Is this why my analog rig isn't so hot?

From what I understand the Benz Gliders don't track that well.

It's, IMO, the most cost effective high performance production deck currently available:

Kab Audiophile Standard high performance turntable

Mine has just the Groovemaster, fluid damper and outboard power supply along with some Marigo dots on the gimbals. I am a hardcore salsa listener and this deck delivers the neutrality, speed, attack and linear decay that the lesser belt drives don't. Although my creature isn't up to speed w/ the latest mods, it does rest on a Dennensen air suspension platform, which takes performance to a whole different level.

I know Kevin personally--he's an authentic, true to the music, creative individual. He's well versed in analog reproduction. If you give him a call you'll thank me...

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Maybe George is ready for a KAB modded 1200, Ken!

Nobody messes w/ the modded 1200 anymore. Not here, not in the Asylum. You'd have to spend around $5K to equal or outperform it. There's quite a few 1200 modders out there...Tracy from Barbados, Nightdoggy, Alex Yakovlev (the last two electrical engineers), Zaikesman (read his review in accessories), other Asylum inmates and yours truly. Alex installed a Rega RB600 tonearm in his 1200 and reverted back to the stock tonearm!

I used to have a 1700, then went to a Yamaha P20, Pioneer PL-540 and then looked at belt drives some four years ago. One day I came up with posts of people modding their 1200's, in Japan, Europe, USA. I started researching and found out about certain Needledoctor salesman who, being able to have any belt drive in stock at dealer cost, uses a modded 1200. He told me about Kevin and the rest is history...

With the external power supply and good power cords (AC & DC) the 1200 plows effortlessly through complex passages. It's very fast, stable and with linear decays. Try listening to piano solos and check out if the notes fade linear or whether they wobble. Playing hardcore salsa will also prove to be a SERIOUS obstacle course. A lesser belt drive will flunk either test. A kick ass belt drive or idler wheel deck will have no problems whatsoever. It doesn't have to be a direct drive. Speed/rotational stability under real loads is the name of the game...

George, you should talk to Kevin. He's the one that profits from selling modded 1200's, not me. He also knows a LOT more than me...

Perception is indeed a problem. Most people perceive Bose speakers as the bomb, while most audiophiles perceive that a little motor on a plinth and a plastic/glass platter will deliver a high end musical experience...

To answer your question on modding, it can't be done. The farthest you could go with a regular belt drive would be to install a load sensing DC motor on a flared platter. The closest to this would be a modded Oracle. The Technics uses a sophisticated circuitry to sense and correct changes in speed/loading. It does so @ some 3500 times per second. The economies of scale have permitted Panasonic to sell such technology at a low price. The unit has some inherent weaknesses and that's what the mods address.

I'll leave you with this thought:

In my analog rig I don't wan't 'analog' sound. I don't want an artificially enhanced soundstage, 'warmth' nor slowness. I want my analog and digital rigs to sound as close to each other as possible. Both must sound like recorded music. I use a modded direct drive TT and a modded ( by Dan Wright ) belt drive transport. The weaknesses of each rig have been addressed to achieve a rather uniform sound. They still have their own idiosyncracies, but the sound is right on. My next door neighbor is a 20 yr kid and he says that you'd never know it's records that one is listening to--that it sounds like CDs. What a compliment!

Crespo, I'm going to take you to school. Stay tuned...

Crespo, CD’s have *perfect* pitch, ultra low noise floor and excellent dynamic range. Vinyl cannot match digital in those departments. When glare and other artifacts are removed from a digital playback system, the resulting sound is stunning. So stunning that a friend of mine with a CEC TL1 & a couple high performance DACs hasn’t yet set up a new Nottingham Anna Log turntable because he’s truly satisfied with his digital rig ( *seductive* is the term he uses ). One of the 1200 modders has a unit that is beyond the KAB mods and e-mailed me his modded CEC transport/DCS DAC and the TT sound pretty close to each other. People with higher CEC transports and high performance DACs are extremely satisfied. The Black Gate capacitors in my modded belt drive transport finally broke in this week. The improvement has been nothing but breathtaking. Speed, attack, decay, noise floor and soundstage have improved in no small measure. My 20 year old neighbor used the term “the music wraps you” to describe the unexpected change. Perhaps things are different with a 30-50K turntable, but in the real world digital sound can be so good we’re just talking about “different flavors”, as my friend with the Nottingham Anna Log says. I strongly suggest you do your homework. Too bad Danny Boy turned you down. You'd start to see the light...

