For sale: my wonderful Well Tempered turntable and tonearm (serial number 1904) with Well Tempered dustcover and extensive upgrades to both the turntable and tonearm as described below.
$2,250 $2,195. The phono cartridge shown in the photos is not included with the Well Tempered.
I’m the original owner of the Well Tempered, having purchased it in January 1988 from Bradford’s Hi-Fidelity, an authorized Well Tempered dealer located in Eugene, Oregon. The Well Tempered has served me faithfully all these years and has never required a repair other than re-soldering cartridge clips I severed installing new cartridges. I’m replacing my Well Tempered with a much more expensive turntable.
The Well Tempered is in exceptional operating condition and good cosmetic condition and is conservatively rated 7/10 on the Audiogon scale due to age. The Well Tempered was used in a smoke-free, pet-free, and child-free dedicated music/home theater room.
The Well Tempered comes with the following upgrades:
1) Extensive tonearm upgrades installed in January 1990 by Lary Pedersen of LP Lab in Hercules, California. The LP Lab upgrades include:
• Tonearm rewired with Cardas tonearm wire including upgraded cartridge clips. For slightly better channel separation, the wires for one channel run down the inside of the armtube and the wires for the other channel run in a shielded braid down the outside of the armtube.
• Armtube and wires running down the outside of the armtube are covered with clear heatshrink tubing to dampen tonearm resonances.
• A lead weight added to the tonearm bearing paddle to lower the tonearm’s center of gravity and stabilize the tonearm in the silicone fluid.
• Upgraded Tiffany OFC RCA connectors on the terminal block.
• Damping material added to the underside of the RCA terminal block.
• Tonearm mounting pillar modified to allow easy and precise adjustment of VTA/stylus rake angle with the turn of an adjustment knob on the top of the tonearm pillar. The adjustment is locked by tightening an Allen screw on the side of the tonearm pillar with the supplied Allen wrench.
• Damping of the bottom plate of the tonearm mounting pillar, counterweights, finger lift, and headshell with sorbothane. I subsequently replaced all the sorbothane with Herbie’s Audio Lab grungebuster material for even better sound.
The Well Tempered comes with documentation of the tonearm upgrades and setup tips from LP Lab.
2) Well Tempered Black Damped platter including the spindle and record clamp designed for the Black Damped platter. (Note: some people believe the original clear acrylic platter sounds better than the Black Damped platter. My Well Tempered comes with both platters as well as the associated spindles and record clamps, so you can try both platters.)
3) Upgraded Well Tempered motor pulley, two polyester thread belts (one on the turntable and one backup), a large spool of polyester thread, and instructions for making new polyester thread belts. The pulley and polyester thread belts are recent designs from the creator of the Well Tempered turntable and tonearm, Mr. William Firebaugh, as an upgrade for older Well Tempered tables. With my Well Tempered, you’ll never have to purchase a belt or settle for a questionable aftermarket belt.
4) Marigo Audio Well Damped Arm Clamp – an internally damped brass clamp for the tonearm bearing cup. The Well Tempered comes with the owner’s manual for the Well-Damped Arm Clamp.
5) Marigo Audio Micro-Suspension System – ingenious and very effective isolation footers for the Well Tempered turntable and motor. The Well Tempered comes with the owner’s manual for the Micro-Suspension System.
6) Herbie’s Audio Lab grungebuster turntable mat specifically designed for mat-less acrylic-platter turntables such as the Well Tempered.
Each of the above upgrades (especially the LP Lab and Marigo Audio upgrades) made a significant improvement in the sound of my Well Tempered. All of the upgrades combined took my Well Tempered to a far higher level of sound quality than the already wonderful sounding stock unit.
One of the most versatile features of the Well Tempered is that it sounds wonderful with virtually any quality phono cartridge. This versatility is due to the combination of a low-to-medium mass tonearm and variable tonearm damping. The tonearm bearing sits in a cup of silicon fluid, and the amount of fluid, and thus the damping, can be easily changed. The silicon fluid comes in a syringe, so to add damping, just squeeze a little more silicon fluid into the cup. To reduce damping, stick the nozzle tip of the syringe into the fluid, pull back on the syringe plunger, and suck the excess fluid back up into the syringe for future use.
For many years, I've used a Cartridge Man Music Maker Classic phono cartridge with my Well Tempered. It's a high compliance moving iron cartridge, so I have the silicon fluid just touching the bottom of the tonearm bearing for minimal damping. Prior to that, I used a low compliance Transfiguration moving coil cartridge. With the Transfiguration, I added silicon fluid from the syringe so it almost covered the tonearm bearing for substantially more damping.
With the Well Tempered, cartridge selection is limited by your budget and phono stage flexibility, not the tonearm.
In the second paragraph of my ad, I said I’d severed cartridge clips a few times over the years when installing new cartridges. I soldered the clips back onto the tonearm wire, but my soldering skills are poor and my bad solder job detracts from the Well Tempered’s aesthetics. Therefore, I’m including with the Well Tempered a set of expensive Cardas Premium PCC cartridge clips, a 24 inch set of very expensive cyroed gold/silver alloy tonearm wire already terminated with Cardas PCC EG cartridge clips, a small amount of silver solder, and an article on soldering tips for cartridge clips and tonearm wires. If you or a friend or someone in your local hi-fi shop can solder, you can install the Cardas Premium PCC cartridge clips, rewire the tonearm with the gold/silver alloy wire already terminated with Cardas PCC EG cartridge clips, or just do nothing and enjoy my Well Tempered’s wonderful sound as is.
In addition to the extensive upgrades described above, the Well Tempered turntable, tonearm, and dustcover come in their original shipping cartons complete with all packing materials, owner’s manual, Well Tempered cartridge alignment protractor, new syringe of silicon fluid for the tonearm bearing, both original counterweights and Allen wrench for the counterweight lock screws, original clear acrylic platter, original record clamp and spindle, upgraded Well Tempered record clamp that fits the original spindle, original motor pulley and two official Well Tempered flat rubber belts, original turntable feet, original advertising brochure, and numerous magazine reviews of the original Well Tempered turntable and tonearm.
I’ll drain the platter bearing and tonearm bearing fluids before shipping. William Firebaugh recommends using 100,000 cSt viscosity silicon fluid for the tonearm bearing and 5W-20 or 5W-30 full synthetic motor oil for the platter bearing. A new syringe of 100,000 cSt viscosity silicon fluid for the tonearm bearing is included with my Well Tempered. You can purchase full synthetic motor oil at Target, most grocery stores, or any auto parts store. If you ever need more silicon fluid in the future, you can purchase 10cc syringes of the 100,000 cSt viscosity silicon fluid for $10 each plus shipping at turntablebasics.com.
The Well Tempered will be carefully packed and ship in three separate boxes: the original factory shipping carton for the Well Tempered table and tonearm, the original factory shipping carton for the Well Tempered dustcover, and a third box for the parts that won’t fit in the factory boxes.
After the purchase, I’ll be happy to help you set up the Well Tempered by phone if you live within the lower 48 states where I have free long distance phone service. I’ve used the Well Tempered for 26 years, so my assistance may be helpful.
Payment via PayPal. The listed price in the first paragraph of my ad includes the PayPal fee and ground shipping from Wilsonville, Oregon to the lower 48 states. Please check my Audiogon feedback for pmorris_or.
With the stock Well Tempered’s gloriously natural sound, extensive upgrades that take my Well Tempered to a far higher level of sound quality than the stock unit, flexibility to work with virtually any phono cartridge, and free phone support during setup, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better turntable and tonearm than my Well Tempered at anywhere near my asking price.
Thank you for reading my ad.
