Nude Turntable Project

Hi Halcro,
having been engaged in many other topics for a while I am a late runner up to this thread. This seems to be a wonderful project you are doing Halcro, diving into the world of experimenting with old school arms and TTs. I am still focused more on MCs as TBone seems to be too. Nevertheless when you have the chance why not going for an old EMT 997 Banana ( NOS) and using the wonderful EMT cartridges, they are not expensive in comparison to most modern MCs. One of my favourites is the TSD 15 lzi - sorry this modern MC is for SME, not for the EMT connectors. A very good start without investing into a new arm. Maybe we see more fantastic arms on your Victor in the future...

Good Morning, Halcro

I know we're well launched into the Holiday season, so I don't expect an immediate response to my query from Nov 29.

When you have time, I am most interested to learn further about the mechanics of your setup and the [metallurgical] reasons for it, as in the questions from my earlier post.

Trusting that you and your loved ones are well, I send thanks in advance for your assistance, and

Best Wishes,

David

David, a few answers to yur questions are in this thread already, may want to reread again. I would think bronze was chosen mostly for the weight.

Welcome Thuchan,
It's always good to have you drop by.
I know you've been busy with your own Project (horn speakers I believe?) but you were responsible for me getting the Fidelity Research FR-64s arm and after hearing how great it was, I wasted no time in obtaining it's big brother the FR-66s.
You of course discovered the joys of great 'vintage' analogue gear long ago (how many RX-5000 turntables do you now have?..............five?!!!!!) just as other dedicated audiophiles have like Cuong Pham in Vietnam who has 4 or 5 Thorens Reference turntables in every colour available?
So I'm quite surprised that you have not progressed onto the great vintage MM cartridges especially when you've had the Empire 4000D/III for 3 months now? Just mount it in your FR-66s and you will see what all the fuss is about?
Yes, now that I have the Victor TT-81 with my own arm-pods, I am able to mount any arm I can obtain. Who knows what the future will hold?
Good luck with your own Project.

Dear David,
As Ecir38 mentioned, a lot of your answers are to be found in earlier postings where the arm-pods are shown in the 'raw' cast form with all the holes and cable entry points clearly visible but re-cap:-
1) Aluminium is too light and mild steel is magnetic. I needed to make sure that the arm-pods could not be easily moved once the geometry of each arm had been established. I investigated machining stainless steel, brass and bronze but they all need up costing about $2000 each, so I went for casting (either brass or bronze) and bronze is cast here in foundries on four out of five days of the week compared to limited casting of brass.
2) Arm-Pods are solid except for 55mm diam hole in the centre to accommodate all the arms I could think of?
3) See previous photos.
4) I just meant to make sure the table was level by using packers under one or more Tip-Toes.
5) Yes the shelf is 33mm thick laminated particle board.
6) Not practicable. Apart from all my running around to organize, the height of the pods are determined by the height of the turntable you are using.
SME recommends that the mounting height of the arm is 41mm below the level of the platter although most modern arm are mounted 30-35mm below the platter.
I found that with vintage arms, a height of 47-48mm below the platter allows for more flexibility in getting the arms level.
7) Screwed spikes were drilled and tapped into the bottom of each pod. The are chrome plated brass and are leveled by screwing in and out.

Sorry I can't be more helpful but you are really asking me for my 'intellectual property' which took me 3 months to design and have fabricated.
Good luck.