Record cleaning!

Hi!

Many people have asked either personally or electronically what record cleaning fluid and machine I use to clean my LP collection since they sound pretty good even on not-so well cared used copies I’ve collected 2nd hand.

For more than 25 years my record cleaning machine or RCM has been VPI’s 16.5. Currently I’m on my second one since the first one I bought used (from a good old friend who passed away several months ago) gave up the ghost about 15 years ago.

For record cleaning fluid I use my own concoction of distilled water, 91% Isopropyl Alcohol, and a small squirt of Kodak’s Photo-Flo 200 fluid to ensure that the water film gets penetrates well into the LP grooves.

My formula for my record cleaning concoction is as follows:

FluidVolume
Distilled water183.4 ml
91% Isopropyl Alcohol51.6 ml
Kodak Photo-Flo 2001.2 ml
Record cleaning fluid ratios for a 235ml plastic bottle

It is perfectly fine to deviate from the above based upon the type of Isopropyl Alcohol available. The higher the Isopropyl Alcohol percentage, the less amount you need to use. It’s just a matter of remembering your High-School Chemistry class and do some math to adjust the volumes based on the capacity of your plastic bottle and Isopropyl Alcohol concentration.

If you need any help on the above don’t hesitate to contact me.

Enjoy!

Vic

Pandemic and other stuff

Wow, it’s been 4 months since I’ve posted something! My fault, sorry about that but February was a very hectic month for me since I was resigning to a 12 year stint on what was left of an international bank after it was acquired by a local financial institution.

Go back to late summer 2019, I received a message from an ex-peer from way back when I worked for a U.S. technology company between the late 80’s and early 2000’s, asking me if I wanted to return to the company since they were looking for IT professionals with my expertise (old school Mainframe administrators with programming, networking, data management, and Information Security backgrounds). I told him I was interested and in February 2020 I received the offer and proceeded to resign to my position as Information Security Officer and Business Continuity Coordinator. Started working in March and its been three amazing months doing what professionally I like the most.

This pandemic has created a lot of uncertainty and havoc all over the world resulting in strict recommendations to stay home unless absolutely necessary. Many corporations and people have finally realized that working from home is a real option (more than 20 years for them to figure this out but Micro-Managers are an incredibly resilient pest which need to have total control and up-to-the-minute oversight of what their direct reports are doing, and that is the worst environment to work at. Believe me, I did for the last 4 years. Thankfully my new job requires me to work from home so I don’t someone looking over my shoulder every 10 minutes or some other ‘peer’ watching over from my back and telling my boss.

Now returning to turntables, people have realized that now they have more spare time since, working from home lets them more efficiently manage their daily schedule, and has allowed them to clean their houses more thoroughly, and find stuff that has been stored in their garages or closets for many years, many of these being turntables!!! ‘Wow, a turntable!!!! I forgot I had this one in storage!!!’, only to connect it and find out it does not work. That’s when I come in.

Since March I’ve received more than 20 turntables to check over and repair, most of them Technics vintage models, Project, Music Hall, AR, Clearaudio, Chinese SL1200 MkII clones (BID?), Linn, Sanyo, you name the brand. I was able to repair all but one of them (the Sanyo’s power supply motherboard was burned beyond repair). Also, many customers have decided to upgrade their turntables (new cartridge, new bearings, etc.) since they spend more time listening to their cherished vinyl LP collection.

Keep on listening to your vinyl LP collection, for sure it has taken you many years to get it where it is, and for sure there are still some treasures still to find and enjoy.

Happy listening!

Vic

Surprise!

Hi!

Sorry I’ve been disconnected but between work and a three week vacation haven’t had much time to post.

Last week I picked up a Linn LP12 for service. The customer was complaining that since new it could not keep proper speed, did not seem musically engaging, sounded awful, and was barely used. I suspected that there was something wrong with the power supply but lo and behold, as soon as I opened the bottom of the LP12 I found out what was wrong. Can you see it?

The bottom base board (in this case a Trampolin base board) ground cable was attached to the sub-chassis instead of the front chassis bolt (barely visible in the picture), TOTALLY messing up the suspension. There were other ‘rookie’ mistakes in the setup process of this turntable (improperly dressed tonearm cable, improperly dressed power cord, messed up suspension, etc.), but all of these I took care of doing them properly, and the turntable now performs flawlessly.

When you buy a product like the Linn LP12 it must be setup by a properly trained specialist, if not, it won’t perform at its best, and the customer will end up disappointed and frustrated. In this case the customer is very happy and enjoying his 2012 purchase like never before.

Happy listening!

Vic

Queen

Hi,

Today my eldest son and myself had the opportunity to attend the latest ‘Linn Lounge’ series of musical documentaries, this time ‘The History of Queen’, which was held at Audiovisionaries LLC, one of our local partners, and Linn’s exclusive dealer in Puerto Rico. The system used for the musical presentation was Linn’s newest digital streamer, the Selekt DSM, driving a pair of Linn Exakt Akudorik active speakers.

