Shark

Further information: Outstanding high spec DAC from Line Magnetic. Tube or Solid Sate Output, ESS Sabre DAC Chips. Unit has had very little work and is like new. Original Packaging. Full Spec and Review here - https://positive-feedback.com/Issue74/line_magnetic.htmThe Line Magentic Photos: PLEASE READ If you include any reference to pricing whatsoever in this section (excluding RRP), your ad will not be approved If you are advertising multiple items, you must post one bulk price only, or post seperate ads for each item If you don't include photographs of the actual item being sold, your ad will not be approved You understand that upon successful sale of your item it is expected you pay Seller's Fees. - if you have previously sold items and not made a contribution, your advertisement may not be approved.

Fabulous Teac V 7000 Dual Capstan, 3 Head Tape Deck. This Deck is in excellent working order and has had little use in it's life. Casework is unmarked. Owners Manual is in French. English version should be available on the net. Powered Cassette Door, and features CD Direct Recording Capacity. Photos: PLEASE READ If you include any reference to pricing whatsoever in this section (excluding RRP), your ad will not be approved If you are advertising multiple items, you must post one bulk price only, or post seperate ads for each item If you don't include photographs of the actual item being sold, your ad will not be approved You understand that upon successful sale of your item it is expected you pay Seller's Fees. - if you have previously sold items and not made a contribution, your advertisement may not be approved.

Further information: Fabulous old Super Tweeters by Coral. Overbuilt like most Japanese hi end in the 70's. Improves the openness and sound staging. Specs: Characteristics.playback frequency range: 4,000–30,000 Hz ■ Recommended crossover frequency: 5 kHz ■ Impedance: 8 Ohm ■ Maximum input: 50 W ■ Sound output pressure level: 108 dB / W / m ■ Magnetic flux density: 14,500 gauss ■ Frequency range playback: 4,000–30,000 Hz ■ Recommended crossover frequency: 5 kHz ■ Impedance: 8 Ohm ■ Maximum input: 50 W ■ Output sound pressure level: 108 dB / W / m ■ Magnetic flux density: 14,500 gauss ■ Type: Horn Tweeter Face Width: 70mm Depth: 85mm Overall Depth: 100mm WEIGHT: 2-1/2 lbs each. Photos: PLEASE READ If you include any reference to pricing whatsoever in this section (excluding RRP), your ad will not be approved If you are advertising multiple items, you must post one bulk price only, or post seperate ads for each item If you don't include photographs of the actual item being sold, your ad will not be approved You understand that upon successful sale of your item it is expected you pay Seller's Fees. - if you have previously sold items and not made a contribution, your advertisement may not be approved.

Yep , Brett is on it. On or Off the contacts will slowly corrode,...and switching them on and off scraps (wipes) off the corrosion creating a new contact surface. Cheers, Mark.

Evening all. I don't really post a lot of stuff on SNA but after experiencing nearly a year of trouble with my system, then solving it, if I can save just one of you from going thru this crap then it's worth the post. My system is very fast, OTL Power amps, and very fast Pre. Any limitation in Voltage/Current delivery is ruthlessly revealed,....and my system was starting to sound slow. It's all tube including Phono so suspicion fell on tubes. Swapped out many of the drivers, giving me some gains, but still overall it was getting slower. it got so slow & undynamic sounding that I lost interest in playing it. Every month or so I'd try something different. It got to the point where I even swapped out every component with borrowed ones to isolate the issue. CD,...Vinyl,..both sounded lifeless. More months went by, no solution. I'll spare you all the things I did but in the end, an audio buddy said "have you tried plugging the system into the other side of the Wall Plate (same Mains Feed). My entire System is fed by a single, dual outlet 10 Amp wall Plate. Why this would make any difference made no sense to me but I entertained the thought. BAMM,.. there it was,...the System was back. What had happened was all my Mains Plugs have remained plugged in and undisturbed in the same position for 1 to 4 years,..and the Mains Switches are always ON. I only turn off at each component. So, slowly slowly, the once clean contacts on each Mains Switch (7 of them) had corroded, still passing Voltage/Current,..but in a compromised fashion, causing the slow sonic death of my sound. I post this because no one in Audio I bounced this issue off had any clue this could be the problem. These were clever long time exponents of Hi Fi. I've only read this procedure once years ago in a high end audio setup book, but I hadn't taken it seriously enough! I have since made a point of cleaning all my IEC and Aust Mains Plugs thoroughly, and switch on and off several times all my Mains Switches regularly. The difference is staggering! Anybody out there who has had all their components plugged in the same way for 6 months or more, and not switched your switches on and off for the same period, may be in for quite a shock once you do this. Unplug every Mains Connector, clean and re-assemble every six months or so. Switch all Mains Switches 4 or 5 times every couple of weeks. Your welcome! Enjoy. Cheers, Mark.

