Hey All,
I’ve been messing around trying to find a decent TT for a second system for a while. I have bought, or found at garage sales several mid/late 70s TT that sounded pretty good. Most improve noticeably when I swap out the cheap ICs for a decent pair. Anyway, I'm still new to the tweaking hobby but I have tweaked several and sold them to friends as I had not found one I really wanted to keep (kind of fun tweaking the tables though my wife is getting a bit miffed as I seem to accumulate them faster than I sell them - lol).
That changed the other day. I bought a Yamaha YP-800 in pretty close to mint condition. I did a little research and found that Yamaha had several high end players including the PX-2, PX3, PF-1000, PF-800, but I found very little on the YP-800. A search on AC showed no results. I was able to find the specs before I bought it and the TT looked clean so I pulled the trigger.
I’m glad I did. Great find. Weighs in at over 27 lbs, with a 4.4 lb platter. Direct drive with I believe a Grace 804 arm. I put a Dynavector 10x5 cartridge on it and I am really impressed.
My main rig is a Rega Planar 25 with a Van Den Hul ‘Frog’. I dropped the Yamaha into my main system for a compare. To my ears the Yamaha is not quite as lively as the Rega but maybe a bit more full sounding. The Yamaha/Dyn doesn’t have the emotional pull and smooth transient detail of my Rega/VDH rig, but I’m pretty sure that is mostly if not all the cartridge. I have not tried the Frog on the Yamaha yet - my listening sessions have included several rounds of single malt - what’s the ’old’ saying? Screwing around with the Frog while drinking can be hazardous to your wallet?
Anyway - I am seriously impressed with this TT. Close to 30 years old, built like a tank and really, really sweet sounding. I don’t have a lot into it and would like to tweak it some just to see how good it can get. But it is good enough as is to not want to chance screwing it up.
The isolation feet are in great shape, adjustable and appear to have some kind of absorber/dampening device built in. I think they are fine as is. I found a users manual on the Grace arm. Seems to be a pretty good arm - maybe a re-wire? Any comments from anyone familiar with this arm is greatly appreciated. I will probably change the ICs.
Long story short, this is a pretty darned good TT but I can’t find much info on it or comments from others familiar with the table. I’d appreciate any comments/feedback from the folks here. To tweak it some (what are the best changes?) or leave it as is - that’s the question. (Who knows? Maybe the Yamaha will end up in the main system with the Rega demoted to A-gon?)
I’m looking to get the most out of this second system - the rest is as follows:
Pre - Odyssey Tempest
Amps - Odyssey Mono Blocks
Speakers - Dynaudio Contour 1.1s
Thanks,
Don
