Marantz SR7010 phono stage?

[highfigh]

It is surprising that linear tracking tone arms never became the standard.
A friend has one of these Harman/Kardon - Rabco turntables which worked great aside from the tracking roller wheel turning to gel about every 8 years. He no longer uses it because he no longer could find a replacement wheel. But that is a problem that should be easy enough to deal with by choosing the right material.

It is elegantly simple. Any time the arm is not perpendicular to the carriage, the roller will carry it sideways to square it back up:

There were plenty of other versions by other manufacturers that also seemed to work well, this is just the one I am familiar with.

Those work great, unless someone's PO'd wife decides that she wants to air mail it to her husband who's sitting across the room and it hits the floor on one corner- tends to cause the base to rack, diagonally. Hard to get it straight, too.

My friend did service at a stereo store where we worked and someone traded one because of his ex launching it at him. He bought it and got it to work pretty well, but couldn't spend too much time on it since he was so busy. He found someone who wanted to buy it, so he decided to take another stab at it and when he loosened the screws for the base, it creaked and snapped into place, about as square and well-aligned as he could want. Figures- it couldn't do that when he got it, but only when he was selling it.

 

[highfigh]

What's the best way to implement a damped arm? Is it an add-on piece or does it come with specific turntables?

Its smooth frictionless operation makes sense as if the tonearm has done its job and leaving it all up to the cartridge to perform the rest.

Sony, Denon and a couple of other manufacturers made servo-damped tonearms in the early-'80s and they work well, if none of the components have failed. The tracking is controlled electronically, so it needs to have a 'Zero balance' button that disables the tracking and lets the user set the movable weight so it floats.

I have one of the Sony tables, the PS-X600 and I bought it in 1981, when I worked at a stereo store. I put it away for about ten years, partially because I thought the stylus tip was too worn to use (and I didn't want to spend big bucks for a new cartridge) and also because I was working on my house and it would have been moved to often to be practical. I was using an AVR at that time and it didn't have a real phono section, just a pair of jacks labeled 'Phono' without a phono preamp and since I use moving coil cartridges, I would have needed a MC preamp.

The background noise level is exceptionally low and since I have been using it again (found a microscope at Goodwill for $13 and found that the diamond isn't worn), I really enjoy it. Most of the time. It has a few switches that need to be cleaned and if they haven't been cycled several times, it does some strange things such as, playing for a while and then lifting the tonearm and swinging quickly toward the spindle. If I cycle the power, Zero Balance switch and move the tonearm past the lead out area of the groove, it works fine.

Personally, I would recommend keeping a turntable as simple as possible, without any kind of electronics that can't fail if it's supposed to operate correctly and maintain speed- this includes any kind of magnetic coating on the bottom of the platter; if this comes off or the pickup head/associated circuitry fails, it won't spin at the correct speeds. At that point, it becomes an interesting paper weight.

SIB-KIS means 'See It Big-Keep It Simple'.

Make sure the cartridge mass, stylus compliance and tonearm weight are a good/great match, the base is isolated from the tonearm as much as possible and the motor can't transfer any kind of rumble to the base.

 

[TLS Guy]

What's the best way to implement a damped arm? Is it an add-on piece or does it come with specific turntables?

Its smooth frictionless operation makes sense as if the tonearm has done its job and leaving it all up to the cartridge to perform the rest.

The only arms I'm aware of that have damping are the SME arms and the old Decca ffss arms. There are probably others but I'm not aware of them. I have never seen them on Far Eastern turntables.

 

[TLS Guy]

It is surprising that linear tracking tone arms never became the standard.
A friend has one of these Harman/Kardon - Rabco turntables which worked great aside from the tracking roller wheel turning to gel about every 8 years. He no longer uses it because he no longer could find a replacement wheel. But that is a problem that should be easy enough to deal with by choosing the right material.

It is elegantly simple. Any time the arm is not perpendicular to the carriage, the roller will carry it sideways to square it back up:

There were plenty of other versions by other manufacturers that also seemed to work well, this is just the one I am familiar with.

Linear tracking arms are a mess and have never been successful. Turntables need to simple and not designed by people who have wandered in from the bicycle industry.

Tracking error is not something that needs a solution. Your always set for two nulls making sure one is on the inside groove. You then get an insignificant error on the outside groove where it does no harm.

 

[slipperybidness]

Turntables need to simple and not designed by people who have wandered in from the bicycle industry.

Likely the same thing was once said about airplanes