Used Morch DP-6 or modified Origin Live Silver?

BREAKING NEWS!!!
Doug's LOWFI Mod Passes Initial Tests!

Well, I got my Shelter 901 yesterday. Since I bought it used here I really wanted to try it out ASAP. Of course there were a few hurdles to overcome:

- no Teres TT yet (two more weeks)
- no Origin Live arm yet (ordered a Mk I yesterday, thanks for the heads up on the Mk II Tom)
- no Stephens & Billington stepups yet (due next week)

What's an audiophool to do? I did what any of you would, I installed it in my old rig. Try to read the next bits without laughing louder than I did. Here's the setup:

- 25 year old H-K/Rabco ST-8 TT with its short, featherweight arm, aluminum platter that rings like Big Ben, rumbly AC motor bolted to the plinth mere inches from the platter bearing, phono cable so dry it's about to crack, RCA plugs barely hold on

The counterweight was too feeble to balance the Shelter, so enter Doug's mod. I cut a length of lead solder and taped it to the bottom of the counterweight with electrical tape. Pretty snazzy rig for a $1500 cartridge. Thanks, Twl! ;)

Ready to go? Well, sort of. With no stepups available, I had to make do with the MM phono stage of my (all tube) c-j preamp. Had to crank the gain well past the noise threshhold. When I drop the stylus you hear a nice mix of tube rush and TT rumble. Oh well, how's the music in this uniquely non-synergistic setup?

*&^%$##@!(*&&^@^$#(&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THIS CARTRIDGE IS INCREDIBLE! We put three hours on it last night. Saved the best for last, Firebird/Dorati/Mercury (Classic Records 45rpm). Shame on me for not holding off until the front end is completed, but I couldn't wait. At the end, after we picked our jaws off the floor and pulled the cats off the drapes, Paul said, "I thought CDs were meant to have more dynamic range." Hysterical laughter from me.

Even mounted in this pitiful and inappropriate setup, the 901 never lost control. I cringed before the first couple of crescendos in antipation of mistracking (or even multi-groove backflips). Nope. Sailed through without a hitch. Bass drum whacks can rearrange the furniture, but they don't prevent the Shelter from playing high strings, cymbals, triangles, etc. as cleanly as it does when all is pppp. Fabulous.

"At the end, after we picked our jaws off the floor and pulled the cats off the drapes,Paul said, "I thought CDs were meant to have more dynamic range." Hysterical laughter from me."
don't really understand why the cats had to be removed from the drapes but it was hilarious. Your entire story was very amusing.

Doug, very resourceful actions on your part. All I can say is that if you like it in that setting, you are in for one hell of a nice surprise when it gets put in your new rig.

You will definitely not even believe what that 901 will do when it is on the appropriate arm and table. You probably heard about 30% of what that cartridge is truly capable of. The Teres 265 and Silver/with HiFi mod will give you pretty close to as much as you can get from it.

I predict that you will be stunned beyond belief, and will be posting incomprehensible ravings on this page when it happens. And I am not exaggerating about that. The difference between what you played last night, and what you are about to assemble is a huge, night-and-day kind of difference. You didn't even have the cartridge impedance loaded right, had insufficient gain, and a turntable/arm combo that is not even in the same universe with the Teres/OL/HiFi combo. You are going to go stark, raving mad in a few days, so we will be patient with your babblings of ecstacy. I would love to see the look on your face on that first night that you fire this rig up.

