Vintage DD turntables. Are we living dangerously?

CT, The nice thing is, my Alfa does not have to be so reliable, as I will not be relying on it except for the occasional spin on local roads. But I do expect it will be more reliable than the TT101 has been so far. FWIW, I owned a Duetto for six years whilst living in NYC with no garage. It never failed me for one second during that time, through rain, snow, sleet, and parking outside.

Bulletin on the TT101. Long ago I had observed that mine works most reliably when the tach is set to "Run", where you see the speed go from zero to 33.33, over and over again. Since I had been getting cocky about its reliability, I set it to the "Hold" option the other day, just for masochistic reasons. I find that it's not so dead nuts reliable when the tach is set to Hold, as it has been on Run. This may be an indicator of where to look for bad solder joints or broken wires, but that's for another day, since it's fine on Run. I am mounting an FR64S and a Koetsu Urushi. Stay tuned.

Has anyone had any direct experience of the new PBN plinth-ed Denon tt's? The plinth is certainly beautiful and looks well designed.

Hi Halcro,

In addition to my TT-81, I also run the VPI Aries. Mods on it include that thick 2 inch acrylic platter. Because of the 'not so subtle differences' between the two turntables, I installed the Accromat from Firm Funk in place of the rubber mat on the Victor. It is a type of acrylic and I now find the two quite comparable in their performance signatures.
I have thought about these leather mats but have never given one a try. Have you ever tried an acrylic mat on your TT-101? If so, how did or does it compare to those leather mats?
BTW: I completely agree with your assessment of the original rubber mat that came with the Victor turntables. I could not replace mine fast enough. It truly was an overall dull presentation when compared to the VPI Aries. Thanks to the acrylic mat, this has been corrected!
Regards,

Halcro

Hi Henry. Thanks for that. I have ordered the Jico mat. The MS copper mat these days is just too expensive

Its a good idea to have 2 thicknesses of the mat. I can try one on each table 😀

It will be interesting to hear how they sound.

Cheers

Henry and Don, From Henry's first post about the pigskin mat, I got the idea he was saying it was supplied OEM with the TT101, perhaps not with the TT81. My TT101 has what I deem to be its OEM mat, but it sure does not look to be made of any natural material. On the other hand, it is much harder than were the OEM rubber mats that came with my DP80 or either of my two Technics SP10s (Mk2A followed by Mk3). So, what am I looking at? Henry, can you describe the TT101 mat or post a photo? Mine has many concentric ridges in it, running all the way from inner groove area to outermost grooves, also unlike Denon or Technics rubber mats. It's possible that it's not made of rubber, but I don't know what else it could be. Thanks.

I am using a Merrill lead mat glued to the bottom of an Achromat. Very satisfied. Once you add on the weight of the ring and the rather light delrin clamp, the platter gets heavy but no problems.

I am surprised no one responded to my fitting the iec socket. I believe it to be a very worthwhile improvement.