Sadly I have experienced the same terrible sound quality consistently with Vinyl pressed in the EU. This of course means it could be pressed anywhere in those participating countries on any crappy old press from CD ripped masters, or not much better. Sourcing will depend on price, not quality,...... and remember, the majority of buyers have low to medium performance equipment and won't know the difference. I now have about 10 Albums pressed in the EU and they are consistently garbage. Flat, lifeless, rolled off,.....just junk. My Sota wants to spit them off the Platter! They were all bought at JB Hi Fi, as JB are riding the wave of sales in Vinyl and have a huge range (by today's standard) that present well, and look promising, but consistently disappoint once they hit the Table Mat. No more EU Vinyl for me. I only buy quality pressings now and just pay the premium, it's worth it in the end because if I like the recording/pressing, then I'll play it instead of it becoming "shelf filler" like the 10 EU worthless pressings I currently have taking up space. Buyer be warned. Cheers, Mark.

Beautiful job Tax. You have to be happy with the look of that Plinth. I trust the skin has started to grow back on your fingertips after all that sanding. Unless you have actually tackled a project like this it's hard to visualize just how much time and effort goes into just sanding to realize finishes like this. Enjoy the fruits of your labor, cheers, Mark.

Hi Telecine, nice find. Last time I looked for BSF Allthread in Oz it was "get it from the UK or get something else." Cheers,

Hi Tax, this is a great thread with many interesting contributions. Sorry I took so long to get back to this thread to answer your query's. A good rule of thumb to determine whether you need coupling or de-coupling under the Plinth is to play some dynamic music with lots of bass energy, at a level you consider loud-ish, and put your fingers lightly on the position/rack where the Table is to reside. If you can feel anything thru your fingers, and I do mean anything because your cartridge is going to be a thousand times more sensitive than your fingers, then you probably should go with de-coupling and find feet that are compliant to prevent the vibration entering the Table Body and showing up at the Cartridge. You can build a Base Plate that the Table sits on and couple the Table to it via Spikes or similar, then experiment with various compliant feet under that. By coupling to the Base you get some extra inertia in the "Sprung Mass" to keep it a bit more stable. In this arrangement the Base material will change the sound as well as it becomes a part of the Resonant Mass. Experimenters seem to get good results with Bamboo in this location. Me, I'd leave the Base Plate till later and do a raft of testing with different feet on the Plinth itself, and get the best result you can before going to a Base Plate trial. Back to your finger test, if there is no vibration felt in your fingers then you may consider going the coupling route because you are now want to lock the Table to something that is stable and will help the Table resist moving with the music. Use the Spikes/Ceramic Balls or any number of types of rigid coupling Feet to achieve this. Regarding the original Studs that hold the Garrard to the Plinth, I simply use the originals, only one has to be machined shorter for clearance on my Tables. If you can find 1/4" BSF Threaded Steel Rod you can make your own extended mounting rods, rather than importing them, but this rod would be pretty rare here in Oz. The neatest job would be to settle on a Recess depth with your Plinth maker, set the length, then get them screw cut on a lathe. I'd use 1/4" BSF on the Garrard ends, and M6 Metric on the other end to allow a good choice of Flange Headed Whiz Nuts in the Recesses. These Nuts are freely available here. Cheers, Mark.

