The Technics Turntable Fan Club - Questions, Advice, Discussion

I also have the Zephyr from Hifi Heaven. I got it after the open box was no longer available, and they offered me a new one for a fraction of the new price. It's a strange practice, but seems to be win win for them and the consumer.

Either way, that cartridge is the only untouchable component in my system. To me it's very balanced sounding and casts a gigantic soundstage.

The one thing to keep in mind is it likes loading nearer to 1k ohms. My Manley Chinook can get close at ~800ohms, which I'm very happy with. I've noticed some phono preamps stop short, closer to 500 ohms, or jump past 1k altogether.
 
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Splunders said:
I also have the Zephyr from Hifi Heaven. I got it after the open box was no longer available, and they offered me a new one for a fraction of the new price. It's a strange practice, but seems to be win win for them and the consumer.

Either way, that cartridge is the only untouchable component in my system. To me it's very balanced sounding and casts a gigantic soundstage.

The one thing to keep in mind is it likes loading nearer to 1k ohms. My Manley Chinook can get close at ~800ohms, which I'm very happy with. I've noticed some photos preamps stop short, closer to 500 ohms, or jump past 1k altogether.
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That is a good thing to note!
 
Splunders said:
I also have the Zephyr from Hifi Heaven. I got it after the open box was no longer available, and they offered me a new one for a fraction of the new price. It's a strange practice, but seems to be win win for them and the consumer.

Either way, that cartridge is the only untouchable component in my system. To me it's very balanced sounding and casts a gigantic soundstage.

The one thing to keep in mind is it likes loading nearer to 1k ohms. My Manley Chinook can get close at ~800ohms, which I'm very happy with. I've noticed some phono preamps stop short, closer to 500 ohms, or jump past 1k altogether.
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Does seem like a strange business practice, but hey... lol. Thanks for the loading tip.. I'll keep that in mind when choosing a phono stage.
 
Looks like the McIntosh MP100, WhestTwo.2 and Sutherland 20/20 are good options in the $2k range. I had an Insight previously and it was great. Having a piece of McIntosh gear is on my bucket list, but not sure if the MP100 is that piece. Anyone heard/have one?
 
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Just called since I hadn't heard anything.. To good to be true.. not in stock. Said he got 2 of them last week but they were already pre-ordered. Said he just got 2 1210GR's and those were already pre-ordered as well.. no indication of how many were in line ahead of me. Super nice guy to talk to, left my order in place for now.. I had already lost patience with the process so not sure how much longer I'll hold out though..
 
I dunno if this counts, but I just bought my wife a Technics SL-J92 linear tracker for her office. Could I have gone with a U-Turn or Fluance? Yes. Was this too cool to pass on? Also yes.

Main downside of these tables seems to be the very limited selection of T4P-compliant cartridges, but that’s not really a concern since this will be a casual system running through a powered speaker. As long as it’s got an elliptical stylus and won’t shred records, I think she’ll be happy with it.
 
kvetcha said:
I dunno if this counts, but I just bought my wife a Technics SL-J92 linear tracker for her office. Could I have gone with a U-Turn or Fluance? Yes. Was this too cool to pass on? Also yes.

Main downside of these tables seems to be the very limited selection of T4P-compliant cartridges, but that’s not really a concern since this will be a casual system running through a powered speaker. As long as it’s got an elliptical stylus and won’t shred records, I think she’ll be happy with it.
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Although they’re out of production you can still pretty easily pick up NOS of the ortofon OMP cartridges for P mount for ok money. An OMP20 would be the equivalent of a 2M blue in new money and the option is there to stylus swap then to a 30(bronze) or 40(black).
 
Joe Mac said:
Although they’re out of production you can still pretty easily pick up NOS of the ortofon OMP cartridges for P mount for ok money. An OMP20 would be the equivalent of a 2M blue in new money and the option is there to stylus swap then to a 30(bronze) or 40(black).
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Apparently the Ortofon stylus doesn’t quite meet the T4P standard (something about the stylus or cantilever length/VTF requirement). LPGear offers a few compatible carts, though, and the seller of this particular table says he’s installed a new stylus.
 
kvetcha said:
Apparently the Ortofon stylus doesn’t quite meet the T4P standard (something about the stylus or cantilever length/VTF requirement). LPGear offers a few compatible carts, though, and the seller of this particular table says he’s installed a new stylus.
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Oh how weird. It seems really bizarre to make p mount cartridge that doesn’t meet p mount standards!
 
Joe Mac said:
Oh how weird. It seems really bizarre to make p mount cartridge that doesn’t meet p mount standards!
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T4P is apparently a stricter standard that was introduced in the 80s. It’s P-Mount but has very specific requirements for stylus length and tracking force, as it was designed for tables that had very little adjustability and were dialed in from the factory.

Taken from a VinylEngine thread:

- VTF 1.25g +- 0.25g with a cartridge+stylus weight of 6.00g

- As far as i know, compliance is within 10-12 units @100Hz, which would be like 25cu static compliance.

- Stylus-tip-to-mating-surface is exactly 20mm. This is critical otherwise the cartridge will not be aligned and tracking error will appear.

- Center of gravity is standarized, but i don't know the details.

- Plug length 5mm, height 8mm
- Plug pins length 4.2mm, diameter 0.7mm
- Hole for fastening screw is 2.2mm diameter
- Hole-to-mating-surface distance 3mm
- Stylus is expected to be 8.5mm below the center of the hole for the fastening screw.
- Stylus to cartridge floor distance 1mm (at least for technics carts)
- Cart height 16mm approx (it will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer)
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It’s a shame because Grado offers a P-Mount Gold3 but it’s not T4P compliant!

AT seems to be the only company still producing T4P-compliant carts, but there’s plenty of NOS to choose from.
 
kvetcha said:
It’s a shame because Grado offers a P-Mount Gold3 but it’s not T4P compliant!

AT seems to be the only company still producing T4P-compliant carts, but there’s plenty of NOS to choose from.
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I think the grado p mount has a pretty poor reputation in comparison to their standard mount too. I’ve seen warnings to keep away from them!
 
The Plastic Fantastic has arrived! Seems like it’s in nice shape, aside from the expected surface wear and tear. I’ve only just had time to unpack it and wire it up to the SpinBase in my spouse’s office, so my impressions are extremely brief: it works! And it’s neat seeing the last-ditch engineering done by companies like Technics to keep turntables viable in the face of the CD revolution.

I think this sort of full-auto, hands-off deck is gonna be perfect for the wife to spin while she works.
 
Joe Mac said:
Yeah a technics would be where I’d go next if I was ever to do it and this really does make the table look much better looking!
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Agreed, I hate the look of the technics, but a black one in a box like this, I would consider if I ever was in a position of changing my table.
 
Mr Moustache said:
Agreed, I hate the look of the technics, but a black one in a box like this, I would consider if I ever was in a position of changing my table.
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I’m more a fan of the silver one but I never understood why the bottom of it was black, totally messes up the look for me. In this box it would cover to up and the silver surrounded by wood would give it a nice vintage look!
 
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