As for why I listen to records, the answer is because it's a medium. The vast majority of my music is in LP format, something like 900 LPs vs 200 CDs. Such is life. I started working on improving digital because I got tired of seeing exhorbitant prices in eBay of classic Latin LPs that were readily available on CD for $15 or so. My efforts payed off and I learned from the people I've mentioned thtat I'm on the right track (unless I buy a $30-50K TT instead of a house).

Jphii, I listen to all kinds of music except racist and satanic. If I only listened to salsa I would have horn speakers, not my Modwright Swans mini monitors. When I took my 1200 to Kevin for installation of the outboard power supply I took along my favorite salsa record. Kevin has his own DIY horn system with a 7 feet wide bass horn. WOW!!! WOW!!! WOW!!!

The modded 1200 is a neutral sounding deck and will prove more adequate than a lesser belt drive to plow through complex orchestral passages . That’s exactly where stylus drag effects would be most noticeable. A properly designed & built TT should not be able to play one type of music better than another.

With psychic power & primal intensity,

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Raul, I don't care what you think--no offense (perdona sa'e).

Raoul, just because *you* do not understand what I'm stating does not mean that it doesn't make sense. You don't even know where Dan Wright placed the Black Gate capacitors in my transport and you spin off with a stupid comment that only makes you look like an ignorant smart ass.

Your 'contribution' has no place in this thread. If you had a little common sense you would stop at the comment that someone with a $10K Nottingham Anna Log TT has kept it in the box because his digital rig is sounding soo good. That's the same person who told me I needed to get into belt drive transports and sent me the link of the classified that advertised the unit I currently own. Knowing this person has owned expensive TTs (both belt & DD) I followed his advice.

I suggest you follow your own 'advice' on "learning to learn" and find out how these people with higher belt drive transports get great music ( that's how I learned ). I'll tell you that my modded transport is plugged to a Clear Image T4 filter via an AudioPrism Super Natural 9.5 power cord. The T4's construction quality makes the BPT filters look like toys. The T4 shares the outlet with an Audio Power parallel filter. The T4 is fed via a 220V/110V ONEAC CB 2338 isolation transformer/filter (30 amp, 220V dedicated line, BTW). The T4 is supported by a set of Goldmund Cones which pierce a board of non resonant, Caribbean Moca wood, with an 18" x 18" rubber/cork/rubber slab under on an IKEA Lack table. Oh, my transport is also supported by Goldmund Cones with Moca wood and an 18" x 18" rubber/cork/rubber slab. The digital cable is a 1.5 m VenHaus Pulsar that Sean cooked for a full 30 days on two different cable cookers (one a modded Mobie, one mimicking a digital signal) @ 1 week alternate cycles. My modded 1200 sits on a similar layout, but with a Dennensen Air Suspension and a massive granite slab over the air pistons. This is WAY out of your league, Raoul.

Los niños hablan cuando las gallinas mean.

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My apologies, George, for having this thread go off course. But, as you already know, it’s late August—back to school days! As you can see, one of them schoolchildren is in dire need of remedial lessons!

George, if you could come to my living room and hear the “creature on steroids” you’d know what I’m talking about. We could change the musical presentation into ‘analog’ sounding by bringing something like a Rega P25 or Music Hall 9, a nice moving coil and a tube phono stage. I would plug these into my power delivery/noise control rig, just like w/ my DD/moving magnet/solid state phonostage. The sound would change to what some would describe as ‘warm’, ‘three dimensional’ and ‘textured’. I would use the terms ‘noisy’, ‘bloated’ and ‘sluggish’. It’s important to use the positive attributes of CDs as the standard for vinyl reproduction—not another turntable. Power delivery/noise control is my area of expertise in audio and now that my belt drive transport finally broke in I’m going to have one hell of a time working on further lowering the noise floor of my analog. It’s going to take Bybees on hot, neutral and ground of my phonostage’s outboard power supply, as well as a trip to the cryo treatment facility and some special cryo’ed silver DC cabling in between. The phono preamp circuitry is definitely going to end up in Danny Boy’s hands.