Hi Tax, congrats on the Garrard 401 purchase, you won't regret it, so long as you attend some basic things in the build. I've built a good handful of Garrards now, and a bunch of other Tables, and hopefully my comments help you make some decisions without going "crazy" with your budget. 1) + 2) The Drive System is critical on any Deck and Garrards are no exception. One of their biggest advantages Garrards have over other decks is Dynamics. The life of the music stems from dynamics, and the Garrads being a pseudo-direct drive have dynamics to burn. Any micro slip in the drive will compromise dynamics and speed stability. The Idler in your photo looks pretty good, but the rubber at the end of the day, is 50+ years old and compromised at best. You can get it dressed (linished), and it may be ok for a while, but it's still 50 year old rubber and no where near as grippy as it was on day one. I won't build a Garrard now without the Audio Silent Idler. It comes with new bearing bushes and a drive pin which is usually what is required. If you can feel any movement in the Idler with respect to its bearings then it needs new Bushes. Movement here will result in noise and mistracking at the Rim. The Top Plate Bush is easy to replace, but the Lower Bush is a pig and needs the Thrust Plate de-riveted and tapped for re-attachment. Below is one such Assy I did recently. 3) I see you're using a Mass Loaded Plinth which without a suspension is going to be super sensitive to what it sits on. You can see 65eclipse has done just that above. I assume your going to put the Table on a Rack or similar so don't be tempted to "couple" the Table to it using Spiked Feet, or similar rigid coupling system. Use something compliant (decouple) like the Herbies units above or Vibrapods as I use, which are cheap and very effective. See photo below. 4) Still Points. hmm, very expensive items. They probably work really well in the correct context, but seem to be a coupler rather than a decoupler. Anybody pulled their Still Points apart? Do they use anything compliant inside or is it ceramic balls or other hard internal components? Your Bearing is also an area of potential issue. Virtually all Garrards I've looked at have a metal Thrust Bearing (copper sprayed steel) which has a flat worn on it and "grinds away" making lots of noise. See photo below. Wasn't really a big issue when the Radio Transmission Medium of the day was AM! You could have a rampant herd of teenagers doing burnouts in the Radio Station car park and you wouldn't hear it on AM Radio! On a high end system however,....everything gets noticed. Do yourself a favor and pull the Spindle Bearing apart. Check there is no discernible Radial Clearance on the Spindle with a bit of oil in place, and throw away the original Thrust Bearing and replace it with an Engineering Plastic unit like the one below. These are cheap, require no modification, and are very quiet. Think "Silky", not "Grindy"! Sorry if I'm rambling here a bit, but don't think of your Garrard as some old relic that's just a nice piece of nostalgia that looks nice near the rest of your gear. These units can really boogey and perform remarkably well, which is why Sugano San of Koetsu used Garrards as test Decks for his cartridges, so put a decent Tone Arm on it. A client of mine recently put a Jelco 12" on one of my Tables and it performs brilliantly and is considering something more exotic to unleash even more potential. Use something of this ilk or better to get the most out of your Garrard. There's lots of other things you can do to hot rod Garrards, but the above will give you a very good start so you can hear what all the fuss is about. Post some Photos of it when your done on the "Show us your Tables" thread I'd love to see how it turns out. Best of luck Tax. Cheers, Mark.

Hi SPRO8Y. Anodising is probably the easiest solution to your problem. If you choose "natural finish" the anodizer will not add a dye before the sealing process, but it will still be a different colour to the original Raw Aluminium, but will be much more tolerant of fingerprints. You can use various 2 pack finishes after your painter metal preps the Raw Aluminium and the completed platter will be true to original colour but more expensive. Anodising should be somewhere around $100. Cheers, Mark.

