Dug my old TT out of the closet

[jheis]

After listening to some of you guys raving about how great vinyl is, I dug my old Philips AF 777 turntable (audio-technica AT14Sa cartridge) out of the closet and plugged it into my BR system. Haven't used it in probably 15 years, but it fired right up and works great. Anyone know anything about this TT or cartridge? As I recall, the TT was pretty highly rated at the time (circa 1979). I've also got a Lenco L-75 that I brought back from Germany hidden away somewhere.

Actually the impetus for dragging out the old TT was a recent NPR retrospective on The Joy of Cooking - one of my favorite groups from the early 70's. They did three albums for Capitol that I only have on vinyl. All three Joy of Cooking albums sound great, but I've been playing a lot of other stuff that I haven't heard in years (on vinyl anyway) and some of it sounds like crap. I just listened to the A&M release of Wes Montgomery's "Road Song." Lots of snap, crackle & pop.

I've got one of those wood-backed, brush type, discwasher thingys, which you used with "D3" cleaning solution. So, my question is: has anyone come up with a homebrew solution to use with the discwasher brush? I don't imagine the solution was too esoteric, maybe just some distilled water, a few drops of dishwashing liquid and some rubbing alcohol?

James

[www.records]

James, I am not familiar with your Phillips TT, but your AT14Sa is a nice cartridge. It is discontinued, but there are some original stylus still available, and I would recommend you order one while there are a few still available.

http://www.lpgear.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=LG&Product_Code=ATN14

But the real sleeper might be your old Lenco 75. There are lots of folks grabbing these, building a HEAVY plinth for them, reworking the idler, installing a better arm and raving about the Giant killer TT they become. There are websites describing these mods in depth, so if you are a DIY type, this would make a great project. Here is a link that was started on Audiogon almost 2 years ago, dedicated to tweaking the old Idler Lenco's which you will probably find interesting, although with nearly 3,000 posts on the thread, it will take about 2 months to read, so search google for a website.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1075644493&read&3&4&


As far as cleaning your old vinyl to hopefully get rid of those rice krispy sounds, cleaning has come a ways since the Discwasher/D4 method. Everyone seems to have a preferred method, so a search at some of the audio sites will be of benefit. My preferred method is Disc Doctor brushes, RRL (record research labs) fluids, and a RCM (record cleaning machine). I am using a homemade version of RCM which works quite well.

Anyway, I hope this helps with your questions.

Steve