Some of you are aware of my other illness but hanging around people like Mike, Myles, Gary, Bruce, and other notable WBF members who are into playing LPs, it became natural that I do the deep dive on pursuing music of my youth via playing "black" discs.
The journey started few years back but didn't catch speed until the KLaudio LP cleaner got materialized removing any concern of ruining a good stylus on a cartridge by playing dirty (as in dirt and not in kinky) used records.
Starting in early 80's when the silver discs came on the scene, I traded 10 perfect LPs to one CD at the School Kid's Record store in Raleigh, NC. Forty years later, I am still kicking myself every time when I see an LP that I used to own in stores...
There's no argument against more music being available on LPs than other media including tapes and I personally can relate to music of 60's and 70's I heard in my friend's car radio and 8 track players more than other audiophile approved esoteric Jazz pieces I know little about. I also confess that these records from way back can sound amazingly good when played in a correctly set up system even compared to master tapes of few generations down.
So, I bought a well used Technics SP-10M3 from Japan. However, the unit was in bad physical condition and dealing from Seattle with a store in Tokyo was not easy. With help from a local friend, I obtained the turntable.
Then there was the challenge of rebuilding it. I was fortunate to find Tanaka-san in outside of Tokyo. Based on his previous works in rebuilding 15 of SP-10MK3s in recent years, I knew he was the best person for the job. Like all people in audio world, he was a bit strange... He was bitter about foreigners copying his work from info he had listed in his website. It was not so easy to convince him to take on my unit. If I didn't have a local friend who can sweet talk him into doing the work, it wouldn't have happened. It took three months to convince Tanaka-san and now it is done. You can see his work here:
http://amp8.com/amp-etc/record/technics/sp-mk3-g.htm
As I said, he is anal... going way beyond replacing caps, he resoldered every solder joints, removed excess flux, cleaned and coated all boards. Even some of the variable resistors (pots) have been replaced. It is performing as good or better than when it was new.
Now the plinth... I guess never reaching the end is the fun part of playing the black discs.
Ki
The journey started few years back but didn't catch speed until the KLaudio LP cleaner got materialized removing any concern of ruining a good stylus on a cartridge by playing dirty (as in dirt and not in kinky) used records.
Starting in early 80's when the silver discs came on the scene, I traded 10 perfect LPs to one CD at the School Kid's Record store in Raleigh, NC. Forty years later, I am still kicking myself every time when I see an LP that I used to own in stores...
There's no argument against more music being available on LPs than other media including tapes and I personally can relate to music of 60's and 70's I heard in my friend's car radio and 8 track players more than other audiophile approved esoteric Jazz pieces I know little about. I also confess that these records from way back can sound amazingly good when played in a correctly set up system even compared to master tapes of few generations down.
So, I bought a well used Technics SP-10M3 from Japan. However, the unit was in bad physical condition and dealing from Seattle with a store in Tokyo was not easy. With help from a local friend, I obtained the turntable.
Then there was the challenge of rebuilding it. I was fortunate to find Tanaka-san in outside of Tokyo. Based on his previous works in rebuilding 15 of SP-10MK3s in recent years, I knew he was the best person for the job. Like all people in audio world, he was a bit strange... He was bitter about foreigners copying his work from info he had listed in his website. It was not so easy to convince him to take on my unit. If I didn't have a local friend who can sweet talk him into doing the work, it wouldn't have happened. It took three months to convince Tanaka-san and now it is done. You can see his work here:
http://amp8.com/amp-etc/record/technics/sp-mk3-g.htm
As I said, he is anal... going way beyond replacing caps, he resoldered every solder joints, removed excess flux, cleaned and coated all boards. Even some of the variable resistors (pots) have been replaced. It is performing as good or better than when it was new.
Now the plinth... I guess never reaching the end is the fun part of playing the black discs.
Ki