HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Nice work yet again Ant, I like the look of the deep plinth.

Some nice TTs lovely work V-a.
Though I'm not a fan of those teardrop shaped monstrositys, just look strange to me.

Lenco no 0 got finished last night. It came back for an arm rewire as the earth had come off the arm tube so it hummed.
Rather than just fixing that, I just completely rewired the r200 arm (again)
I rewired it with litz cable from transfi, Vic of transfi is the guy who did the salvation turntable and the terminator air bearing arm. Same stuff he used for that arm, I prefer it to cardas which was in the r200 before.
it took me nearly an hour to fish the earthing plate out of the arm tube, its a spring steel metal plate with teeth cut into the sides and was somewhere at the bearing end where it was inaccessible. Had to make a hook from stiff wire to pull it out the other end. Used up most of my patience quota for the day. When I started to rewire it it was about 10pm. But it was quiet so I thought I'd just get on with it.
The earth plate was put back In at the headshell end instead so it's at least accessible now.
The cabling is one run of 125cm from the headshell to the plugs and was run down an insulated core sleeve. Steel braid goes over this then a plastic braid covers it all up. The arm tube earth was soldered to the braid at the top then an earth wire was soldered at the other end with a spade connector to attach to the phono stage. Some nice plugs on it and hey presto. One fully shielded cable and one fully working arm. Also turned a plug for the arm end so that the cable is held in the base of the arm by the outer sheath so there's no tension on the signal wires, and the arm can be set so the cabling doesn't affect the bias as the cabling is glued into the plug. The plug is rotated until there is no pull on the bias and then secured with a setscrew in the arm base.

Earlier in the day I also turned up a mounting collar for it so that it now has adjustable vta too, a drawback with this arm. I found a bit of delrin rod that was big enough to make a collar out of in a box of bits. Nice and simple, top hat shaped so the collar screws to the deck, the arm sits in the collar and the height is set with a pair of 4mm setscrews at 12 o'clock and 3 o'clock on the base. It doesnt need 2 but I wanted to be sure the collar would hold it at the right height and it does with just one. Had to grind my own profile onto a piece of blank hss steel to make a boring bar that would clear the inside of the piece, for some reason most standard lathe boring bars have too shallow an angle on them to bore interior cuts in small workpieces, this one needed to be 23.2mm and the closest I could get to this with a drill was 20. So some judicious fettling of the cutter blank was require to get the clearance.

Was worth doing though

It’s back in my system now and playing with my AT VM540ML cart.

Got lucky with some turntable related items over the past few weeks.
I've been collecting cartridges, buying them as spares or repair. I paid 20 quid for a dynavector ultimo 20a which was supposedly knackered, but once the stylus was cleaned with vodka to remove 40 years of crap, it was certainly not knackered. That's gone onto the 301. Bouyed by this success, I shelled out 35 quid on another supposedly knackered cart, a Hana sl. Same treatment, cleaned the stylus with vodka and we have a pretty much new cart. That's gone on the jvc. Probably best not to do this with your new expensive cart though.
I then took a punt on something listed as an ortofon sl10. There is no such thing as an sl10, but I knew what it was. Being a sad git and a mine of useless information.
What it was, was an ortofon sl15e ll. Which is from 1968, and is an spu in a normal cart body. 100 quid. Turns out that it was nos. Never used.

This weekend gone, I decided wanted another lenco to butcher. Got another idea for one.
A quick search and a cheeky offer to a seller later, I got another early 75 for 225 quid. Expensive for a 75, but considering that someone had bodged an early sme 3009 s2 improved onto it, not so expensive. Perfect for the sl15

Wants a clean and a cable sorting out (a clever if pointless bodge had been made to the wiring to allow it to use the lenco wiring) although I might just make up a phono conversion kit instead of sourcing an original cable.
Wants some new bedplate grommets too. Matching numbers too on the bedplate and arm so it's not a bitsa
So depending on your point of view I've either got a pretty cheap 3009 and a free lenco, or an expensive lenco with a free arm......

The lenco is a nice one, has the strobe disc and a very good platter mat, they are usually all perished around the disc in the centre but this one is like new
The motor is one of the solid frame one's which is nice as they sink heat better than the open frame ones, and it has the 5 hole idler wheel too. And it is not bent like the last few I've bought.

The hole that the previous owner has cut for the arm looks like it was done with a bread knife, but its no issue as there won't be much left of it when I've done anyway.

Some bargains to be had at the moment

Being a sad git has paid then Ant.

Next one is finished, or 99.999% finished, bloody feet still haven't turned up...
Pauls 401

Garrard 401 ortofon ta210 spu dynavector ultimo 20a by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

In that shot it temporarily has a borrowed SPU on it to check that the alignment was spot on, which it is. It will have an SPU on it when it goes home. As the SPU is not mine, it was then taken straight back off and stored away snug in its box.
It has some temporary feet on it to make it useable until the proper ones finally turn up. or don't, in which case i will be mildly annoyed an have to make some

Garrard 401 ortofon ta210 spu dynavector ultimo 20a by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

Its a big bugger, that monstrous ortofon arm is longer than most 12" arms in terms of spindle to pivot distance. They usually range somewhere around 290-295mm, that ortofon is 316.5 so is about an inch further out than the norm.

Garrard 401 ortofon ta210 spu dynavector ultimo 20a by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

spinning 12" singles is fun

Garrard 401 ortofon ta210 spu dynavector ultimo 20a by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

I put the dynavector ultimo 20a in it once the SPU was put away, the arm needs alot of headshell weight to balance up, the headshell with it is a 15g one, so all up with that cart in it is about 25g on the end of the arm. It does mean that medium to high compliance carts wont like it, I put the SL15 E LL in the headshell and got an immediate resonance out of it because the SL is high compliance at 24. the SPU is 8. A different bit of rubber in the assembly to make it useable with SME arms in 1968 when it was made. The Dynavectors compliance is also listed as 8, its probably abit more but not a huge amount, id estimate about 12 ish so it works fine

Garrard 401 ortofon ta210 spu dynavector ultimo 20a by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

Its on some different feet right now to raise it up higher as the arm cable that comes with the ortofon is a stupid gargantuan cable that looks like it could string a suspension bridge. its not very bendy, about a half inch thick, and is cumbersome and awkward to use. Don't even think about using on a suspended subchassis deck, it would be utterly impossible to get it to work. In the earlier shots Id used a different cable. But other than the stupid cable the arm is rather nice.

It will be here for a little while until it gets collected, so ill get to enjoy it for a short time
on to the next one

Very, very nice Ant, is mine next?

Oh and is that my SPU by any chance

Super duper work again Ant. I reckon those feet are going to be a while before they turn up.

@ Martin, yep, and yep, although I'm going to be doing the 99 alongside the custom deck with the teres idler drive motor at the same time rather than one at a time to try and cut down the turnaround on them both.
Hopefully.........
Interestingly, your spu has identical specs to my sl15 apart from the rubber damper that sets the compliance whereas Paul's is higher output. Yours is the spu number 1 e (I think) Paul's is the synergy iirc.

I do hope the feet turn up, they match the ones on the lenco..