2. analog
  3. 127079-1975

New Townshend Rock 7 owner

The Townshend is in transit to it's new home. I purchased this one-owner table as a package, complete w/ Funk Firm FXR ll arm, dc motor upgrade, Discovery Balanced phono cable and Brinkman PI cartridge. It come with all original boxes, manuals.

If all goes well, I should be able to get it up and running with one exception, my phono stage is not balanced. Since the original owner bought this from a respected dealer as a package, I think my best route would be to get a pair of RCA to XLR adapters in order to hear the package as close as possible as was intended.

Any thoughts on that aspect? What brand adapters would be recommended? Also, any thing I might need to know from experienced users to help with set-up? Thanks.
128x128slaw
slaw's avatar
slaw OP
20,380 posts
 
According to the manual, there is no separate ball bearing. Just wondering about the play?
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,378 posts
 
Slaw, are you saying you're going to use the ET2 linear tracker with the Townshend damping trough? Based on pics of the table, I assumed that you'd need to use a pivoting arm to take advantage of the trough...am I missing something? Cheers,
Spencer
slaw's avatar
slaw OP
20,380 posts
 
sbank,

I'll be using the FF arm that came with the package.

( I was just making an observation about the ET.)

I think I'll send my question to Dan @ EAR USA. After an initial set-up, with oil in the bearing shaft, belt on, and platter on, it seems to be fine. It's an interesting and beautiful design, IMO. I've been like a kid in a candy store this afternoon... getting to know my new friend.


bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,400 posts
 

Slaw, I don’t know the viscosity of Townshend’s silicone. I do know that some Rock users have experimented with thinner versions, but I’ve used only the stuff that came with my table, the old Elite version. My table’s spindle was very close in diameter to the shaft, needing to sit overnight to fully seat.

Arm’s that employ damping at the rear, near the bearings, use it more for damping the bearing assembly than for the whole arm and cartridge. Applying damping at the cartridge end provides much more damping of arm/cartridge resonances. One (American) reviewer thought the Rock to have a too "controlled" sound due to, presumably, the damping trough. The table can be used without the trough, but I got mine specifically because I’m a Decca/London cartridge fan, and they, having no internal damping themselves, benefit greatly from the Rock’s damping. The Decca was used in the development of the Rock design, and their pairing is a match made in heaven.

But ALL arms suffer from resonances, and the Rock damping greatly reduces the peak in output all arm/cartridge have at their resonant frequency. The Rock design is known for having very clean, tight bass, and the suppression of the arm/cartridge resonance plays a role in that. If you have subwoofers, or loudspeakers than go down to 20Hz, you are really going to hear the Rock’s great bass! And clean, "tidy" (as the British say) highs.

slaw's avatar
slaw OP
20,380 posts
 
bdp24,

Thanks for the response. I think/hope it will be a great comparison to my VPI Classic 3 Sig. SE / 3D arm which has great bass/slam.

Cheers
More to discover