Technics SP-10 MKII

silviajulieta said:

Dear mep: Only for your records: IMHO and through experiences Lyra's ( Skala, Titan, . ) , Dyna's ( XV-1s/1t. ) , Ortofon 2M Black or Nagaoka MP50/MP-500 are better match cartridges with your tonearm.

regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

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So how bad is the match with my Benz Glider SL cartridge? I do appreciate your cartridge info.

microstrip said:

I used a Benz LP when I owned the SME V and it sounded great. I am not sure of the veracity of the information, but at that time I was told that during development the Benz cartridges were tested in a SME V tonearm. A good friend of mine uses the Glider with a SME 309 with great success in an old Oracle. The effective mass of the SME V is 11g and the one of the 312 is about 12g, technically it seems you will have no problems.

So the question should be " how good is the match with my Benz Glider SL cartridge?"

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Well, with Raul, it's usually bad news unless you agree with him and you either have what he has or buy what he recommends which is why I phrased it in the negative. I'm trying to do a little 'rope-a-dope' in order to avoid another beating.

This story keeps getting worse and now I have to move on to plan C. My plinth arrived last night and it was a joke. Not a funny joke, but a cruel joke. The finish was horrible. The wood hadn't been properly sanded and sealed befored the finish was applied. The black looked like crap and there was scratches and swirl marks all over it. He had the plinth inside of a garbage bag and the bag was wrapped in bubble wrap. The wrap was on tight and the finish wasn't cured so there are lots of marks in the finish from the bubble wrap.

The woodworking skill level is ****-poor. The ledge that the table is supposed to sit on is not level so the table only makes contact on two opposite corners and it just rocks in place. The cutout for the armboard is a joke. The four screw holes in the armboard are not centered over the brass inserts in the arm well. The inserts weren't drilled straight (this guy must not have a drill press because all of his holes are crooked). One of the inserts isn't even seated flush with the top of the wood so there is no way the armboard can sit correctly.

The threaded rod that the feet screw onto on the bottom were all drilled crooked. The whole thing is a shabby mess. This clown had the nerve to send me an email on Sunday telling me how much I was going to love his plinth and that I was probably going to want to come back and buy other plinths from him in the future. After he reads the email I just sent him, he will know that won't be happening. I guess this is what you can expect for $700. I'm getting my money back.

I'm pretty confident that I will get my money back because I payed through Pay Pal. In deference to everyone that is in the plinth business, this is not rocket science and it shouldn't be that expensive to make a nice one. Most people are just cutting up pieces of baltic birch plywood and glueing the layers together and then wrapping it up in hardwood. There is not that much money in materials in one of these. It just seems like you should be able to turn out a real nice one for $700. Does anyone think that most high-end commercial tables have a $700 plinth? I promise you they don't. Very few do.

I think that I'm going to buy a solid piece of hardwood 4" thick and have the plinth made from a single piece of wood. That should be plenty of audiophile over-kill.

The guy just emailed me and said he would refund my money as soon as he receives the plinth back. He said, "No additional questions will be asked." Really?? I laid out all of the mistakes and poor workmanship in a detailed email. What more could somone possibly ask?

Thanks Rich. I figured the hard part was going to be scoring an SP-10 MKII in good condition and getting the SME 312S which isn't sold in the U.S. I never thought the plinth was going to be the deal breaker.

micro-Do you really think a 4" thick piece of solid hardwood could resonate like a bell? Retired wood craftsmen have already paid for their tools. But really, how exotic of woodworking tools do you need to make a plinth? As for price, I used to think that SOTA tables were very beautiful. They were built out of solid oak and the four corners were all dove tail joints beautifully finished. I promise you they don't have $700 in that plinth. I don't think you really need 200 lbs of limestone for a plinth either. It does look nice. I think that Albert Porter's plinths look great and the workmanship is very professional. With a starting price of $2K, I do think the price is too dear. I would love to have one though.