Hi Avian, thanks for clearing up the origin of the Platter on this project. It was my assumption that it was a special by Teres, but looking at the Redpoint site the PVC/Alloy composite construction is clearly a construction method they use to this day. I must admit that the phrase "basket case" is probably a harsh one in this case. My first siting of this project was when the client pulled a dusty heavy box out of his car and handed it to me, and it was literally a box of parts. Even the Arm was partially disassembled , We could both see the great potential of the the parts therein, but there was some work to do to attain the standard he was looking for. I remember the price was quite fair for the box of parts, particularly the Arm, while damaged, was going to be perfect for the project. I was assured the hardwood Body had produced good sonic results, and being a core part of the resonant structure, I elected to reuse it. Be assured your beloved Table looks and sounds fantastic and is loved now as mush as ever. Cheers, Mark.

Hi Grant, thanks for your kind comment. The client, as often happens, has become a good friend and I talk to him regularly. This build was some 4 1/2 years ago and he continues to rave about the sound as recently as last week! It gives me great joy to have brought him closer to the music he loves so much. A note to Andy, the Counterweight Shaft is "under slung" just as it was designed by TriPlanar. This is a great design feature, and std on all TriPlanars, and not something I've done during the build. I've added a couple of shots of the Drive End with and without Teres Drive for those interested. Cheers, Mark.

Hi 2 Brix, to peak your interest, here's another Table I built for a client in Tazzy. It was a total basket case when it arrived, a real mess. The client asked me to "make it a bit special" as he has some serious equipment with great resolution. The laminated hardwood body needed a lot of work and in hindsight I should have started from scratch. I have a love for Art Deco so you will see subtle art deco features over the Deck. The TriPlanar was damaged and required me to make new parts, refinish and rewire it. Arm Support is my design and I got it CNC'd locally and hand finished in my shop. Teres Platter was re-machined & rebuilt, it has a lot of parts not visible. Feet are custom billet Items I make, and these house Vibrapod inserts. Photos show my Koetsu Rose Sig. for testing. Drive ended up being the brilliant Teres Pseudo Direct Drive Unit I had purchased earlier for my own T/Table project but it was tailor made for this project so it was an obvious choice. See what you make of it. Cheers, Mark.

Hi Tommy(?), the link below leads to the website of Transcendent Sound (Bruce Rosenblit) and offers one of the best value for money Phono Stages available. If your handy with an iron, buy it in kit form, if not, buy it built! These kits are very easy to build however. I've had mine for 8 years or so, modified it slightly, and I imagine you'll need to spend upwards of $5K AUD to better it. And it's bullet proof. If your in the Geelong area some time I'd be happy to demonstrate. Price on Bruce's website is in USD of course. I've attached an old photo of the internals of mine for your reference. The coupling caps have since been swapped for Jupitor Coppers and made a substantial difference. They are also super quiet for a Tube Phono which is no small feat. Note : they are M Magnet gain only, and a Step Up is required for M Coils. Cheers Mark. https://www.transcendentsound.com/phono-preamp.html

Hi Rank Stranger, the Fascias are Acrylic, and the Transformer Top Plate is Billet Alloy as are the rounded corners. Cheers, Mark.

Hi Guys, thought you may find some shots of my Transcendent Sound OTL Monos interesting. The circuits are slightly modified from the standard, and casework is all mine. They were completed about 10 years ago and still amaze me every time I turn them on. Cheers, Mark.

