Speaker Snobs and Turntable Blues
Sprags
Posts: 120
As some of you may remember...I joined this forum back in late winter with the thought of looking for or getting advice on RTiA7's for a two channel system and was persuaded to consider the Polk Audio eBay store and LSiM 703's. with a little reservation I purchased since there was a money back guarantee. At that time all I had was a Sony HT receiver and was waiting for a custom tube amp built to my specs to be completed and delivered. The month or so time gave me a chance to break the speakers in.
The amp came in and then there was the tube break in period. Despite what the cable snobs are saying I'm using 12 gauge speaker cable for now. The sound from my system is so sweet I find it hard to believe that people think MP3's are the greatest thing to hit the music industry since Thomas Edison. Anyway I guess that makes me a snob of sorts....
About a month ago I found on EBay a Technics SL-1100 being sold by a guy close to where i live. i took a ride and checked it out. it looked pretty good. It was dusty and the cover had a bad scratch but I figured a little work would bring things up to snuff. The thing that appealed to me about it was the size and weight. It's built like a tank. It came with a Shure V15T3 cartridge and the seller demoed it though his setup was less than perfect. He had two old advent speakers in the corner of the room side by side and the TT sitting on top of the speakers. He played an LP at a fairly low volume and admitted that he didn't understand why when he cranked up the volume the feedback went to hell. I offered him $25 bucks less than the Buy It Now price and he accepted.
I got it home and decided that since I didn't have a phono preamp I'd work on finding and buying one and in the meantime I'd work on cleaning it up. The aluminum platter was oxidized and there was some pitting so some Wenol aluminum polish and a lot of hand polished brought it back to looking really good for being 41 years old. Polishing the tonearm board helped to and using a black Sharpie to hide the scratches on the painted base and Maguiar's polish brought that side to looking good. I used sandpaper and Wenol to remove the cover scratches. There's still some swirls but it looks way better than it did. The only thing I'm not to happy about is that I found some tiny scratches on the s-shaped tonearm tube and have considered replacing the tonearm but until I repair one mistake I made it's staying the way it is.
In the course of all the work I did I accidental bent the stylus tube. I bent it back into position and hoped for the best. I found an ART DJpre II phono preamp at Parts Express 15 minutes north of where I live and picked that up for $50. Audiokarma member seem to think highly of it and until I know my TT is running well it will do. I got everything hooked up, put an old LP on the turntable and nothing...no sound. I removed the head shell and thought maybe I didn't have the stylus installed on the cartridge so pulled it out and pushed it back in and saw the needle and tube broken off. It was probably hanging by a hair. I did however reinstall the headshell and tapped the cantilever and got sound sound so I at least now the cartridge is working though how well I don't know. I ordered a $15 replacement stylus from eBay. It will be here Tuesday. I'm hoping it works fine.
Perhaps I paid too much for this TT but even though I haven't listened to any music I've had it plugged in and spinning steadily and quietly for hours. I'd really like to find a tonearm to use but perhaps it will be fine the way it is. I've thought maybe I should have waited and purchased a Technics SL-1200Mk2 or Thorens....but maybe I was meant to be the guy to bring new life into this turntable.
If anyone has suggestions or comments I'd appreciate it....Thanx....Blake
The amp came in and then there was the tube break in period. Despite what the cable snobs are saying I'm using 12 gauge speaker cable for now. The sound from my system is so sweet I find it hard to believe that people think MP3's are the greatest thing to hit the music industry since Thomas Edison. Anyway I guess that makes me a snob of sorts....
About a month ago I found on EBay a Technics SL-1100 being sold by a guy close to where i live. i took a ride and checked it out. it looked pretty good. It was dusty and the cover had a bad scratch but I figured a little work would bring things up to snuff. The thing that appealed to me about it was the size and weight. It's built like a tank. It came with a Shure V15T3 cartridge and the seller demoed it though his setup was less than perfect. He had two old advent speakers in the corner of the room side by side and the TT sitting on top of the speakers. He played an LP at a fairly low volume and admitted that he didn't understand why when he cranked up the volume the feedback went to hell. I offered him $25 bucks less than the Buy It Now price and he accepted.
