[Bill Epstein]

Just another VPI HW-19 MK III dressed up in MK IV clothing. Right now it has the SME III arm and Benz Ace Low. I've been re-wiring the Cherry arm with 33 ga Cardas for almost a month but the cat has g-nawed the wires twice!   She also likes to steal and chomp on shrink tubing. Bad kitty

As I've had time I've been polishing the aluminum top plates for the Cornet and Clarinet; an entirely knew skill set for me.



The Cornet plate on the left is sanded thru 1500 grit and awaiting polishing, the Clarinet on the right polished with tripoli, then blizzard. It now has 3 coats of clear lacquer which still needs to be rubbed out but looks promising. I toyed with the idea of engine-turning the plates but figured I should try to master straight polishing first.

I still have to cut and glue-up the cherry for the bases and then finally I can engage in all this tube-rolling the rest of you are enjoying.

[amandarae]

Getting back to the topic on hand.....




Garrard 301 with Thomas Schick 12" arm, Denon DL103





Teres 255 with OL Silver modified and Shelter 901 as per pic





Thorens TD124 MKII with SME 3012 and DL103





 Thorens TD124 MKI with SME 3009 and DL103 wooden body





Garrard Lab 80 with Grado Gold or AT (forgot the #)?

SUT's are CINEMAG (x3) and TRIBUTE Amorphous Core Cobalt











Phono stages are

Hagerman Cornet 2 (old Pic)
 






Octal base RCA 6SL7 battery bias phono preamp with linestage





Supratek FET/6922/6C4 Loesch derived phono preamp




regards,

Abe

[analog97]

Abe,

Super kudos to you for those beautiful pics of your gear.  Beautiful TTables!!  Thanks for the info on the Denon.  I will google and find out how difficult this wooden body would be to achieve. 

[SHIF]

You gonna do some sort of statistical analysis with all this data?

I have a VPI Scout with stock 9" arm.  I use a Benz ACE Medium.

More important than my actual TT setup is the fact that all my LPs get a complete Disc Doctor washing and vacuum dry procedure on my DIY RCM.  That's where the good sound begins.


-S

[tubesforever]

Here is a copy of my L-34 Rek O Kut table.  The wood is flame maple.  The arm is a Magnepan Unitrac tonearm with my Grado Reference Master cartridge.  The hole in the back is for my 12 inch DIY tonearm I am still finishing up.



This is a picture of the same plinth but with a Rondine B12GH idler and Empire tonearm playing the Denon DL103R.



I also have a highly modified N33H thread drive, also with a Magnepan Unitrac tonearm.



I am building some cool Cherry plinths in the coming months that should be a great deal of fun to show off!

For cartridges I have

VDH MC-10 with Soundsmith ruby cantelever and optimized line contact stylus
Denon DL 103R
Denon DL 103D
Denon DL 102 (mono)
GE VRII  (mono)
ADC TRX-1
ADC TRX-2
Grado Reference Master
AT 440mla

And somewhere in my ex wifes junk pile is a Sau Win Strain Gauge cartridge that I would give my eye tooth for!

[amandarae]

Here is a copy of my L-34 Rek O Kut table.  The wood is flame maple.  The arm is a Magnepan Unitrac tonearm with my Grado Reference Master cartridge.  The hole in the back is for my 12 inch DIY tonearm I am still finishing up.



This is a picture of the same plinth but with a Rondine B12GH idler and Empire tonearm playing the Denon DL103R.



I also have a highly modified N33H thread drive, also with a Magnepan Unitrac tonearm.



I am building some cool Cherry plinths in the coming months that should be a great deal of fun to show off!

For cartridges I have

VDH MC-10 with Soundsmith ruby cantelever and optimized line contact stylus
Denon DL 103R
Denon DL 103D
Denon DL 102 (mono)
GE VRII  (mono)
ADC TRX-1
ADC TRX-2
Grado Reference Master
AT 440mla

And somewhere in my ex wifes junk pile is a Sau Win Strain Gauge cartridge that I would give my eye tooth for!

 

Wheeet wheeew!     Very nice!!!


regards,

Abe

[belyin]

Well, I have a plain Cornet that I bought used, supposedly with upgraded parts, so I hope I can play too!?!

My table is a Technics SP-10 mkII, which replaced a rather noisy Thorens TD-124. My preferred arm is an Audio Technica ATP-12T, with a Denon DL-103 and a mono DL-102 cartridge. (I also have a SME 3012 Series II arm mounted, as well.) I use a Denon AU-320 transformer for the step-up.

[Brinkman]

Abe,

How do feel the Cinemags compare to the Tribute SUTs?
I have my eyes on the moving-coil horizon and the Tributes have been a consideration (I think based off one of your write-ups).

Your plinths look superb. I have a couple Lencos in the wings waiting for a similar treatment.

Anyhow, lookin' good.

-Benjamin

[amandarae]

Abe,

How do feel the Cinemags compare to the Tribute SUTs?
I have my eyes on the moving-coil horizon and the Tributes have been a consideration (I think based off one of your write-ups).

Your plinths look superb. I have a couple Lencos in the wings waiting for a similar treatment.

Anyhow, lookin' good.

-Benjamin

Hello Benjamin,

 In my opinion, the Tribute have a different sound, dynamics wise, than the Cinemags.   The problem with the Tribute is the very long wait to get one that is why I stop writing about how good they are in forums like this.  I cannot recomend it anymore because of this but if you happen to find one that you can borrow, try it and you will hear for yourself how different soundwise the Tribute is in contrast to the Cinemag's.  If we are splitting hairs, personally, I will take the Tribute over the Cinemags any time of the day.


Lenco's are great tables.  They reflect what plinth you put them into in terms of how they perform.  I have friends with Lenco's and on CLD's, to me, it shares the same basic attributes in sound to that of the Garrard's and the TD 124's and I can be easily mistaken in guessing which one is playing at the time.   In fact, once I am done with my amp project's, I will hunt for a 75's myself.

Nice tables you have there, congrats and goodluck on building your plinths for them.  

regards,

Abe

[Big Jim]

Dual with Ortofon on a custom wall mounted super dense bamboo board.

Very, very happy.   

[flocchini]

I am using a modified Empire 208 turntable; RS Labs tone arm; Denon DL-S1 cartridge; YS Audio head amp and Cornet2. Piccolo will be used as soon as I find time to build.

[wdi]

Rebuilt Lenco L75 with a Morch DP6 and a Zyx R100 Fuji XH SB. This is the medium output Zyx which is claimed to be 0.48 mV (though some say 0.68 mV by a different method...CBS v. JVC...or something like that).

I am running it straight into my Cornet2 without a step-up, which requires cranking the volume on my tube preamp from about 12:00 to wide open sometimes. I get a bit of noticeable hiss from about 2:00 up; but it's tolerable and perhaps there is some advantage in avoiding a stepup (other than additional expense). On the downside: I have to remember to turn the thing down before switching to another source.