Hi Aussievintage, yes, I too have wondered why so many great tweaks aren't just included with new product,..if they work so well. This question applies to all tweaks. The answer is probably the manufacturer does not own the Intellectual Property, and would need to pay the IP owner a royalty. Anther reason is price increases. We all know the feet from Stillpoints work a treat, but nobody supplies them as original product,..they just supply plain rubber feet, like on Audio Research amps,.....and assume the new owner will put on what they will post purchase. And using someone else's expensive feet will make money for someone else and not for the manufacturer whilst pushing their sale price up. The notion of solid mounting is as old as Tone Arms, and by saying "that's the way we've always done it" in my industry is one of the most dangerous statements you can make. Solid mounting most certainly has it's merits, I've been doing it for decades, but don't limit your options by excluding new ideas. You may be surprised. Regarding resonance, the Cart Body is going to resonate, it has to. It's a matter then of if you want to hold the resonance there at the Cart. and deal with it, or let it travel along the Arm Wand and create some havoc. The Isolators have caused no limitation in the frequency response of my setup I can tell you. Cheers, Mark.

Ok, so Physics dictates that every action must have an equal and opposite reaction. No argument there. But the amount that the isolator is moving in response to wiggles from the Cantilever would be so small as to be irrelevant. Do either of my cartridges sound "soft" or undynamic as a result of a compliant mount, not by any aural measurement, and my system is very fast and any compromise in dynamics would be bluntly apparent. So to my ear, there is no audible loss of energy in the Generator System to the Isolator. Remember the Cartridge itself has an inertia of it's own therefore a tendency to maintain it's current motion status and will resist the Cantilever trying to wiggle it into submission. In this system the Cartridge/Cantilever needs to be viewed as co-dependant bodies "floating" independently. Balance this inaudible loss, against a "hard mount" (no pun intended) where the Cartridge Resonance will absolutely conduct along the Arm Wand then bounce back again, perhaps with some bearing chatter added, to arrive at the Cartridge Body and excite it, potentially blurring the new signal being retrieved. All this is nice theory,...but in the end, the proof is in the listening, and these Isolators really do deliver. The investment is nothing compared to an arm upgrade which might be ~ $2K (or more)! I'm not asking anyone to buy one,....just don't write them off just because tradition dictates otherwise. Cheers, Mark.

An interesting topic, and one with some interesting ideas about pros and cons with Cartridge mounting systems, but there seems to be no actual experience on offer. So I'll add my two bits since I'm using a Cartridge Mounting System. Without my experience. I'd probably agree with "aussievintage" and "zippi" above and conclude "if the Arm is designed well, tracks true, has a good resonant nature, and good competent bearing system, then why decouple from it and introduce a possible "flexure point" (non rigid mount) which could cause misalignment. Perfectly reasonable rational. I'm not going to express an opinion on the "Cartridge Enabler" Material because I have no contact with it, but I will tell you about the system I am using. I got talking to Leonard Gregory ( Cartridge Man) via email regarding getting my tired Koetsu Rosewood Sig rebuilt. He convinced me to try his Music Maker Classic, his best Cartridge at the time. This unit had his Isolator riveted to the Cartridge so had to be used with it,...like it or not. Leonard's Cartridges have been hit seriously hard with the "ugly stick", but this Cartridge floored me sonically. I won't bore you with the details, suffice it to say I later went on to buy his Music Master, same Isolator System, (diff material) also riveted to the Cartridge Body. It tracks beautifully, does not sound the least bit over damped, and is one of the most balanced and dynamic Cartridges I've ever heard, and I've heard quite an few. This thing is everything I want in a Cartridge,...except for looks. The isolator Leonard uses decouples the Cartridge from the body "breaking" the feed back loop of the vibration from the Stylus, running down the Arm causing bearing chatter, and bouncing happily back to the Head Shell making a micro mess of the information the Stylus is trying to retrieve. The extent of this form of distortion is not apparent until it is removed, not unlike lowering an Amplifiers Noise Floor. This ideology works really well in application, and reduces a lot of the problems tone arms face while trying to control a madly vibrating Stylus/Cantilever at the other end of a stick. So a pretty good arm can perform really well because many of it's problems (bearing chatter, natural resonance and vibration conduction) have been reduced or eliminated. My own Kiseki Gold Arm is just a good arm, but performs exceptionally well partly due to this decoupling. Can't afford a Triplanar or a Graham,.....you may well consider a simple Isolator like Leonard's. I've included photos of my two cartridges and a link to Leonard's website. See what you make of it. Cheers Mark. The Cartridge Man Isolator WWW.THECARTRIDGEMAN.COM the cartridge man, music maker cartridge, stylus re-tipping, cartridge repair, stylus guage and turntable leveling guage...