Raoul, you just don’t know when to quit. If instead of searching through years of my previous posts you’d spend your time learning English! Again, I don’t care what you think. I have some serious people helping me and *your* input is not up to speed. For your information, I have been a Beta tester for KAB Electroacoustics and VenHaus Audio. Perhaps you think Kevin and Chris are not knowledgeable enough. Truth is they know I’m a radical, innovative thinker with a good ear and a great, neutral sounding solid state setup. Chris is a tube guy and he wanted to try the Pulsar in a grain free, glare free, dead quiet, 100% solid-state high-end system. He knew my feedback would be objective and relevant. After I gave him my feedback he offered to try his new capacitors before they were released on the market, but I had to say no because I don’t solder. If I stay here in Toledo the upcoming Sason loudspeaker (Ridge Street Audio) will be set up in my system for evaluation. When its designer first heard my analog rig he got goose bumps immediately. He later dialed in speaker positioning and the results were spectacular. I’m open to new ideas and suggestions—from people who really know what they’re doing. Set your ego aside and think this through. Oh, before I forget, the objective of a stereo system is to reproduce *recordings of music*, not live music. There's a big difference, Raoul...

That’s it, hope my info is useful, George. I think you can reach what you want if you sort things out and do things systematically. Ken Lyons really knows what he's doing. I can help you in the power delivery/noise control and high performance direct drive departments.

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¡Qué mucho loco!

You must love it Jimbo, cause you keep coming back for more!

An European audio reviewer wrote me that he wanted to name his hotrodded car after *me*...

In short, it combines wild temper with much finesse, which is exactly how I
would describe you in one sentence.

What a riot!!!

Jimbo, you need to take a series of herbal baths with a few plants named "cundeamor" (from the verb cundir, to extend in all directions and the word amor, love), "albahaca" (Basil, to add spice, taste), red rose petals (for passion), and some honey (to counter bitterness)--with ice cubes thrown in for the crispness/coolness factor. Next place some patchouli root bunches in every drawer of your clothes dresser. Things will get better...and you will begin smelling like a *virile* man. After the therapy you can ask your new buddy Raoul to take you to a few places in Mexico. Have some cabrito with negra modelo dark beer, a couple shots of tequila at El Tío in Monterrey, then have Raoul drive you to Club Prestige (my girlfriend works there). Find a nice mami to give you the FULL lap dance treatment ( it's in a closed room...around 900 pesos + tip ) and you'll start ignoring my posts--guaranteed.

When I left Monterrey & my girlfriend I was crying on the plane like a dog in heat. Not everything is audio...

With psychic power and primal intensity,

The SP-10 has been discontinued since 1992 or '94 with no parts support.

I agree, the recording has to do more than anything else. You must not omit the fact that in vinyl we're dealing with recording and pressing. You can have a good recording and bad plating/vinyl quality and that affects playback. That is the case with a lot of my salsa vinyl: the music is great, the recording is good, the plating is good (most were plated @ Sterling Sound ) and the vinyl sucks.

The point is that CD and vinyl can be made to sound pretty close to each other, each having its own advantages. No matter how expensive a vinyl rig is, listening to classical music with all those pops and ticks is not pleasant.

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Raoul, here's your prescription: We need to address your kidneys and gastrointestinal system urgently. Your temper is adversely affecting those organs. For three days I want you to eat raw, whole oranges (7 in the morning, 7 for lunch, 7 for breakfast). In the mornings I want you to drink teas made from the bark of the Almácigo tree. Its sap is astringent and will fix you up. If you gather the bark yourself remember you need to ask the tree for permission...

Once that is done you can eat fruits and vegetables. You will make a tea from either Juana la Blanca or Baquiña. They must be filtered with filter paper. These herbs are so potent they dissolve kidney stones. Do this for 7 days. On day 7 you go to the beach at night and walk backwards into the ocean. As you fall in the water you will recite the following: "Que salga lo malo y entre lo bueno".

Once you get back home, get online and buy some Hector Lavoe LPs or CDs in eBay. Then take good ol' Jimbo to Club Prestige. In Mexico City Mama Rumba is a good spot to hang out--it's a Cuban joint.

Get well.

With psychic power and primal intensity,