Musings Goes Analogue Part 3 - RD11s Build

See Part 1 here
Part 2 here

Having had some experience messing about with set up several times on a Thorens TD160BC MkII with different arms and platter mats (very successfully), and with an LP12 (not so successfully - got it close but ended up at a Linn dealer for a full service and set up), I approached the RD11s reasonably confidently, but also in the knowledge that if set up was a problem I'd just do a bit more research and then go back to it.  This is a project for fun and experience building, not as a serious source for my system.

So here's the starting point, a several decades old plinth, suspension and motor unit, sourced through the classifieds at hifiwigwam.com:

Starting point - an Ariston Audio RD11s

Sitting on the workbench in the garage, I started by giving it a quick clean, which wasn't too hard as its in such great condition and came packed with copious amounts of bubble wrap and with the bearing plugged, inner platter and main platter removed, as it should be.

The underside of the deck has no base plate - its lost this somewhere in its no doubt long and varied life.  Still, I think this could be a good thing on 2 counts - first it means easy access to all the relevant suspension adjustment options, secondly, because it is no longer effectively a box, there should be less chance of resonances building up inside which may affect the sound quality.

First was to check the alignment and fitment of the newly arrived soundsupports.com SME to Rega armboard adapter.

Armboard adapter offered up to the existing SME mount

ISOkinetic (Rega) RB202 tonearm, unpacked from its box. Note the low cost "captive" arm lead to carry the signal to the pre-amp

The RB202 is reasonably well made - its very recognisably part of the Rega RB250 family.  The arm tube is nicely cast, the bearings are super smooth with no discernable play and the cueing mechanism is smoothly damped and feels much more expensive than some I've used.  Looks like the main compromises to save money are the plastic moulded thread counterweight mounting and the basic looking captive signal output lead, which looks to be no better than the kind of freebie interconnects you tend to get inside Japanese hifi component boxes.

Armboard fitted to the three-point mounting with countersunk bolts

In order to reduce stress on the tonearm bearings, once the armboard was mounted to the arm, the cartridge was unpacked and installed to the arm, with the mounting bolts only tightened enough to hold the cartridge in roughly the right place.  The stylus guard and stylus were removed prior to fitting the cartridge body to the arm.  The bolts that came with the cartridge were used for this - they're metal, unlike some budget cartridges that come with very flimsy plastic bolts.  The signal cables were connected too, using the correct colour matching of each cable to the each pin on the back of the cart.

Unboxing the Goldring Elektra Cartridge

Stylus removed from cartridge body prior to mounting

Cart  loosely mounted in the headshell and connected up

Armboard adapter then mounted onto the SME armboard using the 4 supplied countersunk self tapping screws.  Note how the arm sits nicely parallel with the side of the deck.  Despite the optical illusion of the photo, the arm isn't too long for the deck and the lid closes with plenty of clearance

Next up, using ISOkinetic supplied oil, I ensured that all the existing oil was soaked up into kitchen towel and then refilled with the new oil.  Before fitting the inner platter I laid a small amount of kitchen towel around the bearing to catch any overflow - of which there wasn't any.

Having given the inner platter edges, outer platter engagement surface and the spindle a clean with alcohol and then a polish with a dry lint-free cloth, the inner platter was gently lowered into the bearing shaft - being careful not to "drop" it into the hole which could damage the bearing surfaces.  The last few mm of travel took about 10 seconds or so as the oil was pushed out of the way.  No excess oil at this point, so I'll remove it again later and put a little more oil in there.

Inner platter installed

The belt was then installed - fitting around the smaller part of the stepped pulley for 33rpm, then wrapping around the outer edge of the inner platter.  Unlike every belt driven turntable I've worked on / owned in the past which had flat ground belts, the RD11s uses a very narrow (2-3mm) square section belt, which is extremely easy to twist during fitting.  I took care not to touch the belt and inner platter surfaces to avoid getting finger grease in there.  Then on went the outer platter (which weighs around 2.5 kg).

Arm and complete platter installed - note the huge gap between platter and top plate

The outer platter should force the suspension down and allow the platter / bearing / subchassis / armboard / tonearm assembly to "float" freely whilst hanging from the suspension springs.  However, the previous owner had diligently wound up the suspension springs pretty tightly to avoid any movement in transit, so although the assembly did drop a little, it was still a long way up above the top plate of the deck.

Setting up and first play is in Part 4.
Part 3 is here
Part 2 is here
Part 1 is here

Musings Goes Analogue - Part One

Regular readers will know that the Musings home system is dominated by streaming, using a Linn Klimax DS as the main source.  Prior to streaming the main sources were a mix of CD using a Meridian 508.20 and vinyl on a Linn Sondek LP12 / Ittok / Dynavector 20HX.  Both of these primary sources were sold to fund the Linn streamer as it offered a far better musical experience than either CD or vinyl.