All of the digital people that abandoned analog long ago would have a field day yukking about how someone would pay such a high price just for a plinth for a piece of antique playback gear. You realize that lots of old analog guys that gave up on it when digital came out probably didn't have $2K invested in their table/arm/cartridge combo.

And meanwhile back at the ranch, the guy that I bought the plinth from just emailed me and asked me to make sure I pack it real good. Like it matters. If I was him I would hang my head in shame and take it out in the backyard and take an axe to it. He will probably resell it to someone else and send them an email before it arrives and tell them how happy they are going to be with it when they receive it like he did with me.

Bruce B said:

I've been toying with the idea of mounting my EMT 948 into a plinth/cabinet. Hearing about your adventures, I don't know now.

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I can tell you two guys not to buy it from. You need to find a real woodworker and not some jackleg with a sabre saw and hand drill.

microstrip said:

It will depend on the wood type and plinth geometry. The only problem is that you only know after.
But if needed you can always damp it at a lather phase. BTW, as afar as I remember the SOTA sub-chassis and arm boards were not solid wood - I think they were MDF. .

I had this page in my archives - please note that I am not endorsing it.

http://www.resfreq.com/usefulinfoonwood.html

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They might have been, but the parts you saw were all hardwood and beautifully made.

If you are contemplating buying a plinth on Audiogon, you need to stay far away from Paul Dang, aka Environ75. Here is an email I submitted to Audiogon to tell them this guy is a fraud:


The seller advertised the plinth as being "massive" and weighing 50
lbs with a shipping weight expected to be around 60 lbs. The shipping
weight of this plinth according to UPS is 33.8 lbs will a billable
shipping weight of 35 lbs which means his "massive" plinth actually
weighed almost half of what he advertised.



The other issues were the plinth was very poorly built and very poorly
finished. The cutout for the turntable to sit in has a lip for the
table to mount to and it's not level on two sides causing the table to
rock back and forth because of an 1/8" gap. This makes this plinth
unusable. The seller had to know this because the ad in Audiogon has a SP-10 sitting in it so he
knew it rocked back and forth. In addition, the armboard holes weren't
drilled centered over the brass inserts, the brass inserts weren't
drilled straight, and one of them wasn't flush with the wood which
means the armboard won't sit level.



The wood was not sanded and sealed prior to applying the poor finish
so all seams were visible and the finish looks very poor. The four
feet on the bottom were drilled crooked. I don't think this guy owns
a drill press and all holes were drilled with a hand drill which would
explain why all of the holes are crooked. The finish hadn't cured
before he put the bubble wrap around the plinth so the bubbles from
the bubble wrap left indentations all over the finish in addition to all of the scratches and swirl marks.



I contacted the seller the following day after receiving the plinth
and informed him of all the defects and that I was returning it for a
full refund of my money. The seller told me that he would refund my
money after the plinth came back to him and he "inspected" it. The
plinth arrived back to him on 7 Apr 2011. The seller said he was out
of town until late on 8 Apr 2011 and that he would "inspect" it on 9 Apr 2011 and then refund my
money. He did not refund my money and I had to file a dispute with Pay Pal
on 9 Apr 2011.



So not only is this guy a fraud with regards to what he advertises vs.
what he actually sells, he doesn't want to refund money back to an unhappy
customer and now I have to fight for it.

Pay Pal refunded my money today after the seller made me wait 8 days after I filed the Pay Pal claim. He knew he didn't have a leg to stand on, but he drug it out for 8 days. Pay Pal gives 10 days to respond so I guess I'm supposed to feel grateful that I only had to wait 8 days.

A word to the wise. If you buy something on Audiogon and don't pay through Pay Pal, you are probably screwed with regards to getting your money back if the seller sends you a defective product. Audiogon won't give you your money back that's for sure. Pay Pal is still a hassle, but at least you probably will get your money back after waiting for 10 days.

Stay far away from Paul Dang.