Hi Andy,

I have fooled around a fair bit with one of these, no idea what headshell you are using, but you might find the AT-MG10 headshell to help the Goldring some.

Mats are another area many tinker with and alternative feet often get a mention.

Many have also fitted this deck with a Rega arm, either the RB250 or RB300, some seem to have thought it an improvement, others not so.  Depending on the cartridge being used the Rega arm may transmit too much energy into the alloy plinth and be better for being decoupled, probably not such an issue with your Goldring but it was with some of the cartridges I hung on one.  Using an RB250 on a Technics removes all the advantages of the stock arm, easy VTA, simple VTF setting, interchangeable headshells.

Many believe power supply modification/upgrade to be very worthwhile, I have yet to try that.

Of the readily available arms for the Technics, only the Jelco 750 offers most of the advantages of the stock arm (VTA is adjustable - just somewhat fiddly) - but - fitting one of these will set you back the cost of the deck or more - perhaps to no great gain unless you wish to run some particularly difficult cartridge (read low compliance).

I liked the combination of an SRM tech 2mm silicone mat on the platter (trimmed to fit inside the lip) with a 3mm Funk Achromat on top and a Michell clamp.

Others like heavy rubber, felt or cork, the Herbies "way excellent mat" has had good reports and some have preferred the SDS or Origin Live mats, or you could try the tnt-audio Janus mat.

Foculpods can be fitted in place of the stock feet although I was not impressed with the results of that - YMMV

Others have tried screw in speaker spikes in place of the feet and isonoes are another  (though rather pricey) option.

One rather interesting (to me at any rate) modification to an SL1200, involved fitting a trans-fi terminator air-bearing linear tracking tonearm and an AT OC9 cartridge (I believe the owner had also done the power supply mods) - he reported great satisfaction with the results - still, he could have bought another 3 SL1200s for the cost of the upgrades.

Have fun.

Use tools as tools,

Having spent most of my life making things and working many different materials, there have been few but the simplest of tools that were not the better for careful setup, tuning and adjustment.

Even the simplest, such as hammers and axes, are not made equal, the best will be recognised by those accustomed to their use and appreciated for the subtle qualities that make them more apt to their task than the lookalikes.

A skilled and experienced craftsman will take the time to learn the subtleties of his tools and how best to tune them to his purpose.  The work will teach you how it must be done.

To everything there is a season, a time to sow and a time to reap.

If I should desire a better crop of music, should I not take extra time to well prepare the ground for it to grow in ?

FWIW the differences most likely to affect SQ are in the arm.

It uses a different armtube, better internal arm wiring and better external cabling and connectors.

All of those are available from Kabusa as separate items and can be fitted to a Mk II, since you are in Glasgow it might be cheaper to have J7 of audio origami work the arm for you.

For a cheap tweak for the Denon HOMC you might like to try using a "T" adaptor with a 1K loading resistor in the branch.

This has been discussed elsewhere on this forum and to my ears it does make a difference to the sound of the DL-110 when used in the stock arm on the Mk II.

Graham,

for those of us struggling to understand the relevance of the graph and what exactly it indicates, perhaps a little elucidation ?

Chivas,

I assume you are still using the DL-110 ? - still no matter, the following still applies to setup regardless of cartridge.

IIRC the 750D uses 2 grub screws in the pillar mounting collar to allow adjustment of VTA, back them off until you can just gently raise/lower the pillar, with the stylus resting on a record, hold a small, say 50mm square of carefully cut graph paper behind the headshell with the bottom edge resting on the record surface, use this to set the headshell top horizontal/parallel to the record surface, tighten the grub screws to lock your VTA.

The other possibility that immediately occurs to me WRT the behaviour observed, is that that arm uses fluid damping and should have come with a bottle of silicone fluid and instructions on its use, lack of fluid in the damper or incorrect adjustment of the damper knob would almost certainly have the effect you describe.

If you did not receive the instructions, the manual can probably be downloaded from vinylengine and silicone damping fluid purchased online.

Incorrect mounting distance or overhang should not have the effect you describe.

Did you check the VTF using a scale of some sort after zero balancing the arm and setting VTF ? -  too low a VTF or severely misadjusted Bias might also have those effects, though less likely than the damping issue.

Incorrect overhang should result in increased distortion varying according to the distance of the stylus from the centre of the record, similarly with misalignment of the cartridge in the fore and aft direction in the headshell, incorrect azimuth will spoil channel separation on all points of the record and incorrect bias will bend the cantilever relative to the cartridge body during play, tend to favour one channel over the other and if severe may cause skipping and distortion more noticeable on heavily modulated sections of track.

