Not Really Furniture
I am just getting back to my hifi system after some 25 years of being satisfied with background music. Until recently, I last purchased any equipment 35 years ago!
Some three months ago, a good friend purchased a new turntable and began rediscovering his old albums. This awakened so many memories that I decided to get my system back together again. That was the plan, and I began researching on forums, watching reviews on YouTube, and it became apparent that the decades had past me by, and there was a whole new world of new hifi to explore. 30 years ago I was a vinyl enthusiast. But small kids and big dogs - with even bigger wagging tails - did not mix well with turntables and expensive moving coil cartridges.
I had a Thorens TD150 (Mk I), which I purchased in the early 1980s. At that time it was already about 20 years old. For the fellow-addicts here, it came with a SME 3009 series 2 tone arm which, after a half dozen years, I swapped it out for a Rega RB300 arm, as this was considered a better arm for a moving coil cartridge. Then, in the late 80's I moved from Sydney to Perth, and life became too busy to devote any time to hifi.
In 2010, I built an entertainment centre based on twin campaign chests. The idea was to leave space for the hifi, like this …
I made the error of showing my wife, Lynndy, what it could look like with added drawer fronts ....
At that point she decided that twin chests were better than an entertainment centre, and that was it!
The TV was sited on one, and my hifi system became reduced to CD and DVD. The turntable and other equipment were banished to another room.
Here you see it with one (of a pair) of Bowers & Wilkins DM 7 (Mk 2) speakers - again, for the purists here. These are now 40 years old (and I have had them from new)!
My plan was to re-build the Thorens and get new speakers. Lynndy hated my B&W coffins, and had nagged me for years to get something smaller. And so I did - Kef LS50 Meta speakers on stands. Quite amazing for such small speakers. Their imaging is extraordinary.
Now I needed to move the equipment off the cabinet. Time to add a matching stand for the equipment. Again, built in Jarrah (in the picture is the copy of the Hans Wegner chair I made several years ago) …
New to me (but not to others) is streaming. I purchased a Cambridge Audio CXN (V2) streamer/DAC, along with a subscription to Tidal (for their master disk recordings) and began ripping all my old CDs to FLAC files, which is stored on a SSD drive attached to the CXN. I was planning to add Roon (to integrate a number of digital sources), which is where an old MacBook Pro came in, but eventually decided that it was unnecessary. The amplifier is a Harman Kardon HK6500 (high current and high power) from the 1980s (which I searched for and found on the German eBay). This has been serviced and reinstalled (a great match for the speakers, and it has a pre-preamp for a moving coil cartridge - most modern amps do not have these). The HK absolutely blew away the modern Cambridge Audio amp I was using in the CD system - a win for vintage amplifiers!
Construction of the stand is Jarrah, with a through dovetailed case. The shelves float on pins to decouple any vibration.
The tray slides out for the laptop …
Let's not forget that this adventure started with the turntable and its re-build. So let's go there. This is how it looked originally – very tired …
For those who are (incredible as this sounds) uninformed about the construction of this venerable lady, the plinth is about 1/4" thick veneered MDF, with an even thinner hardboard base, and all this resolutely - or should that be resonantly - stands on tiny rubber stubs for feet. An absolutely brilliant design (the suspended chassis, that is) with inadequate clothing.
I fashioned a new plinth out of a 1" thick pinky fiddleback Jarrah …
Construction-wise, the mitres are glued with a sizing technique (use glue to seal the end grain straws, allow to near-dry, and then glue again). The corners are reinforced with splines internally.
The upper plate had some corrosion marks in its aluminium, and I planned to respray it. I did not realise that the plate was glued on, and my effort in removing it caused a few kinks. Rather than purchase another, I flattened it, and then sanded it within an inch of its life, finally deciding to just clear coat the aluminium rather than a spray painted finish.
It goes back with double-sided tape.
To make it easier to remove and re-install, if needed to be done in the future, instead of screws, the top is now held on with bolts ...
Here is the inside: the springs have been replaced with a set from Vinyl Nirvana. Previously, the springs had been swapped out for Linn springs, and now I realised that these were too stiff to create a decent bounce.
When wiring up the RCA plugs, I realised that there was not enough finger space to do the soldering. So … the plate I had made (from acrylic) came out, and replaced with RCA which could be attached with a nut from the outside.
One other addition, seen here, is the Michell Engineering finger locknut for the Rega arm base. This makes it easier to adjust the arm attachment. The original connection was via a large nut, which require a spanner.
Similar to the RCAs, I had to remove and rotate the Furutech mains plug, as the locking screws tightened from above - which meant that the steel chassis would need to be removed if a wire came loose. The plug screw can now be tightened from below ...
I went a little mad with black acrylic (chosen as it absorbs vibration so well). First there was the base in 10mm thick …
The feet are made from IsaAcoustic IsoPucks, which I modified by superglueing on stainless steel bolts to create feet with isolation properties and fine adjustment …
The other area with acrylic is the armboard. This is pretty dead (vibration-wise) compared with the MDF original.
The Rega RB300 arm was modified with the Origin Live counterweight and coupling, as well as the VTA adjuster.
Another addition was Dynamat insulation under the turntable platter. This stopped all ringing ...
The spindle centre is filled with plasticine and an acrylic cover ...
The MDF stand used to set up the springs ...
Finally, together. The mat is a Herbie's Way Excellent ll Turntable Mat. This is similar material to the Platter Matter, but 3mm thick, compared with the 6mm of the PM.
A great deal of attention has been given to reducing possible vibration to a minimum. One of my concerns was that the turntable was to sit on a chest of drawers, and this may act as a sound board. The floors are Jarrah-over-concrete, which helps.
An isolation platform was in order. More acrylic as it seems to soak up vibrations …
The top is loose and there are thin Sorbothane feet underneath …
Here is the final affair. The perspex lid was custom made/sized for the plinth.
Close-up of the isolation platform angles ...
Cartridge? For the fanatics here, a Supex 900 Mk IV.
I have Linn hinges to connect the lid to the plinth, but am still sitting on the fence whether to use them ....
Regards from Perth
Derek