Plays 1/2 track and 1/4 track up to 15ips and records 1/4 track. That large diameter capstan is part of a huge, heavy flywheel that's about 6 or 8 inches in diameter. This makes for a super smooth and extremely stable tape transport.
Oracle Audio Delphi MKII
I bought this table from the original owner along with the ET2 arm that he also purchased new. The table has silver Audio Note tonearm wire and cartridge clips, a WISA pump, Airtech surge tank, and a Mod Squad power supply.
The suspension had been previously upgraded to the current system and just rebuilt by me (9/2006).
While speaking with Oracle Audio, we came to the conclusion that my table would benefit from an oil of a different viscosity. While changing the oil I noticed a slightly worn thrust bearing which prompted me to resurface it. The thrust was polished it to a mirror-like finish which is now many times smoother than the factory finish. Pierre at Oracle seemed impressed with the effort! The work to the bearing resulted in amazingly smooth platter rotation which seems to take forever to stop if nudged.
Oracle Delphi motor bearing
The Oracle Delphi's motor armature rides on a nylon thrust bearing which is housed in a machined aluminum bearing well. On the left are two pictures of the armature, shown upside down. On the right are two pictures of the aluminum bearing well and nylon thrust. I suspect the nylon thrust began as a nylon bolt that was cut to fit and subsequenty thread into the bearing well. Inspection revealed that the armature and nylon bearing were slightly worn and not of optimal finish even when new. I resurfaced and polished both the armature and nylon thrust to a mirror-like finish. Oil was added to the bearing well and the unit was reassembled. The resurfacing resulted in noticeably smoother motor operation. Due to the fact that the nylon thrust threads into the bearing well, experiments with other thrust materials can be easily conducted. Bolts are available in various materials, but nearly anything can be used as long as it can be threaded.
Eminent Technology ET2
Wisa pump, Airtech surge tank, VDH tonearm wire.
Eminent Technology ET2.5
ET2.5 with heavy magnesium wand and lightweight aluminum wand. This may be used on a second table at some point in the future.
Denon DL103r
.29 mV output MC. Boron cantilever, micro ridge stylus, potted with bees wax in an ebony wood body, Audio Note cartridge clips, silver Audio Note wire, KLEI Absolute Harmony RCAs.
Accuphase T-100
Nice.
Jolida JD100
Pretty nice and a definite necessity as 75% of my music is on CD. There are two in the photo because I replaced my silver one with a black one and owned two for a few weeks.
Classe CA200
Used on the bass panels of the Magnepan 3.6Rs.
Magnepan MG-3.6r
With fully adjustable, custom made stands. Horizontally biamped with a Marchand XM-44 line-level crossover.
Goertz MI3
7 ft Goertz MI3 Divinity. Used on the bass panels of the Maggies.
Garrard 301
Oil bearing 301 that I'm in the process of refurbishing. The plan is to use it with a slate plinth and my ET2.5.
Rack Part 1
I'm finally building a rack for my gear. There will be four rock maple shelves measuring 24" x 48" x 1 3/4". This photo shows my brother radiusing the edges after we cut the slabs to size at his place.
Ingersoll-Rand T-30
Air compressor for Eminent Technology tonearms.
Rack Part 2
At my place milling one of the 18 stainless steel tubes which are to be the legs of the rack.
Rack Part 3
Tubes are done and awaiting a cleaning.
Rack Part 4
Tubes.
Rack Part 5
This is a setup jig I made to place the holes for the uprights.
Rack Part 6
Setup jig in position. The idea is to place the maple slab on the mill, put a 3/8" rod or tool bit in the mill, and align the slab until the 3/8" rod fits in the small hole on the jig which is exactly 3/8" in diameter.
Rack Part 7
Experimenting with tube positions.
Rack Part 8
It took 2.5 hours to machine 18 holes in slab #3 of 4. I started machining the slabs from the bottom, so this slab will be the second from the top of my four shelf rack. Holes are placed to approximately +/- 0.005". The stainless steel tubes were machined to approximately +/- 0.002". Not many racks (if any) are machined to these tolerances.
