Hi Bill ,yes i did spill some oil from that silly damping trough.The arm i use,the SME series 5 titanium,god did i have problems with that,when i bought the rock i was told that the series 5 couldnt be fitted with that particular arm,somthing about the profile?,but a friend of mine from Darley Dale,said that was complete b....sh..,and fitted it for me,he also reccomended the Ortofon Quasar cartridge,somthing about its mass,well i havent used the rock for a number of years now,i still have quite a collection,4-500,mainly rock,TYA,PINK FLOYD etc and now that i,ve decided to set up a vynil based system in the back bedroom,i was looking for a cartridge,hope you can help,got a budget of about a grand,do you think it would help to have the rock serviced or what[Sorry Mr Fisher ].....Dave
I think that's an excellent idea Dave...as this is a top class source.
Does your Dealer normally throw away all springs, drive belt/s etc and replace with new ones?Freshening up the Main Bearing oil might be a good idea too, although I'm not too conversant with the Townsend's construction?
Have you ever tried the HFN/RR Test Disc when resetting your turntable? There are many pro and anti people out there but I'm now firmly pro on this product. At £25 it's well worth the money and effort. Some turntable manufacturers(e.g. Rega) are not too fussy about Biasing for example, but I've discovered that there is a definite "sweet spot" and once you hit it the results are sublime. The disc is ideal for finding it. (I can give further tips if you decide to give it a try.)
Tracking force is something that you can explore outside the boundaries too although it may induce some apprehension when using a £1K cartridge (!). The spec for mine is 1.5-1.7g, but I'm running it at 1.73, measured using a digital gauge accurate to +/-0.02g. This means the pressure could be as high as 1.75, but I've seen some other manufacturers carts being run as much as 0.2g over the limit.
Obviously VTA is critical from one disc to another but for most mortals is non-adjustable unless you happen to have either a Triplanar, VPI JMW Memorial, or the full Ringmat kit ! For me it's a bit too fussy so I'm happy to let the wind blow where it may on this.
The HFN/RR disc I've found to be extremely helpful and a big step in the right direction though - especially if you have the convenience of spring bias.
It'll test the resonance of the tonearm/cartridge too although the "torture track" 300Hz tone (+18db) is not for the faint-hearted !
Hi Bill,thanks for the information,i,m definatley going to look into the Hi-Fi News test disc,i,m not too sure what the service entails,but i will ask when i take it down next week,i,ve been reading with interest your debate with Mr Fisher,over vynil v compact disc,the only thing i can add to it is this,certain albums released before the intro to c.d.[1983] sounded very good,but the remastering onto c.d proved to be anything but,take for instance AC/DC,their album Highway to Hell on vynil was,as you,d expect loud,and vibrant,but the remastered version on c.d was quite the opposite,and it wasnt just this particular band,compare Pink Floyds D.S.O.T.M on vynil to the c.d version,they are completley different,and albums by T.Y.A on c.d.are[IMO]completley unlistenable, i,m looking forward to rediscovering my album collection again,thanks again for the info,will keep you informed of developments................Dave....p.s.is there a rare record company anywhere in the U.K, i,d like to get hold of some Iron Butterfly and Canned Heat..........Cheers Mate
News I got at the turn of the year was that the Freak Emporium had bitten the dust and were fulfilling outstanding orders only. Sad to lose a good source such as this...
Sorry guys if I come across a bit 'anti vinyl' I'm not so anti. Only a few years back I purchased a Project player - something in the middle of the range, set it up with my then massive Pioneer amp and I was surprised at how good the results were - honest. In following Hi Fi trend I designed and built two valve mono-block low power amps, more to see if I could than anything else, even had transformers wound specially for them. This was an unusual design in that it had no feedback and was fully balance throughout, it not only measured to spec. but had all the 'sweetness' and 'un-fatiguing' sound that valves claimed, also could be driven into clipping with no load indefinitely! However work raised it's ugly head again and we were back to assembler programming, the original idea was to build a preamp as well and create a separate vinyl system, pre-amp design done, headphone amp design done, all components purchased for both but have simply 'changed direction' if anyone would like to continue this exciting project then by all means e-mail me.
Hello All,i think there,s a problem with this site,have you noticed John,that your querie over 911 has re-appeared dated as yesterday when in fact it was last year,and Bill i sent a reply about freakemporium and it appears to have been "blocked"as it wasnt sent ,so whats going on??....Dave
Thanks for the intel. Most of us didn't realise such an action was taking place.
