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Can you believe this?

I went through my garage the other day & pulled out my old Phase Linear 8000 Series II turntable.
I knew I had it, but didn'd know which box it was in when we moved here over 4 years ago.
I had not used it in about 20 years & had gone through 10 or 12 high end turntables in that time (Garrard, Nottingham, Oracle, Clearaudio, Avid & Verdier) just to name a few.
First I took it down to my man cave & cleaned it up.
Then I started to set it up & realized I might have a problem.
The patch cords (RCA) needed cleaning - So I cleaned them with alcohol.
Then I attached the RCA jacks to my phono stage (Pamphili).
Next was to attach the Pamphili to the pre amp (Einstein II) which has only balanced inputs, so I got out a pair of RCA cords & attached the RCA to XLR adapters & thought all was going fine.
I powered up all the components & hit the start button on the turntable & the arm started to move in a very weird way (tracking to the right).
I thought I had leveled it properly, but I guess I was wrong.
After trial & error for about 20 minutes with some good ole Kentucky leverage the table was properly balanced.
I pulled out my favorite Doc Severensen LP & was ready for a listen.
I didn't know what to expect next, but another problem arised - Music was only coming from the left channel.
First I removed the headshell & checked the connection to the cartridge (Ortofon MC 20) & all seemed well.
Next was the connection between the cables & the RCA to XLR adapters & that seemed fine.
Now I had figured out that the 30 year old cartridge was at fault - I had my ZXY Universe SSB handy & figured what the hell - A $5K cartridge on a $800 turntable?
To my dismay - Left channel only again.
OK - It must be the RCA cables between the phono pre & the pre amp.
I get out another pair of RCA cables, attached the RCA to XLR adapters, connect everything back together & am hoping that it's not the RCA jacks that lead from the turntable itself.
VOILA! The turntable cued properly to the first cut & both channels were producing music.
To my amazement the sound was spectactular!
To say I was "FLOORED" is a gross understatement.
I pulled out Billy Joel (An Innocent Man Half - Speed Mastered), Melissa Manchester - For The Working Girl), Huey Lewis - Sports - Half Speed Mastered), Jackson Browne - Lawyers In Love) & was up until 3:00 AM celebrating with some Hennessey XO & trying to figure out why some of my much more expensive (turntable, cartridge, arm & phono pre) didn't put this 30 year old turntable & arm to waste?
Meet the new boss - Same as the old boss!
I always knew that I had kept this gem of a turntable for a reason & did not sell it when I sold all my Phase Linear gear over 20 years ago - Now I know why!
Some of you must think that I must be out of my mind, but I have had some $25K turntables, $10K tonearms, $15K cartridges & $12K phono pre amps & what I am now hearing is almost as great (90% - 95%) as anything I have owned prior to putting this old relic back into my system.
It's almost a shame that I thought that newer & belt drive & high mass was the only way to go when I had this Japaneese direct drive linear tracker sitting around & unused all these years.
When i get a chance - I'll try the original Ortoforn MC 20 again & see how she sounds as I bought it back in the day when I got the 8000 II.
Maybe I'll give the $15K Clearaudio Insider Reference Wood a shot too.
Now my wife can put her new car in the garage & I'll be in my listening room putting on one LP after another.
That's my story & I'm stickin' to it!

128x128paladin
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
This remind me of the story of some guy at the North Pole.
He boiled the water to shave himself but the water was too
hot to use. So he put the can with the water for only one
minute outside. And would anyone believe this the water
become ice in this period of time. This happened so fast
that the ice was still warm.
haroldhodges
1 posts
 
This is quite a coincident. Friday august 10 2012 I received my Phase Linear 8000 II back from restoration by Dudley Chicione of Tech 1 Electronics in Missoula, Montana. The shipping took 2 weeks both ways from my home on the coast of North Carolina. It is now literally like new. I purchased this turntable new in 1979 and have never had a reason to upgrade. I also saw no reason to replace with a new turntable at the price I paid in 1979 or less, especially when I discovered that I could have it restored at Tech 1. This is a rare piece of equipment . It never stopped working and has given great pleasure over thirty years. I now expect to enjoy it even more for at least another thirty years. Some things really make life priceless. This has proven to be one of them.
lewm
13,225 posts
 
Dear Harold, Life is priceless with or without a turntable. If you have evidence to the contrary, please let me know. Glad you're happy.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
banquo363
371 posts
 
Life is priceless with or without a turntable. If you have evidence to the contrary, please let me know.

Dear Lewm,

the audiophile is evidence of life's futility: he longs for what he can't have, live sound reproduced through his speakers.

For a thousand more reasons, you can peruse the works of the great pessimist, Schopenhauer.

More relevant to this thread, I'm having a related experience with a 'throwaway' linear motor direct drive turntable that I got for free. I had sold my sp10 and was desperate to play some vinyl while waiting for my new turntable, so I hooked up the Fisher and was shocked by how quiet it was. Playing rock and pop, it gives me 80% of what the sp10 did. To be sure, I couldn't live long term with this turntable, but that it's more than tolerable is very surprising. Maybe with a few tweaks, it can be much more than it currently is?
hiho
451 posts
 

The Phase Linear 8000 turntable is the same thing as the Pioneer PL-L1000. Both uses a linear tracking servo tonearm. They can sound good but the weakness is the bottom platform that holds the motor and tonearm. It's made of plastic and it's rather soft and it flexes. The flagship PL-L1 corrects the problem by using a solid platform and no suspension.

The selling point of the servo arm is that it glides on rails and its actuated by magnetic force, just like mag-lev train, so it can servo correct bi-directionally. Most gliding arms only corrects for one direction a la Rabco and Goldmund. Very unique but the rollers are rather noisy. I gutted the motor out and build a turntable out of it. The motor uses Pioneer's famous SHR(stable hanging rotor) bearing--just a fancy way of saying an inverted bearing. They are good sounding motors but I prefer the coreless motors from JVC.

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