Well I really need to chime in here and set this straight. I've been a long time user of Revirginiser, (years in fact over hundreds of records) and used the VRC several times as well, and both are polymers, and leave absolutely nothing on the record, no residue, no anything! They cannot do this being a polymer. You may tear the cured layer and leave a bit of cured polymer on the record if you apply it poorly, but these bits are easy to see and remove. It's not for everyone, if you want fast clean,...forget it. If you want thorough clean, try it. It's especially good if you have particulate "welded" into the side walls of your record as happens when the stylus rides up over a particle (pop) and it sticks to the newly softened groove wall. The polymer physically sets around the partial and rips it out on removal. VRC promises at least the same or better performance than Revirginiser so it's well worth a try. I am saddened by the apparent ill health of the inventor/owner of Revirginiser. It is a revolutionary product.

I just knew someone was going to notice that Sticky Note and say something. And yes,..I did indeed pay him. Thanks for the reminder..

Hi Hergest, I couldn't agree more regarding a "slip on" stylii and their terrible compromises, so no, the Music Maker Classis has a continuous Boron cantilever, and the Master has a continuous Sapphire cantilever. Cheers,

Hi MWHousten, I've read a lot of reviews of various cartriges over the years and developed an overall sense that MM designs are cheap and limited, and if you are really serious about vinyl playback, then you buy into the MC realm. I ended up buying a Koetsu Roewood Sig for my horribly modifed SOTA Sapphire/Kesiki Gold Table. The sound was sublime. When it was time to re-tip, I queried Leonard Gregory (the Cartridge Man) about doing the job. He only services his own cartridges these days but he said my Koetsu would be distant second place to his Music Maker Classic. A Variable Reluctance cartridge not unlike a MM, but with a high spec line contact stylus and silver coils. "Garbage" I thought, but internet reviews seemed to support his ascertion, so I invested in one. At 4.0mV it didn't need a step-up tranny, so straight into my modified Transcendent Phono Stage. I was blown away. Fabulous timing, stunning dynamics and timbral rendering to die for. It had such a linear/balanced sound. Really natural. How could this be,..."MM type carts are not supposed to achieve high end performance". I have been so taken by the Classic, I traded it in for the Music Master, the more refined bigger brother of the Classic. And so it is, same basic fabulous sound base, but more refined, more delicate, sweeter highs, and perhaps more open. I try the Koetsu every now and then, and it really is good, but at the end of the day, Leonard was right, the Koetsu come second and at $3000 AUD, the Music Master is probably one of the best cartridges available, in any generator format. You also save considerable cash on not having to buy $300-$2000 AUD for step-ups, and additional pricey interconnects, and it's a stage taken out of the amplification chain, which is never a bad thing. I must say however, the Leonards cartridges are damn ugly to look at, luckily I play my table in subdued light. Cheers,

"So took them home with me " Enjoy itsmoi, I'll be surpised if you ever regret it. and further - "There is something else though. It is called "synergy" it is important that the different pieces of equipment works well together. It means you have/buy equipment and cables that work well together. That is another discussion for another day, but that is why I said that you should take your amps etc to Greg as it will influence what you are hearing. " For anyone else looking at speakers, this is pricless advice. Wish I'd said it. I've heard too many expensive systems that don't have synergy,...and they can sound awful! Cheers, Mark.