O.K. Fess Up. Come Clean. Sing Like A Canary.


In the last several days I have gotten myself involved in a couple of threads regarding lifting (or forgetting about lifting) the stylus at the end of play. One individual was considering getting rid of his existing turntable, and replacing it with an older semi-automatic model.

He considered himself "lazy & forgetful".

Another individual was very upset with himself because he allowed himself to forget about the stylus for "20-30 minutes" after play.

He considered himself a "moron".

Am I another "lazy and forgetful moron"? Or is this just something that happens on occasion when you choose to endure the world of analog?

As of late, this does not happen to me anymore. I installed a "lifter". Problem solved. But before this point?

I can recall sometime back, arriving home after a weekend in Manhattan with my better half. It was Sunday evening about 11:00pm. We had left the previous Friday evening. We walked through the front door, I put down the bags and noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I looked over at my stereo and exclaimed "Uh-Oh".

Needless to say, I turned on the lights, walked over to the stereo, and as I looked down at the turntable (my head now spinning in a circular motion in unison with the rotating LP), had realized that this phenomenon had been in occurence over the last 50 hours or so.

I then cued the stylus, placed the tonearm on it's rest, turned off the turntable in disgust, sighed, and silently acknowledged the fact my NEW $800.00 Grado was toast.

Alright. I admit it. I can and did admit to such a mistake. Well, the word "mistake" sound a little extreme. Let's call it an "inopportune loss of mental focus". Now..... Let's see who else will step up to the plate.

What is the longest period of time that you have forgotten your stylus in the "rotating circle of death"?
128x128buscis2
I've let mine go round many times for up to an hour or more and it's never done any damage. Why should it? It's just a quiet groove with a lead-in. What am I missing here? My cartridge is a Talisman Sapphire. However the odd record does have a "spiral of death" where the cartridge hits the clamp of my Oracle due to eccentricity or just being too small a diameter groove.
Spencer, I feel your pain with respect to the lifts on 'Nots - and just about any other so-called cantilever armboard tables. I am attempting to rig a platform which attatches under the platter plinth on which to mount a lift for a Spacedeck. Will let you know how it works.
Sbank, The original Expressimo version was called "The Lift". The newer version is called "The Lifter". It is smaller and available in Black anodized. "The Lift" is available in chrome only.

The Lift is $89.95, "The Lifter", $49.95, According to the owner of Expressimo (Salvatore, "Sal" for short), The Lifter is able to accomodate a wider variety of configurations and tonearm weights. You may want to call him with your specific configuration. He is always very helpful and very pleasant to deal with.

http://www.expressimoaudio.com/lift/lift.html
4yanx & Sbank, since Sal @ Expressimo is an expert machinist, might he be able to machine a spacer or mounting flange?
Buscis2:

My problem with the lifter may be equipment related as well as personality related.

I tried to mount it on a Rega P-25 with the RB-600 arm. That arm is tapered, with a relatively wide cross section where the lifter needs to sit. A combination of the width and the slope of the arm where it meets the lifter (the mateing surfaces are not perpendicular) resulted in my Clearaudio Discovery bouncing off of the record surface a couple of times, which further resulted in blood pressure spikes.

The lift would be much easier to install if the design was more throughly thought out. For instance, the central column could be attached the same way as the tonearm, with the height adjusted from the top using an internal thread and a set screw. Ten minute set-up is my estimate (including drilling the hole maybe 15 minutes).

Something that would have been nice to get with the lift would be a simple, paper template for locating the center of the lift. There really are not that many arm-to-spindel dimentions that they could not be accomodated on a sheet of 8-1/2 by 11.

The personality part is paying $90 for $1 worth of parts and machining, that requires three hands and two sets of eyes to install.