I got it home and decided that since I didn't have a phono preamp I'd work on finding and buying one and in the meantime I'd work on cleaning it up. The aluminum platter was oxidized and there was some pitting so some Wenol aluminum polish and a lot of hand polished brought it back to looking really good for being 41 years old. Polishing the tonearm board helped to and using a black Sharpie to hide the scratches on the painted base and Maguiar's polish brought that side to looking good. I used sandpaper and Wenol to remove the cover scratches. There's still some swirls but it looks way better than it did. The only thing I'm not to happy about is that I found some tiny scratches on the s-shaped tonearm tube and have considered replacing the tonearm but until I repair one mistake I made it's staying the way it is.
In the course of all the work I did I accidental bent the stylus tube. I bent it back into position and hoped for the best. I found an ART DJpre II phono preamp at Parts Express 15 minutes north of where I live and picked that up for $50. Audiokarma member seem to think highly of it and until I know my TT is running well it will do. I got everything hooked up, put an old LP on the turntable and nothing...no sound. I removed the head shell and thought maybe I didn't have the stylus installed on the cartridge so pulled it out and pushed it back in and saw the needle and tube broken off. It was probably hanging by a hair. I did however reinstall the headshell and tapped the cantilever and got sound sound so I at least now the cartridge is working though how well I don't know. I ordered a $15 replacement stylus from eBay. It will be here Tuesday. I'm hoping it works fine.
Perhaps I paid too much for this TT but even though I haven't listened to any music I've had it plugged in and spinning steadily and quietly for hours. I'd really like to find a tonearm to use but perhaps it will be fine the way it is. I've thought maybe I should have waited and purchased a Technics SL-1200Mk2 or Thorens....but maybe I was meant to be the guy to bring new life into this turntable.
If anyone has suggestions or comments I'd appreciate it....Thanx....Blake
Post edited by Sprags on
Comments
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The SL-1100 is a nice turntable; too bad about the stylus.
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Lookin good so far.
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Thats gonna sound just fine when you put the new stylus in there. Might be something you would have needed to do anyway.
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Sold my SL1100A and Shure V15 Type V MR Cartridge about 8-10 years ago, and regret it. The thing's a tank and will serve you well. They were made for Pro use. See if you can locate the strobe light that plugs into the left side where the small silver disk is.Home Theater/2 Channel:
Front: SDA-2ATL forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/143984/my-2as-finally-finished-almost/p1
Center: Custom Built forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/150760/my-center-channel-project/p1
Surrounds & Rears: Custom Built forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/151647/my-surround-project/p1
Sonicaps, Mills, RDO-194s-198s, Dynamat, Hurricane Nuts, Blackhole5
Pioneer Elite VSX-72TXV, Carver PM-600, SVS PB2-Plus Subwoofer
dhsspeakerservice.com/ -
Nice rig. The turntable is better then people think and for the price you paid, that was cheap. Where did you find a v15 needle for $15?Klipsch The Nines, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's.
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I'm listening to a $5 onkyo direct drive with a shure cartridge. I never researched if it was good or not, just hooked it up and listened. It sounds good to my ears, that's all that matters.
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I agree with erniejade. That is a nice rig. I like the turntable, and have looked at replacing my SL1200 with one like yours. I want a deck that will allow me to swap tone arms because I am fascinated with the possibilities of low mass, high mass, and even linear tracking! I would not consider the folks that have chosen to invest in expensive cables as snobs. Everyone is entitled to pursue this hobby as they see fit. I could never afford to invest thousands of dollars into IC's or speaker wires, but I'd sure like to hear them and the effect of affect they may have on the overall performance of the system. Find what you love and pursue it! That is what this hobby is about!Sources: Technics SL1200MKII | SME3009 Tonearm | Monster Alpha 1 MC cartridge | Oppo UDP203 disk player | Nikko NT-790 analog tuner | Musical Fidelity Trivista 21 DAC | Preamp: Threshold SL-10 | Amplifier: Threshold Stasis 2 | Speakers: Snell Acoustics C/V | Kimber 12-TC bi wire speakers | Analysis plus Oval 1 preamp to amp | Wireworld Eclipse 7 DAC to Preamp | Wireworld eclipse digital IC Oppo to DAC | Audioquest Quartz tuner to preamp |
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Nice rig. The turntable is better then people think and for the price you paid, that was cheap. Where did you find a v15 needle for $15?
eBay. I just typed Shure V15T3 stylus and found stylii that have Swiss labels on them. They claim to be generic ....I'll see if its an ok product. If not $15 isn't going to break me.
