Let's See What Makes Your Vinyl Spin!

AnthonyI said:
Always exciting, but I dread the day we move out of our current house, lol
Click to expand...
We're deep in the "never moving again" mentality, haha.
I'm sure we'll change our tune some day, but I'm so ready to have a day where we don't have someone coming by for installs or fixing something.
New carpets come Friday, and painters are TBD. And then we can finally start moving all this stuff upstairs and setting up.
 
Lockdown has a lot to answer for... Veterans of the old place might remember this one.

The Mule by ejselley, on Flickr

This is an AVID Ingenium Twin. I used it as a test bed for some years while the Gyro was disassembled. As it is almost absurdly minimalist, it was easy to change carts on and it could do that while keeping a running reference side at the same time. Once my son became 'audio safe', I removed the SME arm from it, mounted it on the Gyro and just used that. The AVID went into store. When I got divorced, it lived my old bedroom at my parents' for 18 months before coming here... and promptly going into the stock cupboard.

Aaaaanyway, fast forward to last month and the ground on the SME failed. I removed it and the Gyro got a shiny new Vertere. Somewhat unexpectedly, a good friend of mine was able to sort the SME out which he promptly returned. Looking at the now homeless SME and the dust covered Ingenium started cogs whirring. One thing led to another and here we are;

AVID-2.jpg

The Ingenium is back in running order. Things are the same but different.

IMG20200729174228.jpg

The SME now has a single ground, separate to the cable which makes it much less of a pig to connect up and should avoid what caused it to fail the first time around. Throw in a heavy duty shielded cable with completely independent earth lead and it is dead silent. I still have the spare headshells so changing carts, even 'backwards' is simple.

AVID-4.jpg

On the other side, things have changed. I still have the Audio Note Arm III and it is still the only arm I have that could hold a candle to the Vertere but as a piece of test equipment, it's just too delicate to be sensible (I have plans for it, don't worry). In its place comes a Rega RB330 that I bought for an idea in 2016 and then didn't use, meaning it sat in a box with zero miles on it for nearly four years. Unlike the Audio Note, the RB330 could survive small arms fire so it's perfect for this. It isn't a straight fit though.

IMG20200729174409.jpg

The AVID is pre drilled for both single and three point Rega arms on a 228mm spindle to pivot measurement but as Rega doesn't 'do' VTA, spacers are needed. Rega sold me a pair of the 2mm ally spacers which give the required height. They also sold me a Planar 6 counterweight. For the avoidance of doubt, this has little effect on performance but;

- It's much easier to fine tune the tracking force with
- It looks nice

So with those key areas in mind, it went on and so did the RB330. Or at least it nearly did. For reasons that I imagine are truly heroically petty, AVID mounts three point Rega arms with a screw that is... one size smaller than the one Rega uses. A call to AVID sorted some of those. Unfortunately, talking to AVID is expensive because it meant that the plan of 'no more parts' fell out the window. It's hard to spot but there is one big change over the old configuration. Here's a clue;

AVID-1.jpg

Spotted it yet?

As standard, the Ingenium uses an MDF platter- and while it feels a little crude, it works well. It's possible to upgrade that though so this one now sports a machined aluminium platter that drops straight on. Is it worth it? Oh yes. This has always been a quiet deck but now it's crypt quiet. The heavier platter flywheels better and it works well with the clamp. On the less positive side, spin up time is quite a bit longer and the whole assembly weighs more than the moon.

Some of you are thinking "hang on, doesn't this mad bastard already have at least one turntable? Yes, yes I do.

IMG20200729195812.jpg

So why assemble a third turntable? Beyond "why not?" it's going to help test cartridges (which it excelled at before). The Rega will be used a test source (as it was reviewed as a complete turntable) and the Gyro will be a reference (and sentimental object). I also have a bold (and probably foolish) idea post covid19 that will involve the AVID too. In the meantime, it's running again after three years of inactivity which is no bad thing.
 
Ed Selley said:
Lockdown has a lot to answer for... Veterans of the old place might remember this one.

The Mule by ejselley, on Flickr

This is an AVID Ingenium Twin. I used it as a test bed for some years while the Gyro was disassembled. As it is almost absurdly minimalist, it was easy to change carts on and it could do that while keeping a running reference side at the same time. Once my son became 'audio safe', I removed the SME arm from it, mounted it on the Gyro and just used that. The AVID went into store. When I got divorced, it lived my old bedroom at my parents' for 18 months before coming here... and promptly going into the stock cupboard.

Aaaaanyway, fast forward to last month and the ground on the SME failed. I removed it and the Gyro got a shiny new Vertere. Somewhat unexpectedly, a good friend of mine was able to sort the SME out which he promptly returned. Looking at the now homeless SME and the dust covered Ingenium started cogs whirring. One thing led to another and here we are;

View attachment 58923

The Ingenium is back in running order. Things are the same but different.

View attachment 58924

The SME now has a single ground, separate to the cable which makes it much less of a pig to connect up and should avoid what caused it to fail the first time around. Throw in a heavy duty shielded cable with completely independent earth lead and it is dead silent. I still have the spare headshells so changing carts, even 'backwards' is simple.

View attachment 58925

On the other side, things have changed. I still have the Audio Note Arm III and it is still the only arm I have that could hold a candle to the Vertere but as a piece of test equipment, it's just too delicate to be sensible (I have plans for it, don't worry). In its place comes a Rega RB330 that I bought for an idea in 2016 and then didn't use, meaning it sat in a box with zero miles on it for nearly four years. Unlike the Audio Note, the RB330 could survive small arms fire so it's perfect for this. It isn't a straight fit though.

View attachment 58926

The AVID is pre drilled for both single and three point Rega arms on a 228mm spindle to pivot measurement but as Rega doesn't 'do' VTA, spacers are needed. Rega sold me a pair of the 2mm ally spacers which give the required height. They also sold me a Planar 6 counterweight. For the avoidance of doubt, this has little effect on performance but;

- It's much easier to fine tune the tracking force with
- It looks nice

So with those key areas in mind, it went on and so did the RB330. Or at least it nearly did. For reasons that I imagine are truly heroically petty, AVID mounts three point Rega arms with a screw that is... one size smaller than the one Rega uses. A call to AVID sorted some of those. Unfortunately, talking to AVID is expensive because it meant that the plan of 'no more parts' fell out the window. It's hard to spot but there is one big change over the old configuration. Here's a clue;

View attachment 58927

Spotted it yet?

As standard, the Ingenium uses an MDF platter- and while it feels a little crude, it works well. It's possible to upgrade that though so this one now sports a machined aluminium platter that drops straight on. Is it worth it? Oh yes. This has always been a quiet deck but now it's crypt quiet. The heavier platter flywheels better and it works well with the clamp. On the less positive side, spin up time is quite a bit longer and the whole assembly weighs more than the moon.

Some of you are thinking "hang on, doesn't this mad bastard already have at least one turntable? Yes, yes I do.

View attachment 58929

So why assemble a third turntable? Beyond "why not?" it's going to help test cartridges (which it excelled at before). The Rega will be used a test source (as it was reviewed as a complete turntable) and the Gyro will be a reference (and sentimental object). I also have a bold (and probably foolish) idea post covid19 that will involve the AVID too. In the meantime, it's running again after three years of inactivity which is no bad thing.
Click to expand...
Seing your insanity is not good for me ;)
 
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