The outcome of this is that RA seems to be able to limit his advertising legitimately to "RFI Suppressing Mains Cables" - which is fair enough because they are filters after all.
Let's face it Electro, they won't be the first whose Marketing Department was liberal with descriptive English, I can think of far worse examples of advertising hype which have gone unpunished - such as
my personal favourite..."Perfect Sound Forever" from a paltry sampling rate of 44.1KHz.....You gotta love it !!! .
You are probably right judging by all the household names with similar infringements on the ASA site.
I use RA mains cables myself albeit bought second hand , and have defended them in the past so i am particularly disappointed RA could not muster a better technical defence, it's no wonder people are sceptical about the honesty of such companies.
"Perfect Sound Forever " perhaps an over ambitious statement, but i do love CD as a format.
I have around 1000 CD's and 400 LP'S , which are played on an electrocompaniet EMC 1 UP CD player and a Linn LP12 Lingo with ittok lv3 fitted with a lyra lydian cartridge feeding an EAR 834P phono stage to my Electro amps , whilst i enjoy listening to vinyl i'm afraid CD does it for me , it just sounds more real , but that said my EMC 1 UP to my ear is the best music source i have ever heard !
Glad to hear you are enjoying your system. Not all CD players are created equal !
A Project Engineer (Electronics) I spoke to today not only was undeterred by this report with a fairly emphatic testimony of his own regarding his purchases , but he is still determined to weave his own cables to add to that number (!)
Apologies if I come across as a rabid CD basher ...it is possible to enjoy the music from CD when the music is well recorded and special, or it was already your favourite music. My problem is with new music and less instantly appealing stuff whose fire can be easily quenched by CD? The extra fidelity from other formats can make me realise that "difficult to appreciate" music is special too....
If CD is the only game in town i.e. the only source of that recording, you must play but it's not unbearable by any means !
The effect has been significantly worse when L/S were changed to Electrostatics. The whole system is ruthlessly intolerant of CD now.
I have not had much experience with stats, but a few years ago i was very taken with a pair from innersound, after some critical listening i concluded than with very good recordings they sounded absolutely fantastic , but with anything other than a perfect recording or source they became quite unpleasant which was no good to me , but i am stiil looking for the perfect speaker, when or if it is ever made !
Being able to enjoy all music , whether a good or bad recording is important to me so i feel lucky that my present system is so capable in this area .
Sometimes i feel almost guilty for prefering CD to vinyl , but CD gives me more access to the types of music i like.
No need to feel guilty my friend, it's what you like that counts.
Yes, I had the same worries about Stats but it turned out to be unfounded. Even CD gets all the benefits of good imaging, image scale etc. all within a very smooth presentation.
In my case, I can listen to LPs for 6 weeks without missing CD at all, but after one week solely on CD I'd be looking around for the exits as the brain gets the hang of it pretty fast...
This might be of interest...a colleague fired it in my direction today...( I think he's already got his order in ! - So that's two definite orders they'll be getting)
Just received this months copy of HiFi+ in the post and it contains something that might interest you : Reviews of the the Electrocompaniet ECC-1 CD player and ECI-5 amp.
Haven't read the mag yet but it should be hitting the shops by now...
Thanks for the info i will find a copy , Electrocompaniet products get very little exposure in hifi mags but when they do it's usually positive, i hope these new products follow form.
I apologise for my absence from the forum of late i am in the process of moving house and all that goes with it , i keep telling myself it will be worth it in the end .
I found a copy of HiFi + , it seems i am not alone in my admiration of electrocompaniet products , apart from minor reservations about the appearance i agree with the findings of the review in general. All electro components just seem to reproduce music in an effortless way with real life dynamics allowing the the listener to completely forget about hifi and enjoy the music !
Also tested in this issue are the PMC EB1i speakers which i am considering for the future ( i use OB1's now ) , PMC have a similar knack of reproducing music without the hifi getting in the way.
As for the Dartzeel pre-amp , it's just hifi pornography.
I have a nice 24' x 15' room earmarked for my listening room and i think with a little bribery i can persuade the wife it would be a good idea, looks like i will be needing a new kitchen, bathroom etc etc .
Hi Electrohead,i tried bribary,when i had plans to set up a vynil based system in the back bedroom,which was used for storing junk,i got the skip, cleared it all out,then she decided that it would be nice to have the room for what it was intended for,so watch out mate,these women are downright sneaky,i had to set up the Rock in my main listening room,which wasnt really a problem,its just that women are so devious,and as i said earlier,Sneaky............Dave
