artarama

"The First Time Ever I Saw Your face" - Roberta Flack

OK, so far it looks like I will be of the minority opinion here, but I like the changes I see. I was not a heavy user but do have the site on my favorites bar and check the marketplace at least every other day. I like the sort on each column and you can see all items by category (not brand specific) by leaving the search box blank. The product review site is also much easier to access and sort. I haven't tried to use it to sell anything (now there is an idea) but it seems pretty intuitive so far to me.

Garb it! $350 seems like a fair price and it looks to be in great condition. The detatchable arm tube was something new for Thorens in that era and I don't know how it sounds but the base table is a solid workhorse. try for $275-300 but I wouldn't let it go for $50. Could be a long time before you find something better.

Michael, I have no direct experiance with the MMF5 but it certainly looks like a nice table. I find the synergy of the table/cartridge and system components to vary quite a bit. What sounds just OK with one set-up sounds significantly better in a different system. They are easy enough to swap around so why not get three of them working good and then start swapping tables and then cartridges from one table to the next. You ge tgood at setting up a turntabel pretty quickly. Hey, it's a hell of a lot easier than moving those speakers around brother!

Good call Mustang, I think B&O tables can be a great value and sound very good. ...when they work. They are a very "delicate" design so usually damaged or not in too good of shape if the owners were less than meticulous. But if you can find a nice one, and there are a lot of them out there I would recommend it. I think it is the EE20 cartridge that was their best. But if you have to buy a new cartridge it is several hundred an then it really doesn't make financial sense anymore.

If you look long enough you should be able to get a very nice upgrade to the Dual for $500 used. I would look for mid to late 70's vintage tables or the Denons of the early 80's. Almost everyones top end tables from that time were good. My favorites are Thorens, Pioneer PL series and Kenwood KD 500/ 600 series with the fake stone very heavy plinth. All of the "better" ones will be fully manuel though. A few may be semi-automatic (manual start with pick-up and return/shut-off at the end of the record.) I don't think the extra thickness of the vinyl is going to make an audable difference, at least at this point with your system. I also don't think the small change in orientation of the stylus is going to increase wear. The inevitable dust buddies are going to do more harm. A new cartridge on the Dual will likely get you the biggest jump up assuming it is working correctly and has good solid cables/connections. A cartridge like the M97 should be very versitle and work good on many tables to come down the road.

Thanks Rick, this is a real trip down memory lane. Looks like you are going to have to do most of the heavy lifting here. For some here who enjoyed a lot of this history in real time, remembering what happened yesturday can be a bit of a challange at times. [] Great thread!

Your asking a lot of questions here. The first one to address is how much Moo-La do you want to spend? Second is does that amount of money include a cartridge? Every system is only as good as it's weakest link so you also have to ask yourself how far up the audio food chain do you want to go, knowing your other components need to get to that level. Kind of a balancing act really, but I think you do need to kind of set a realistic "ultimate" goal that you are comfortable with for your whole system and then work toward that end with each component one at a time. Welcome back to the asylum [8-)] or is it pure bliss [ip] I always get those confused!

I would put the Thorens in the main gallery. I like the vintage. Probably most would say not as pretty as the Music Hall but definately more nastalgic, if the is any sort of goal. Set up right it should perform as good as any in your stable. Does the Thorens have the SME "curved" arm on it or the Thorens "straight" arm? I think an MC cartridge on the Thornes would be perfect in the main room. Your speakers deserve it. But now I'm just fantasizing about your system []

All "albums" were in vinyl, but I have to admit the most recent purchases have been singles from itunes and the "upgrades" of bit rate and DMR free versions to a few of my older purchases. I don't have an external DAC but I must say the quality of the sound coming from itunes has improved quite a bit I would say.

Dave, The problem could be with either the amp or the turntable but you don't need an external phono preamp if your existing tube amp has phono inputs. If your Pioneer has two phono inputs, one will probably be for a Ceramic cartridge and the other for Moving Magnet style cart. Most likely your turntable has a MM cartridge. Try both at low volume levels and see what sounds the best. (Very low volume here too test!) A phono preamp increases the signal from the TT before it gets to the amp. Your ipod is already doing this. But if your amp has phono input(s) it has a gain circuit "preamp" built into it already so an external phono preamp is not required. Something is not working correctly with the equipment you have and needs to be repaired. Could be as simple as a weak tube or loose connection, but others here can help you troble shoot better than I.