Rack Part 9
Here I'm testing the fit of the first two completed slabs. Without even bolting them together, the assembly was unbelievably solid and stable.
Rack Part 10
Here's one shelf after 13 sanding steps (60, 80, 100, 120, 150, 220, 320, 320 hand, 400, 400 hand, 600, 600 hand, white Schoth Brite pad) and the first coat of polymerized tung oil.
Rack Part 11
Homebuilt adjustable brass footers for rack.
Rack Part 12
All six brass footers.
Rack Part 13
One of the six custom machined washers and countersunk, allen headed, 1/2-13 bolts that will clamp the top shelf to the rest of the rack.
Rogue Audio M-180
Used on the mids/tweeters of the Maggies.
Eminent Technology tonearm air flow tests
Air flow tests for various Eminent Technology tonearm and pump setups.
Marchand Electronics XM-44
Line level crossover used to horizontally biamp the Maggies.
Hubbell HBL8200HR
NOS, slim body, hospital grade outlets with unplated brass parts and non-magnetic, brass back strap. These are no longer made. Current versions have plated interior parts and steel back strap.
Aurender N100SC
With 2TB Samsung 870 EVO SSD. Connected directly to a Verizon Fios router with a 6m long DH Labs Reunion Cat8 cable.
Hubbell HBL8200HR
These are supposed to have all brass parts, but the screw terminals on the sides sure look like unplated copper to me.
DH Labs Reunion Cat 8 Ethernet Cable
Between Verizon Fios Router and Aurender N100SC.
AudioQuest NRG-Y3
On Aurender N100SC.
VH Audio Flavor 4
Power cord for Classe amplifier. Nine feet long with Furutech FI-25G connectors.
Rogue Audio Athena
Preamp
HiFi-Tuning Fuse
Used in the midrange and tweeter circuits of the Magnepan 3.6Rs.
European Audio Team E-Glo Petit
Phonostage
Border Patrol SPDIF DAC SE
Using with my Bluesound Node 2 and connected with an Oyaide DR-510 SPDIF cable.
Rogue Audio M-180
On the mids/tweeters of the Maggies
Air Filtration System
For Eminent Technology ET-2 tonearm. 60 Gallon tank at ~100 psi>several strategically placed drops for gross moisture removal>water separator for next level of condensed moisture removal>0.01 micron Motor Guard coalescing filter for everything else>pressure regulator>second 0.01 micron Motor Guard filter ("Final Filter") as last stage of filtration.
Oyaide custom built Black Mamba power cord
6' long for my crossover. Built with Oyaide Black Mamba V2 cable and pure copper Viborg connectors. All of the connectors were disassembled and every surface of the conductors were polished.
Oyaide Black Mamba Sigma V2 Power Cord
I have these on my power strip, streamer, DAC, and preamp. I also have one custom made cord on my crossover built with Black Mambe Sigma V2 cable and pure copper Viborg connectors.
Nice looking mc-225. Btw,i just did acquired a pair of mc-225,other amp works great and the one ,well i have to send to Terry de wick for a fix and full service soon.I am thinking to get and pair this with a mcintosh tube preamp.Is your c-20 preamp is a good match for your mc-225.I am thinking: first...mx-110 second..c-20 third but my first choice if i have the dough....c-220 ! Please give me your input about combining mc-225 and c-20. Also i have Jolida jd-100...my speaker is jm labs 936.Driven by a one mc-225...very nice so far.But my pre-amp is a cary audio slp-88 which is okay.Thanks.pescolar
Okay, those are definitely some great pics. How about one shot of the system as a whole. If the sound is as clean as the photos (which I suppose is the case) you are in heaven.
Thank you for the clarification on the phono/tape-head amp. Now it all makes sense. It's actually a very good idea to do that, and I may want to have a similar preamp built for my system. As most of us know who are into R2R tape, the preamplification electronics have a lot of room for improvement on most decks.