Hope some of this helps. 

OK so far, I sort of guessed that was the area you were indicating, but could not make a or t of the graph to follow your line (of thought).

waits patiently for next instalment.   

Chivas,

WRT the arc traced across the record by the stylus, the spindle is not on the circumference.

The arc passes beyond the spindle by the amount of the recommended overhang.

2 point alignment systems usually select inner and outer points as specified in mm from the spindle, usually with reference to one or another nominal standard for inner and outer limits for recording.

WRT the radial setting of the arm, I do not feel it critical provided the arm can be parked well clear of the platter and freely move to the label edge then that should be OK.

As to setting VTA with anything resting on the headshell - not good, this compresses the cartridge suspension and gives a false reading.

The Goldring, due to its stylus profile is reportedly much more sensitive to VTA and alignment generally than either of the other two with their less radical elliptical profiles.

The Goldring is also probably the most compliant cartridge and least suited to the mass of the 750.

Note that the major advocates of this arm on the SL1200 are running much less compliant MC cartridges

I would have expected the DL-110 to be the most suited to this arm.

WRT the DL-110 and the Shure Stylus guage, the Denon has very strong magnets which will be attracted to the metal of the guage and may also give a false reading on that account.

I use a relatively inexpensive digital stylus guage which does not have this problem, it is a Canrong and cost around $AUD70 - it may be sold under different names, I am not sure.

I would not consider it a problem to increase the VTF on the Denon by 0.2gm above the recommended max.

If you do not have a Technics overhang guage, you could try setting the stylus back from the front edge of the headshell by about 2mm.

The angle of the cartridge within the headshell in a fore and aft direction when viewed from above is part of the offset angle which is largely determined by the arm bend on this arm.

Azimuth is the verticality of the cartridge and particularly the stylus when viewed from the front of the cartridge, eg whether it leans to the left or to the right or is normal to the record.  Sometimes this is adjustable by loosening the headshell collar near the bayonet fitting, sometimes only by shimming between the cartridge and the headshell on one side or the other.

One other factor that occurs to me, do you have capacitance figures for the DIN to phono cable you are using ?

You do not mention the fluid damping - is this all set up correctly ?

regards,

Tony G

tg wrote: WRT the radial setting of the arm, I do not feel it critical provided the arm can be parked well clear of the platter and freely move to the label edge then that should be OK.

tg wrote: The Goldring is also probably the most compliant cartridge and least suited to the mass of the 750.   Note that the major advocates of this arm on the SL1200 are running much less compliant MC cartridges

tg wrote: If you do not have a Technics overhang guage, you could try setting the stylus back from the front edge of the headshell by about 2mm.

tg wrote: One other factor that occurs to me, do you have capacitance figures for the DIN to phono cable you are using ?

This is the std Jelco cable designed for this arm and is 1.2 m long, so I would assume everything would've been worked out by Jeclo, unless it's fine for MC but not for MM...? As you said, most users of this arm on the 1200 run MC....

tg wrote: You do not mention the fluid damping - is this all set up correctly ?

Tony G

Given your intention to move, perhaps leaving the fluid out for the time being is a good choice.

Added some time later;  I have found (I think) the armboard you are using, (f1sport), if the 3 screws holding the lower plate are equidistant allowing any of 3 positions of the lower plate, only 1 will be correct (it is also not beyond possibility that the lower plate could inadvertently be mounted upside down with possibly further variations of mounting distance).

In all of these cases utilising the check measurement of 214 mm from spindle to pivot centre will reveal the correct position.

A further possibility occurs to me since the plates are only 3 mm thick and that is of  undamped resonance in the armplate which conceivably will be transmitted back into the cast plinth with undesirable effects.

The use of small diameter "o" rings between the plates around the joining screws might help here or a larger diameter one under the arm mounting collar with the screws fairly well tightened down to compress the "o" rings might also work, this sort of arm damping/decoupling varies in its success and effect and can only be tried and tested.

I found it helpful with RB 250 on mine but the effect varied according to what feet I was using as well.

Very "suck it and see" - but, cheap to try.

Thanks for the progress report, don't forget that the DL-160 will work direct into your 2 SE and is quite a step up from the DL-110 (if the Goldring is defunct).

I considered the BPS at one time but ultimately came across too many conflicting reports.

Enjoy the music.