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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
bornin50
32 posts
 
Good topic, lower down the Pioneer range, probably on a level with the cheaper Technics is the PL518. Here's a great project using a 518 -
http://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=2399.msg34684#msg34684
lewm
13,308 posts
 
Thanks for sharing. That's really nice work. You can see a rather poor photo of my slate Lenco in my system post here on Audiogon. Plinth is a monoblock of slate, unlike yours. Used Peter Reinder's top plate. Probably should post it in Lenco Heaven as well. I run it thru a Walker Audio Motor Controller, but I am in line to receive a Mark Kelly controller specifically designed for the Lenco motor.
hiho OP
451 posts
 

Thanks for sharing, Borning50. Speaking of Pioneer, here's a PL-30L that got an overhaul by a Japanese audiophile that's pertinent to my idea. The motor is very similar (probably the same) to the one in my PL-L1000 linear tracking table. Since the bottom of the motor is flat, you don't even need to cut a big hole on the plinth. A great candidate for such mod.

Check out the links to other cool stuff, including a linear tracking arm using motion control glides from THK. Very cool.

http://kiirojbl.exblog.jp/i108

http://kiirojbl.exblog.jp/i109

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bornin50
32 posts
 
Great photos on that site, thanks for the link. The 518 project is not mine, although I do have a footless 518 waiting for surgery! :) Lewm, I think it would be a good idea to post your Lenco project at LencoHeaven, and there is a thread on motor controllers where your thoughts would be welcome too. :)
hiho OP
451 posts
 

The 518 project is not mine, although I do have a footless 518 waiting for surgery! :)

Glad you have a beater to experiment with. To be honest, the 518 is not the best candidate. I had a similar one like that. I forgot the model number but it didn't keep speed and had jerky motion. After several bad experiences with early era DD tables, I decided not to touch anything that's made before 1975 or pre-quartz-lock era. Back to Pioneer, I have a PL-570 is just about perfect for such project - currently in "guts" form with only motor and electronics and power supply - and I think the simpler version PL-550 is even better. I know some people are attracted to the wood veneer and probably pains them to do butcher them. The cabinet is really resonant and easily attracts acoustic feedback so butchering it is no loss to me as I hate plinths that shape like a box (and that includes certain Scottish spinner). I try to look for units that have broken or nonfunctional tonearms or bad auto mechanism, as long as the motor and drive electronics works, they can be had for dirt cheap. It's fun to experiment with beater tables. :-)

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