Linn LP12 on the left and Meridian 508.20 on the right - the peak of vinyl and CD in Musings' home system approx 3 years ago

Current main source - Linn Klimax DS streamer

I then sold the majority of vinyl to fund the purchase of the Majik 140 speakers, but retained a few albums that are either of sentimental value or are part of a small collection which took a while to build.  So a turntable was still required for those very rare occasions when I wanted to play one of those albums, or someone else brought some vinyl along to sample some music.  Besides, any decent system needs a turntable or it just doesn't seem complete to me (now, pass me the pipe and slippers please...).  So a few weeks of browsing on ebay netted a very dusty but fully functional Thorens TD280 MkII which I cleaned up and fitted with a brand new Goldring Elektra MM cartridge.  The cart cost nearly 3 times what I paid for the deck, even though its very much a budget cart!  There's a bit more information on the Thorens in this post.  So Thorens is the current state of vinyl replay in the system.  Its very much a plastic, low cost, functional piece of kit that makes a reasonable sound and nothing more.

Current state of vinyl replay - Thorens TD280 MkII and Goldring Elektra MM cartridge

The Thorens is very much plug and play - you put it on the table, hook up the belt, set up the cartridge and away you go.  It even has auto lift / stop at the end of play.  It looks respectable and descreet, so I suppose it fulfils my needs for a turntable pretty well.  And yet...

Although the streamer is an amazing piece of kit - producing the best SQ I've heard in several systems, once you've spent time (around 18 months of elapsed time in my case) ripping CDs, correcting metadata, sourcing good quality album art etc. etc., its a pretty uninteresting bit of hifi.  There's nothing to mess about with, it just gets on with the job of playing music superbly, and looking pretty (to my eyes at least).  Turntables are more interactive and involving (I mean physically, not necessarily musically).

Here's the premise then:  is there a low cost way to mess about with a "proper" turntable for a while, something that is more in keeping with the rest of the system, that doesn't break the bank and offers the opportunity to "mess about a bit" with it as a piece of kit?  And how will it compare to the super budget priced Thorens?

Some will know about the controversy that surrounds the birth of the Sondek LP12 turntable.  I think there's less doubt that Ivor Tiefenbrun really lead the "source first" campaign in the hifi World in the mid 1970s and his LP12 turntable definitely contributed to that message.  But there is more controversy about how original the LP12 design is, when it looks so conceptually and mechanically similar to the original AR turntable.  And the Thorens turntables.  And the Ariston turntables.  Now I wasn't interested in hifi at the time (I was more interested in riding my bike, playing cops and robbers and avoiding kids who wanted to play football at the time) so I wasn't there and I don't know the whole story, but it adds a bit of context.

What happened next was the availability on the market of a couple of very reasonably priced turntables that just happened to come from the same manufacturer.  Both are suspended sub-chassis designs with precision bearings, a wood plinth and a stainless steel top plate.  Both also have high mass platters and belt drive from an AC motor.  But given that the LP12 retains its value ridiculously well, neither of these turntables are from Linn.  In fact, they are from Ariston Audio.

So I now have an RD11S turntable with no arm, and an RD80SL fitted with a Linn LVX (Basik) tonearm.  I've sourced another 2 new Goldring Elektra cartridges, a Rega RB202 arm and some enthusiasm to build them up and to compare them against the Thorens.

I'll document in posts here about the builds of each turntable, then the comparisons between the 3 decks.

Part 2 here
Part 3 here
Part 4 here

The King Is Dead...

.. long live the king (kind of).

No more Linn LP12 means no more playing vinyl discs.  So on sorting them out and valuing them, I really found myself not wanting to part with about 20 of them.  What's the point?  Well its mainly sentimental - there are some that are just too good to part with, in terms of their quality such as the Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs Studio Masters and there is the Sniff n the Tears collection that took some putting together then there are a few that were gifts and therefore have some meaning for me.

So a few weeks of hunting on ebay and missing a few near bargains and missing lots of nowhere near bargains I've ended up with a "new" turntable.  Its a late 80s / early 90s simple deck from Thorens - a TD280 MkII.  Belt drive, lightish alloy platter, two speed via an arm that lifts the belt up and down the pulleys, a lightweight very plastic looking arm and three bouncy feet for isolation.  I put on a new belt (£7.50), and a Goldring Elektra cartridge (it came with an Audio Technica of some sort of unknown origin and condition) and all for the princely sum of £24.  The photos on ebay showed the deck as being very dusty, but as can be seen below, its cleaned up remarkably well and plays tunes nicely.

Result.