Word of warning! READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!
You have to assemble the platter into the bearing properly before you play. This requires the oil to be put very carefully into the bottom of the bearing, without getting any on the side walls of the bearing. Use a large eyedropper that is made for giving infants medicine, that is graduated in milliliters on the eyedropper body.They have them for a buck at the drug stores. The Teres bearing needs 5ml of oil from the bottle supplied. Now when you put that platter/spindle into the bearing, it is going to take 12 hours for it to settle into position. YOU MUST NOT SPIN THE PLATTER OR TRY TO PLAY THE TURNTABLE BEFORE THE PLATTER SETTLES COMPLETELY. Let it settle into the bearing on its own overnight or about 12 hours, until the platter is about 1/4" above the plinth. DO NOT TRY TO RUSH THIS PROCEDURE. Once the bearing has fully settled and you can not push down the platter at all, and it doesn't feel spongy, and it is about 1/4" above the plinth, then you can play. No matter how anxious you are to hear the table, you must follow these directions, and I don't mean maybe. Do the platter seating procedure last, after you already have the plinth placed on whatever stand it will be on, and leveled. Trying to move a Teres around after the oil is in and the platter is on, will result in spilled oil, I guarantee it. I know you will want to play the table right away, but forget about it. You have to wait until it is ready. Put the plinth where it will be and level it,put the thrust pad in - teflon side up, put the 5ml of oil in with the medicine dropper, and put the spindle(with ball bearing inserted)/platter assembly on, and wait until it is ready. Then play, probably the next day. 8 or 9 hours ain't gonna get it. It takes at least the full 12 hours to get fully seated. It has very tight clearances, and you will damage it if you don't follow these rules.

You made a good choice by getting the Silver Mk1 arm. The Mark 2 has a very stunted set of weights on it.

mejames, the cats ignore most music except very energetic bass. The old cartridge (ADC XLM MkII) did pretty decent bass but the cats rarely noticed. They occasionally look up when a CD really whomps, but not often. When the Shelter reproduced realistic tympani and bass drum hits they both flew out of the room. Peeling them off the drapes a bit of dramatic hyperbole. Sorry :)

Twl, just 30% so far? I think I'm going to melt! Babble, babble, drool... I know the loading was wrong, and the gain, and the stability, and the TT rumble, etc. etc. This is going to be alot of fun. Paul's reaction at the end of 'Firebird' was priceless. Reminded me of the question he asked after we heard our first RCA Living Stereo release on CD. "They recorded this in 1959?! What the hell happened since then? When did they ruin everything?" That's when I knew our transistorized/multitracked/digital listening days were over.

I actually read through the Teres instructions twice before I decided to buy. Those who know me would not be surprised. They actually influenced my decision, since they are very impressive. Don't worry, we'll take our time. Paul has a PhD in materials science and rebuilt two electron microscopes while at university. He understood the theory of your mods after I attempted about three words of explanation. My enthusiasm + his brain = high probability of good outcome.

Well, I just did the first part of the listening testing.

Drum roll....................

First, the Encounter looks really good, and I like the looks alot.
Second, the Encounter has new wiring and Eichmann Bullet Plugs on it, so that is a big plus.
Third, I like the anti-skate on the Encounter better than the Silver.
Fourth, my hanging counterweight won't go on the Encounter, due to the position of the framework of the arm.

Ok, now for the impressions.
This was a pretty close contest, but overall, with all things considered, I like the Encounter better than my fully modded Silver arm. I think that the modded Silver had a slightly more dynamic quality, and also slightly more punch in the bass. But only slightly. The Encounter had a more refined sound, a little airier in the highs, and still had quite a respectable bottom end and dynamics. The wiring on the Encounter was brand new and not broken in yet, and I could still tell that the wiring was superior to the Silver. Just how much of the Encounter's superiority was attributable to the wiring, I don't know, since this is the first time that I was exposed to the new wiring package in these arms. I'm sure it has something to do with the sound I heard.

So, to sum up, the fully modded Silver did very well and came very close to the new Encounter, but didn't win. Maybe a rewiring job on the Silver would have made a difference, but I had stock wiring. And a $350 wiring job would bring the price of the Silver close to the Encounter's price. In any case, I preferred the overall sound of the new Encounter, and I would choose that over my modded arm, if cost weren't an object. Also the looks of the Encounter make it an easy decision. It looks great sitting on the Cocobolo Teres 245.

Encounter by a nose. And it could get even better as the wiring breaks-in.

That's the honest assessment, and even with a possible psychological desire to see my arm win, I have to give the nod to the Encounter.