Does any Audiogon member have a Holbo air-bearing turntable?

@whart 

I don’t know why the high line cars in AUS were so expensive back in the day 

Back in the day, Australia had several mainstream brands manufacturing cars locally, including GM, Ford, Chrysler and the infamous British Motor Corporation. 

Local manufacturers were supported by high tariffs or duties, which allowed them to become very uncompetitive on price.  At the same time, car-mad Australia was fixated on racing, especially between cars you could actually buy from a showroom. Australia produced the world’s fastest four door saloons, which were also tough enough to survive rough roads, heat and wet.

Then a Labor government decided that the car industry needed rationalising and to help, they decided to progressively reduce tariffs to zero.  BMC folded, and Mitsubishi bought Chrysler’s factory.  Toyota moved into local manufacture.  Rationalising included encouraging manufacturers to use the same suppliers and even the same parts, like washer bottles. The local GM design team became so efficient, they used CAD / CAM to build Australia’s most popular car, without going through a prototype stage.  This was exported to the USA as a police pursuit vehicle.  The Aussie dollar rose to parity with the greenback, and GM got A$250-million from the government to stay in manufacturing.  Unfortunately they sent the money to Detroit and pulled out anyway.  Without GM’s volume, parts supply became an issue and the other manufacturers also pulled out.  Australia is now a highly competitive test market, tariff-free, for the world’s car makers.  We still have a luxury car tax though.

Dialing these in is far different than a pivoted arm

It seems critical to get the Holbo level, both front to back and sideways  It only has three feet, which makes adjustment easy using a decent spirit level.  It is also critical to get the stylus to follow a radius line from the spindle.  A simple template with a radial line fits over the spindle and you adjust the overhang so the stylus exactly touches the line in two places with the platter stationary.  Azimuth needs setting at the same time because it relies on the same lock screw.  The final adjustment is to precisely level the cantilevered rod that the arm glides on.  A screw at the base does this.  I would like to try this with a blank section of a test record, and get it so the arm stays put!

I’ll let you know!

Richard, I actually did own a 67 Duetto in red, virtually the same car later depicted in The Graduate, except mine had real Minilite magnesium wheels, not the stock steel wheels with hubcaps seen on Dustin Hoffman's car. I bought it when it was already one year old, and I was a medical student in NYC.  I drove it throughout med school, even in horrible weather and traffic in NYC. Parked it outside at all times, and it never let me down. In those years, of course, I was not a collector owner; the Duetto was my only car.

Just conjured an image of my first car... Triumph TR6, small-bumpered euro version with Lucas injection, flared fenders and a set of Minilites. I was 17

richardbrand will you be using an inline dryer for the airline, or is moisture/condensation not a concern?

I'm going to send Bostjan a note read what his take is.

I live blocks from the ocean, always keep windows open so curious if this is a necessary concern? 

I'm very close to pulling the trigger.

@tablejockey 

will you be using an inline dryer for the airline

Was not going to.  Moisture condensation may be an issue with bigger pumps that are in a different room and at a different temperature than the table.  The Holbo pump / power supply is reputed to be near silent and is normally within 6 feet of the table and in the same room.  Very little air is actually moved by the Holbo pump!

Do you close enough to the ocean to need, for example, stainless steel guttering?

Where I live, I am more concerned about dust so I may end up with a ventilated box around the pump to minimise airborne dust.