Mike, I have a MX-5050 BIII -2 that I have had for about 2 months now. It is a real brute in build quality and definately made for the serious user. A real beauty in design and function in my book. I feel the recording is very very close to the source material with decent tape. The machine is definately geared toward the professional user, no auto reverse, quarter inch tape played one direction only, then rewind and play again. It is quiet in operation, quality sound, beautiful to look at and will most certainly last a life time with little upkeep in a home 2 channel system assuming it hasen't been beat in a previous life. Mine had seen very few hours in a University setting. There are a lot of fans and information out there. Here is one link I had saved. http://www.otari.com/product/recorder/mx5050/index.html RTR is a novelty and obsession at the same time. I have not had mine long enough to know where I come down on that. An ipad it is NOT! Personally and from my second hand reasearch I don't think you will find a better built more robust unit. This is more of a work horse than a Diva though so it may not be the ultimate in sonics but probably better than many masters were recorded on. I would guess it is what many masters were recorded on. As I understand it the 2-track machine was kind of the final step after everything had been mixed down. Also, the B-III can be switched from 3.75 ips and 7.5 ips to 7.5 ips and 15 ips depending on what you want to do. Verify that the B2 can do that if that is important because not all could.

Here's what's going on now. A - B - C 'ing a lot, or should that be H - C - K 'ing? (and all assorted combinations).

Awesome. Good work. If we don't support "real" brick and mortor retailers, soon our shopping experiance will be limited to the virtual experiance. And then limited to only a few of the biggest players. Not good! Record shopping is always fun and a viseral experiance. Pricing is always kind of relative anyway and when all aspects of the purchase are considered if you find what you want at a competetive price, buy it. Why spend the emotional capitol trying to save nickels? What's the saying ...."Penny wise and pound foolish". There is only a small number of us that purchase vinyl to start with. We all need to do our part to keep someone in business. OK off my retail soap box and back to the music.

Make sure your kids if you have them or anyone you know that is interested gets a start on a collection and then take the rest to a local second hand record store. They usually won't give you cash but you can probably find something you want for store credit. Share the wealth! I like to find records with the original inner sleeves, they are often very interesting to read and period oriented. We all have to remember that though we are flushed now with all this 30-40-50 year old vinyl there will come a day when whats left is either unplayable, much harder to get or just plain lost. I know it seems unlikely given the mountains that exist but think about rotary or crank phones. Where did all those go? I would guess mostly tossed just because they seemed so common. Try to be a good conservator of what you can.

+1[Y]

I can't really explain the "phenomenon" technically, but when you hear it, you know it and it can be phenominal. It does make a difference. For me a Big difference. Period! Now as Cask pointed out it has to be quality power. I think it has something to do with how a large amplifier is better able to control the drivers and make them respond harder and faster to signal input than a smaller amp. For another off topic analogy, It's like closing a hollow core door or slamming a solid core door shut. Bang! So here is where my attraction of high powered amps comes from: My journey started with RF-25's and led to purchasing all the Heritage line with the exception of the Belle's. I was on a mission. It soon became apparant my electronics couldn't keep up with the Klipsch. I have used a Scott 299 tube, 60wpc Luxman ss, 120 wpc JVC ss, 200wpc Kenwood ss and 180wpc Luxman ss and a few other non-factors. The smaller Luxman was super clean, great for critical listening (still love it with the Heresy's but it just seemed to be thin and lacking in overall authority when I wanted to go loud and fill the room. The larger JVC and Kenwood were pretty good but not as clean as the smalller Luxman, I enjoyed the 299 tube for a long time it has that lush, full, rich sound that is the sirens song to tubes. But, I still missed the transparant clarity, detail and "livelyness" of the smaller Luxman. Then I found a vintage M-4000, 180 wpc Luxman ss and it literally changed my world. I am a believer! Big (clean) Power = Big difference!

