-drive tables. Many vintage DD units suffered from bad plinth design with inadequate solidity (often mounted to crappy plastic or flimsy particle-board) and inadequate isolation from resonance and interference of electronics.

I like the bare bone approach, that is, to take the motor out of the chassis/plinth/enclosure and mount it to a something solid, material of your own choice, and extend the cable by at least couple feet to the stock chassis or an enclosure that contains the electronics/motor-drive/control-console/power-supply. In fact, the Monaco Grand-Prix, Teres Certus, or early Micro-Seiki DDX/DQX-1000 takes the same approach.

Almost ALL DD tables can be improved this way. There are many other brands of superb DD tables with great potential out there can be had for very reasonable price and can be converted this way with good result. I no longer have any Technics tables on hand to experiment but I still got great results with some mid-priced JVC, Pioneer, Kenwood, Yamaha, etc... I haven't tried it on Sony and Denon tables yet because they require mounted a tapehead to check platter speed so the mounting is tricky. Modern belt-drive turntables have been doing similar things by separating the motor from the main plinth. Once again, Micro-Seiki was ahead of their time with their RX-1500 and beyond. It's only logical DD will go that direction. The days of having everything in a box for DD tables seems less attractive to me now.

If you have other ideas, feel free to talk about it here. And hopefully this will generate more new interest in the DD genre. Personally I am more interested in people's experience with brands other than Technics as they already got enough coverage in other forums and threads. Nothing against Technics, just want to direct attention to other sleepers out there. Anyway, still feel free to share ideas.

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hiho
lewm
13,301 posts
 
I have been listening to a Kenwood L07D. Its designers were thinking along the same lines as you, Hiho. In essence, they have taken a (coreless, brushless) DC motor (with inherently very low cogging, which is an issue they discuss in the owners manual) and isolated it in a very stiff, low resonance, energy absorbing structure, moving all electronics outboard. But they did not stop there; they accounted for the tonearm as well and its linkage to the bearing. This was 1980. Sounds wonderful too.
ddriveman
171 posts
 
Hi Lewm,

How deos the Kenwood L-07D comapre to your Denon DP80 and Technics SP10MkII. These 3 direct drive turntables compete clsoely with each other and you are one of the few who can compare them in the same system. So, very interested to hear your comments.
lewm
13,301 posts
 
Well, I have only one hour of listening on my Kenwood. Plus at the moment I am restricted to using the Kenwood tonearm only on the Kenwood. But I can imagine that the Kenwood is the "best" sounding of the three units, with the other two mounted in slate plinths. However, I could easily live with either of the other two as well. The DP80 is a "sleeper" in terms of bang for the buck, if it is first properly restored electronically and then dampened in several ways, including the use of a good plinth. By the way, the Lenco L75 in slate on a PTP top plate, etc, is no slouch either.
hiho OP
451 posts
 

I never had the fortune to listen to an L07D but from a design standpoint it is worthy of its billing as a top of the line model and a world class DD table, so I am envious of you, Lewm. (coreless motors are wonderful, aren't they?) Yes, when I look at it the designers were thinking along the same lines. With that in mind, we can apply that to less expensive models of different brands. If the renaissance of plinth building for vintage idler-drive tables can be an inspiration, we can start address many underrated DD tables and explore their potentials all at a very reasonable price. Since many people are comfortable with Technics products, I recommend the SL-1300/1400/1500MK2 series as the motor is detachable from the electronics and their platters are much heavier than the ubiquitous SL-1200Mk2 and they are balanced with drill holes at the underbelly. The arm is mediocre so no loss if you gut it.

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lewm
13,301 posts
 
Hiho, What about the SP15 and SP25? How do those compare to the ones you listed above as donor tables? They are way less expensive than any SP10. You guys got me thinking (again) about separating the SP10 Mk2 motor from its chassis and on-board electronics. I have been able to resist the temptation so far. As long as this stuff does not get in the way of my ability to listen to and enjoy LPs, I am ok with it. This is the one advantage of having several turntables.
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