New turntable in da house!

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slowGEEZR

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Well, it's up and running. Still have some fine adjustments to do, but it is very listenable already! It was a beast to assemble, as the platter alone weighs 42 pounds. It took about one hour for the platter to settle down all the way onto the bearing. Currently using my old outer ring clamp, should receive the new one within a few weeks. Here are a couple of pics...
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Very cool my friend.

Excuse my ignorance but what's the TT brand? Tonearm? Cartridge?

Is it a direct drive or belt?

In any event, a very beautiful piece of industrial art.

Have fun.

Gordon
 
It's a TTW GEM II out of Toronto, Canada. It is rim drive and the digital controller verifies the speed 18000 times a revolution. It takes two hands to pick up the motor or the tonearm tower, as they are very heavy.
 
Nice looking TT. Is the arm from the same manufacturer? Cartridge?
 
Nice and convincing looking, how does it sound? :cool:
 
It's an interesting tonearm system. TTW takes a 10 inch Jelco and makes a heavy surround for it. With the knob on the top, I can adjust VTA. Once I get the VTA how I like it for say, a 180 gram record, I can mark that spot on the included dial (not shown). I can do that for any size (thickness) record and then go to the correct VTA for each type. For very fine adjustments, I can adjust VTA via the tonearm pod (called the VTA Glider). It uses a 3 and 1/2 inch diameter (!) piston and adjusts in very fine portions over a max 1/2 inch range. I haven't set the VTA pod up for that, yet and am solely relying on the VTA adjustment from the tonearm carrier. I'm currently using a Soundsmith, (The Voice) moving iron cartridge. I'm thinking of adding the Arche' headshell, as it allows azimuth adjustment at the headshell. I also intend to add another VTA Pod and another tonearm eventually.
 
Nice turntable. It's a step up from my Rega RP3! - the VTA adjustment options makes me turn green with envy. The advantages of rim drive are well known so I can (almost!) imagine what it will sound like.
 
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Awesome Steve! Was it hard to position the tone arm tower with respect to the main deck?
 
Awesome Steve! Was it hard to position the tone arm tower with respect to the main deck?

That is a very good question. I was looking at it trying to figure that out as well. Steve- that is frigging amazing.
 
Sorry for late response, just got back on the net. Actually, it was so easy to set the distance of the tone arm tower. TTW supplied an alignment jig that simply snaps on a spindle that they also made and a point on the top of the tonearm. The only tricky part was turning the tower so that the tone arm had free range of motion over the record. That wasn't really tricky, but just needed to be done. Since the tower is so heavy and has a rubber inset o-ring on the bottom, it won't budge once set in place. Here are some pics I just took that should show how the alignment jig works and one of the beautiful copper platter.
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A problem with rim drive was that the rubber that stayed in contact with the platter developed a flat spot when not in use, so some companies developed a mechanism that retracted the idler. I don't see any such mechanism here.
 
A problem with rim drive was that the rubber that stayed in contact with the platter developed a flat spot when not in use, so some companies developed a mechanism that retracted the idler. I don't see any such mechanism here.

Absolutely right, Bernard. TTW's solution is to exchange the rim drive wheel when needed, every 2 - 5 years. Also, there have been advancements in the rubber compound and TTW has taken advantage of that.
 

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