Thinning out....

Alas, even I have seen the futility in keeping all 15 of my  turntables! Sold one of my Oracles earlier in the year, a Technics, now my last Thorens. TD-125 with an SME 3009 series II tonearm, Stanton 681EEE cartridge. Convinced I will never again use this, I have posted it to the local Craigslist. In all honesty, like my Sotas, remaining Oracle, Lux  PD 300s better.  Have already received the spam- "still available? Hoping you still have this item?. In great condition? Would like to buy item this. You don't have to sell this, I have found a tremendous business opportunity. Would like to send you a bank draft and have you refund the difference, hiding from my Swiss bank account.".

   Anyway, hoping somebody somewhere will enjoy this. Again, most things over $100. on Craigslist I end up shipping to another state.......

welcoming another new friend to the blog

Jeff emailed me and commented on my defunct dealers post, seems he was searching for Nick Desedario, the owner of the Sound Chamber in the '70s, through the mid '80s.Mentioned he worked there in the mid '70s. Google brought him to my post, and he sent me some great old pics of him and his system back in the day.Looks like he had some pretty cool stuff! ARC SP-3, Marantz 7c and 8B, Mac 240 tube amp, Futterman, Luxman, etc.

   Now living in Florida, says he still has his Soundcraftsman preamp/eq, and his Dahlquist DQ-10s.

  Great to hear from you, Jeff, and glad you are still enjoying!

Got some good friends coming over tonight to listen to a couple of changes I made on my system- want me to play their records. I have a few of their records.......

'Tis an emotional day indeed.....

Decided to list my prized Altec Valencia B's a few weeks ago on Craigslist (see my earlier posts), having acquired my 17th pair of speakers, the Pioneer Elite TZ-700s, (see my other earlier posts), and decided things were getting out of control. These commanded a fair degree of domestic real estate, weighing in at god knows how many pounds, (waaay too expensive to ship!).  I have literally owned them for 14 years, plus I haven't hooked up my Ming Da triode single ended triode amps (see yet again my earlier posts)  in quite a while, the best amps I have suited for them. 15" two-way horns, same compliment as the Voice of the Theaters.


Once again, I am surprised that nobody on Craigslist locally saw the value in these! Seems like anything more than $100. I end up shipping or somehow  selling to someone out of state! Is Rochester really doing that bad, or is Craigslist just not the right venue? I hate Ebay. I would have had to call the piano movers to facilitate this.

A gentleman Richard from Virginia ended up buying them, drove his van  all the way up and fell into numerous snags along the way. To make a long story short, he finally made it a couple of days ago, obviously dedicated to the art, or business, made several other stops along the way as you can see by the pictures!



Glad he ended up with them, truly a nice hard working guy. I let him rearrange his load while I went to the dentist.  Left a vintage 1950's cabinet of sorts for the garbage men, didn't have room for it, it is going to the curb Tuesday night. If any of you cheap Rochester people want it, come and get it! Apparently, free gets a reaction, Valencia B's don't.

  PS- still have my Ming Da's listed on Craigslist. Assuming some Japanese guy will fly  in in a helicopter, land in my back yard, and give me huge yen for them!

Happy Labor Day! The great fuzzy dice SP 10 project

 As I mentioned last month, I bought the "fuzzy dice" Technics SP-10 II from a nice guy  named Henry.


 Most people had picnics and family gatherings today, I completed my two week turntable project. Pretty riveting, huh?

  When I first disassembled this work of art, I was a little disappointed to see the bottom edges of the table had some kind of chemical reaction to whatever was in the shag carpet, pretty much ate the finish near the bottom edges all the way around! Also, the on/off switch is extremely scratched- I guess what you would expect from years of studio use.

   Racking my brains trying to figure out what to use for a base- butcher block? Too expensive for a nice one, and too hard to work with. I am not an expert woodworker. Granite or marble slab? Ditto all the reasons above. Maybe just set it up as a free standing unit with a separate tone arm base?  Too hokey.


   Then it hit me! My buddy Bob (Analog Shop) gave me a Bright Star Audio isolation platform years ago, still sitting in the closet! This was kind of weird, had a lawn tractor inner tube glued underneath, you would pump it up from a valve stem  in the back until it just rose up enough to lift itself just slightly off the shelf.

  Some quick measurements and my gears were turning! Ripped off the inner tube and scraped off the glue.Used a hunk of cut plywood from the fuzzy dice platform as a template, cut the opening for the table, and stayed with the SME mounting pattern. I like to do this as you can still use other arms in the elongated SME hole.

  After cutting and drilling I gave it a quick coat of gloss black paint, it was kind of a "clay gray" Nextel- like finish, plus it had numerous scratches and nicks from years of being tossed around. I am about as good a painter as I am a woodworker........


    Settled on the Audio Technica AT-1009 arm after trying a couple of others, I figured broadcast table, broadcast arm. Hate the pump cueing! Twice as much work to mount as a conventional arm. You need to do an extra hole for the lever/pump assembly (see the right front in the pictures), and another return hole for the vacuum hose that connects this to the dashpot! WHY can't this just have conventional cueing? Anyway, otherwise a very well made arm, quite famous in its day, and a little more universal than the SME.

   As a final touch, mounted some B&W adjustable speaker spikes with threaded inserts to the bottom for leveling and to complete that "modern contemporary look".

   What cartridge? Pulled out my old Stanton 681 EEE. Figured broadcast table,  broadcast arm, broadcast cartidge, right?  Yuck! Off it came for a Nakamichi MC.


    So how does it sound? Very analytical. Sounds like a radio station. As I said earlier, not a huge fan of direct drive. Doesn't do anything wrong, and adds no character of its own.You can tell this is a quality table. Strong enough to jump start a Harley, up to speed as quick as you can snap your fingers. Brakes stop it instantly. Also have the wired remote start/stop button for this, went in the closet where it will stay. This will not be replacing my beloved Sotas any time soon. Still, a welcome addition to my collection.