A Copernican View of the Turntable System

Dear Nandric, I have met Thom Mackris a few times, and we exchange emails occasionally. I hold him in very high regard. His turntables are works of art that employ very heavy plinths that do not have a "deck" surface surrounding the platter. I have long thought that this is the best way to go for belt drive. His tonearm support structure is very firmly linked to the subchassis. He does not use separate arm pods at all. So his approach to design would agree more with my ideal than with Halcro's et al. I do not know anything about Mr. Lurne or his current products. I had some experience with one of his early turntable efforts many years ago, and frankly I was not impressed at all in any way with it, except its cost. I am sure his work is much improved if you like it. Anyway, one cannot "prove" that one design approach is superior to another by simply naming names. In the commercial market, there are all kinds of turntables, and they sound good and bad. Your own Mr. Kuzma makes great products that fit either description, Copernican or the other.

Dear Ct0517,
still looking for my long screws, will come up with an assessment. I was a little engaged on other topics in the meantime. If you are interested in tubes - I fell in love with the sound they produce - there is a wonderful book available by i-tunes, for the first time in English: The hifi tunes Book of Audio Tubes. You will love it, also the images.

best & fun only - Thuchan

thuchan
you should find the screws here:
http://www.spaenaur.com/
don

Dear Thuchan – thnx so much for the tube book reference. I had such a wonderful time a few years ago swapping tubes when I had an SP8 and changing its sound. I miss that THICK sounding preamp.

I have a large drawer full of tubes from the experience and I have told my fraternal 16 year old twins that drawer may not look like much – but in 10 years what it contains will be worth – well at least 2 – 3 times if not more than what they are worth today. What’s in their dad? Old TV tubes I tell them. And they laugh. “Yeah they are from Holland, Germany former Jugoslavia and other places like that and some from the US. But don’t be in a rush to get them – they may break”.

Prepping for the Juniors

I set up an alternate rig to practice with the Juniors next weekend to see how they work and to see how good they isolate.

See here
http://cgim.audiogon.com/i/vs/i/f/1302538853.jpg

I purposely placed the setup in the middle of the upstairs room containing hardwood floors. What a terrible location but perfect for this experiment - if they work here they will work anywhere. Based on what Geoch said about parallel tracker users using them, I chose to set up my 12” pivot arm on my first armpod (the steel one). I figured this would be of more interest to people here. Again based on some fears about learning how to use the Jrs. (from Geoch’s posts) I mounted a cheap Grado Black on the arm and aligned it with the table and started to get used to it. I have to say with the armpod it took no time at all to align the pivot arm. I set it high so that the Jrs. would fit under the armpod and the arm could be lowered.

BTW for this experiment - I pulled an old SL1200 out of a closet to use as the drive system while I play . I have to say as well how good that SL1200 keeps time. Hmmm - with a little damping and new feet – who knows ?

I will practice with the Juniors here on weekend before trying them under the brass armpod.

Cheers Chris

Dear Chris,

I was finishing the last meters on my loudspeaker project, now having exactley calibrated the attenuators and all fixed in a special box. This was the time to close the rear front cover. All done now!

Next I went into the Technics SP 10 MK II experiment in a nice but not Panzerholz or slate based wooden plinth. It is a good sounding machine, nevertheless not exactely reaching my demands. Maybe I am a bit spoiled too and it is different with a MK III in a plinth of Albert or Dobbins. But the prices for a good combo are getting insane regarding how much this Pro-series went in earlier times.

I am glad that you like tubes, there are also nice ones from the US :-)

Dear Corb, -thanks for the hint.

Best & Fun Only - Thuchan