You could go to that degree and that would be good. I don't have a LP12 [] but with the Thorens the bottom of the base is simply a sheet of masonite that can be removed exposing the suspension. I position the base on some short pieces of 2"X4" wood so there is enough clearence under to reach my hand under and adjust the springs to level. Not perfect but seems to work fine.

I'm waiting on more capacitors for now. I had hoped to finish this project before I had to "clean-up my mess" for the Holiday's but that is probably not going to happen. I am leaning toward replacing all capacitors since I am so far into it and would like to feel like I did a through job. I can always have someone else align it if needed and in the mean time I have also started to look for a signal generator. I would like to be able to work on all of my equipment start to finish and enjoy learning a new skill. Hopefully the education won't be too expensive, and there is a wealth of experience right here. Thanks tube fanatic and djk! The comment about dried out capacitors has always struck a cord so I decided to open an old one up to have a look. It was in fact the very definition of "dried out". Almost powdery, nothing that could remotely be described as "moist" or "maliable". I still am not sure what sonic affect that would have but it was very dry. FYI I have also stumbled on several actual lectures on YouTube from MIT and Stanford. You can actually audit classes on electronics, solid state chemestry etc. pretty cool. Way over my head for now, but some of it sticks.

The Thorens TD-125 suspension has to be adjusted this way as well. I use a couple of scrap two by fours set on edge. This allows enough room to adjust the three springs while the platter is in place and the bottom off. Crude but effective just like the design. The OP's engineering skills may help here as the process is similar to leveling a surveying instrument. I am assuming the designers felt 3 springs were better than four for ulitimate accuracy, but I have my doubts how that translates in real world use. Undoubtedly an excellent deal, the seller may be having a bit of sellers remorse having had those who lost out telling him how much more it was worth.

I'm holding to the original values as close as possible, only varying the voltage rating when I have to. So far I have replaced 38 caps on the two main "power boards" but there are at least another 30 - 40 in other places. I am also replacing the 4 power transistors as one is bad. Should I "soldier" on with my soldering or let them go until they actually fail (if that is in my lifetime) ? How about replacing the caps on the phono stage, any risk of changing the sound for the better or worse? I am still enjoying the project, I just don't want to change this unit any more from original than is necessary or prudent.

Good advise Greg. This is the right approach. To the OP, a big word of caution, make sure the speakers are off line or completely power down the amp(s) before you start pluging in new components. Don't hook up or unhook anything hot, especially with the speakers on. Could be disaster, no short cuts here! Does it sound like I have done this before? Yep!

This is a much better analogy! Thanks for all the advice. The soldering is going along fine, Solder wick is indespensible, I got a new tip for the iron and I am being very carefull. I have good light and have stripped it down far enough to have good access and working space. When I told my wife my buddies on the Klipsch forum had come through with good advice that the physical size doesn't matter, her response was "that's such a guy thing to say" !

So I'm diving in to replace the capacitors on my new Luxman R1120 Receiver that has been sitting in someones storage long enough to have spyder webs on the inside. I am replacing many of the capacitors but before I get too far along I need some reasurance. The pyhsical size of the replacement capacitors I have purchased are in some cases much smaller than the original equipment. My question is: If the specifications for Micro Farads & Voltage are correct will a much physically smaller unit function as well as a larger one? Is this just a function of newer manufacturing abilities? I know there are temperature and operating tollerances as well but those specs are acceptable. An example is the original equipment (Nippon Chemi Con)16V, 220 micro Farad cap measures 10mm in diameter and is 20mm tall. The replacement (NTE) is also 16V, 220 micro Farads but is only 6mm in diameter and 11mm tall. (About half the size) None of the original capacitors look bad ie. leaking or domed tops. I don't want to take any steps backward by putting in any lesser, newer equivalents. I kind of feel like I am replacing a big block Chevy with a new "Volt" engine (or is that a battery?) Thanks.

Hey John, Welcome to a fellow Coloradoan. You are in for a real treat and a real sonic "addiction".