Right now my favorite deck (because I don't have a Technics) is a Pioneer RT707. An interesting thing I learned about it is that the headphone output seems to sound more transparent than the auxillary output. The auxillary output throws a larger soundstage, but the headphone output sounds more immediate and correct to my ears. The auxillary output tends to sound a bit vague by comparison.
Plato, The signal coming off the tape heads will not go through two equalization circuits. It will go through the modified phonopreamp only. When the phonopreamp is modified, the RIAA equalization circuit is turned into an NAB equalization circuit.
I actually decided to use the Seduction as a phonopreamp for now until I get a different phonopreamp. Then I'll probably modify the Seduction for tape duty. I just couldn't justify doing the mods to it right now to play the few tapes that I have.
I was reading your description of the EQ circuit to play the tape head output throught the phono preamp... Wouldn't it be simpler to merely bypass the RIAA EQ circuit in a phono preamp and not have to go through 2 EQ circuits to get where you want to go??? I could be wrong, but I think this could be done with any phono preamp that has a passive RIAA circuit.
Thanks for the compliment, Rich121. Your system looks very nice and I bet it sounds that way, too! There's something about reel to reel. I just wish tapes were a little easier to come by!
Very nice RS-1506. I'm trying to find a nice Technics RS-1520 so I can get started in the reel to reel hobby.. I have a Nakamichi Dragon.. but, I want to get deeper into tape.
Thanks Ketchup. I do have a bit of crackling coming from one tweeter intermittently when I change the volume dramatically...but I think it might be the preamp. thanks again for the info. Best, Bill
Hi Bill. Thiel charges $150.00 to rebuilt each driver. If you actually have a faulty unit they will likely not charge you anything, as was the case with mine. They did, however, charge me to rebuild the other driver (at my request) which was not faulty. All you have to do is send the drivers, not the whole speaker.
Because one of my drivers was faulty, the biggest improvement for me was normal operation (no more intermittent crackling). I also saw more centered center images and a more consistent soundstage from left to right. This may just be due to the fact that one of the drivers was faulty and perhaps doing something to the sound when it wasn't actually crackling.
If your drivers are not malfunctioning or physically damaged, I can't say that I would recommend getting them rebuilt, though.
Hi, I also have a set of 3.5s. I was wondering what Thiel charged for the rebuild of the midranges. Was there a marked performance improvement? Did you have to send the whole speaker or just the midranges? If you have time to answer these questions, I'd much appreciate it. thanks Bill
Albert, I would be over in a heartbeat with my tape deck and the preamp if I just lived a little closer to you! The preamp actually isn't completed yet but it's coming along nicely (and slowly!). I'll post some pictures when it's done. I hope to see some pictures and a full report of your "new" deck soon! It sounds awesome.
I have a Technics RS 1520 open reel machine, and love it.
That being said, I am having an Ampex 351 rebuilt right now in an effort to push the sound to even better state than what I already have.
The Ampex is already paid for and was supposed to have been completed two months ago. Unfortunately this keeps me from being able to report the performance comparisons of these two machines.
I made my own problems when I ask for twin matching head blocks. I wanted to be able to swap between the two, one for recording on location and one for ALL types of playback.
What I want means one head block is half track record and play (for location recording-live) and the other head block is half track play / quarter track play only (no record) with the all tube electronics switching to the proper EQ, when swapping between the two CNC machined blocks.
Turns out there was about two years where Ampex built a certified playback quarter track head and finding one of these as new old stock turned out to be about as easy as finding an original Beatles album that was never played.
Anyway, the project is near completion and in my dreams, I wish I could hear the comparison between my Technics, the rebuilt Ampex and the bottlehead electronics Technics.
It is generally agreed that the Technics is the superior machine for handling tape, logic circuits and closed loop capstan. The Ampex is the king of brute strength, designed to pass military standards and operate 18 to 24 hours a day in a radio station or recording studio with minimal down time.
I will have both here for a while, unfortunately I will not have the benefit of your custom aftermarket electronics on my Technics, and I really wish that's a comparison I could make.
