How many turntables did you audition before you settled on one?

[garylkoh]

Nope! Mine was one of the originals, without the turrets on the front.

This one then.

Did your arm cut-out sag?

 

[caesar]

Great stories and great pictures. But how did you guys actually go through the selection process? Considering the setup, I am guessing it's difficult to swap out turntables from a system, vs. swapping out cd players.

 

[vinylphilemag]

This one then.

Did your arm cut-out sag?

Yep, that's the one! Although mine was in the same finish as the previous picture you posted, and my mat didn't have the cut-outs. Yes, my arm cut-out did sag after a while, especially when I swapped my RB300 arm for an SME Series V. I stood it on a medium height Roksan triangular table.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

This one then.

Did your arm cut-out sag?

That's gorgeous!

 

[Odyno]

The Xerxes is a good turntable.
When it came out, many dealer gave up Linn for the Roksan.....

 

[garylkoh]

The Xerxes is a good turntable.
When it came out, many dealer gave up Linn for the Roksan.....

It's not well know in the US - whenever I've done a show with it, I'm often asked "What is that?"

I think that it's competitive with the "state of the art" tables, but it's too cheap to be credible as a competitor to those cost-no-object turntables.

 

[microstrip]

This one then.

Did your arm cut-out sag?

Gary,

I still have one of those in my garage! Beautiful rosewood finish with the separate power supply and brown tint acrylic cover. Every three month it had to receive a few days anti-sag heat and force treatment and than it is good for next trimester! I never sold it because I did not to hear complains from the possible buyer! But it had a conventional felt mat - not this fancy one.

Curiously I also own a Zeta toneram. And yes, much better than people can imagine.

 

[NorthStar]

Turntable Mats are the most fun parts to create yourself.

* I made several of them (out of rubber, corck, felt, etc.),
and it is the most fun to experiment with at listening to the sound differences.

 

[garylkoh]

Gary,

I still have one of those in my garage! Beautiful rosewood finish with the separate power supply and brown tint acrylic cover. Every three month it had to receive a few days anti-sag heat and force treatment and than it is good for next trimester! I never sold it because I did not to hear complains from the possible buyer! But it had a conventional felt mat - not this fancy one.

Curiously I also own a Zeta toneram. And yes, much better than people can imagine.

Yes, it is a beautiful sounding and looking table - unfortunately, the first version had an arm cut-out that sagged. On mine (it's with a friend in Singapore) I fashioned a fourth support, directly in line of the stylus and on the opposite side of the bearing. Seems to work - I used a 60 durometer rubber puck and a screw to adjust the height.

The 20+ version uses a similar solution. Touraj, the designer, came up with it independently. Shows that great minds think alike, but fools seldom differ

 

[MylesBAstor]

The 20+ version uses a similar solution. Touraj, the designer, came up with it independently. Shows that great minds think alike, but fools seldom differ

Quit stealing my lines!

 

[microstrip]

Yes, it is a beautiful sounding and looking table - unfortunately, the first version had an arm cut-out that sagged. On mine (it's with a friend in Singapore) I fashioned a fourth support, directly in line of the stylus and on the opposite side of the bearing. Seems to work - I used a 60 durometer rubber puck and a screw to adjust the height.

The 20+ version uses a similar solution. Touraj, the designer, came up with it independently. Shows that great minds think alike, but fools seldom differ

Gary,
Thanks for the advice.

I have tried a similar approach with a large Audioquest sorbothane puck - after all the (hidden) Forsell suspension is made with these pucks. Unhappily it killed the lively sound of the Roksan + Zeta combination. Perhaps the sorbothane damped the board too much. I will try it with an harder puck.

 

[Syntax]

42​

 

[Odyno]

Touraj have new Blobs to replace the original ones's http://www.roksan.co.uk/roksan/roksanpage.php?pageno=40
I used them rebuilting my deck and hapy with the result.
As far as fixing the sagging plynth, I took that way excepted that I use a carbon fiber washer

 

[garylkoh]

Gary,
Thanks for the advice.

I have tried a similar approach with a large Audioquest sorbothane puck - after all the (hidden) Forsell suspension is made with these pucks. Unhappily it killed the lively sound of the Roksan + Zeta combination. Perhaps the sorbothane damped the board too much. I will try it with an harder puck.

Yes, sorbothane kills the lively sound of the Roksan. I mentioned 60 durometer because that's what I landed with that sounded the best to me. I only had access to 40 and 80, so if you can find 50 and 70 durometer, one of those might sound better to you.

 

[garylkoh]

Touraj have new Blobs to replace the original ones's http://www.roksan.co.uk/roksan/roksanpage.php?pageno=40
I used them rebuilting my deck and hapy with the result.
As far as fixing the sagging plynth, I took that way excepted that I use a carbon fiber washer

Yes - for the original Xerses, those new BIOBs work great. They are a 3-layer design and reduce feedback using constrained layer damping. Another upgrade is the mat with the holes - the RMAT-5: http://www.roksan.co.uk/roksan/roksanpage.php?pageno=4

I did try coupling the sagging cut-out with the back of the top plate, but didn't like what it did to the sound - made the bass fatter.

 

[Odyno]

Solved the fat bass by using the carbon fiber washer........

 

[microstrip]

Yes, sorbothane kills the lively sound of the Roksan. I mentioned 60 durometer because that's what I landed with that sounded the best to me. I only had access to 40 and 80, so if you can find 50 and 70 durometer, one of those might sound better to you.

Most small shock absorbers do not refer the durometer grade. Do you have any specific recommendation?

 

[garylkoh]

Most small shock absorbers do not refer the durometer grade. Do you have any specific recommendation?

Unfortunately, no. I bought them when I was in Singapore at a place called Sungei Road - sort of like a flea market - over 20 years ago. I currently source shock absorbers from a place called Enterprise Rubber, but you'll have to buy 100's at a go.

 

[Odyno]

An other tweak I have done on my Roksan was to replace the MDF base with one made of Corian.

 

[garylkoh]

An other tweak I have done on my Roksan was to replace the MDF base with one made of Corian.

That's a good one. Even if there was a slight fatness in the bass leftover after you used a carbon fiber washer, the corian base (like with the TMS) would have fixed it.

Roksan's problem is that unlike the Linn, their upgrades mostly weren't retro-fittable. So, you couldn't upgrade a Xerses from the 80's to one of today (unlike a Linn).