Mike O’Rouke, Linn’s Sales Manager for the United States, gave us an entertaining and delightful presentation of Queen’s history providing us with some historical innards of Queen’s most famous songs.

As always the musical selection and historical background details were amazing, The playlist was:

  • We Will Rock You (my High School Senior Class theme back in 1979-80!!)
  • Killer Queen
  • Bohemian Rhapsody
  • Another One Bites the Dust (which when played backwards suggest smoking a well known herb!)
  • Crazy Little Thing Called Love
  • Under Pressure
  • A Kind of Magic (Highlander’s movie Theme)

All tracks played were in original master tape quality (at least 96Khz/24bit format FLAC files) and the system sounded amazing. Several times we were given the choice to select which songs to play and believe it or not kids were the ones deciding which songs to play. In my words ‘Proper Parenting!’. The session lasted an hour and as always food and drinks were made available to all.

Kudos to Audiovisionaries and Linn for such enjoyable evening!!!

Enjoy,

Vic

Happy New Year!!

Hi everyone!

First of all Happy New 2019!!! Sorry I have not posted in a while but early in the year several ‘home improvements’ tasks took a higher priority over my blogging time.

Anyway, I’m back and have a few things to report. About two weeks ago a new customer called in to see if I could check his turntable, a Linn Basik, and I gladly accepted. The Linn Basik is an entry-level turntable released to the market back in the mid 90s. Originally the turntable included a Linn Basik Plus tonearm and a Linn K9 moving Magnet cartridge, but the customer’s Basik had a Linn Akito tonearm installed, a later upgrade done for him a few years ago. The Basik is a fully manual dual speed 33.3 and 45) turntable with 3 large rubber feet that work as vibration isolators, a very simple power supply (with polypropylene capacitors which last an eternity), a simple black and grey vinyl covered plinth, and clear dustcover.

Linn Basik turntable in my setup jig.

As mentioned above this Basik had a Linn K9 moving magnet cartridge which, back in the mid 80s and early 90s, was the MM cartridge to have. Dynamic as hell, engaging, but sometimes a little bright on revealing systems. Linn discontinued the K9 near 20 years ago and no original replacement stylus is available. The K9 engine is a modified Audio Technica AT95 engine, which stylus replacement assembly fits in the K9 body but looks a little weird.

Linn K9 with AT95E replacement stylus. Notice the gap at the front o the cartridge.

Late last year Audio Technica announced their new VM95 line of moving magnet cartridges and their replacement stylus assemblies are a perfect fit for the Linn K9, K5, and K18 bodies. These new assemblies are available with several different stylus profiles: Conical bonded, Conical nude, Elliptical bonded, Elliptical nude, Hyperelliptical, and Shibata. The one that mostly resembles the original Linn stylus profile (Vital) is the Hyperelliptical version (VMN95HE) and, for the ultimate K9, the Shibata version (VMN95SH). Both will bring the K9 back from the dead!

Linn K9 with Audio Technica VMN95SH Shibata replacement stylus

The customer opted for the cheaper but extremely good VMN95EN (Elliptical nude stylus) to replace the damaged original Linn K9 stylus and is currently enjoying his freshly serviced Basik turntable.

Enjoy!

Vic

Various updates

Hi,

Been working a lot on my main job and have not posted in a while, but here I am! A quick update on the moving coil cartridge that was recently rebuilt. My personal cartridge is sounding wonderful and I’m enjoying my turntable as I have not done in many years! On the other hand the other cartridge (customer) suffered a mishap and was returned to the re-builder for a full diagnosis and checkup. Hope to hear from them soon!

On another update, some of you may know that back in September Linn Products closed it’s user forum and that caused quite a stir in the audio industry. Thanks to the efforts of the ‘Hifi WigWam’ forum administrators a new forum for Linn owners was set up and it is now in full swing!!!

You can access it here:

https://hifiwigwam.com/forum/clubs/1-linn-owners-club-and-forum/

Enjoy!

Vic

Selekt

Disclaimer: Not analog or turntable related but well worth it (it has an amazing phono stage!). Late Wednesday I visited one of my partners, Audiovisionaries, were I was given the chance to unpack, install and listen to Linn’s new generation of digital streamers, the Linn Selekt DSM digital streamer.

Linn has been producing digital streamers since 2006  and its Klimax model has been regarded and one, if not the best digital streamer ever produced.

Below are some pics I took while unpacking the Linn Selekt DSM:

Why two Linn Selekt DSM’s? I invite you to register in the following link and get your answer next Thursday November 15, 2018 from 6:00PM to 9:00PM:

https://www.linn.co.uk/events/a4f4e14c-b470-4b24-a733-2862ae02a55d

If it’s sold out don’t worry, register and drive to La Galeria de Suchville in Guaynabo and you will not regret it!

Enjoy!

Vic

Phono cartridges pt. 2

Well, after 5 weeks the two Linn Arkiv moving coil cartridges sent to the UK for a full rebuild (new coils, new suspension, new aluminum cantilever with stylus) are back!!! I installed mine yesterday and the only thing I can say is WOW!!! It’s been years since I’ve heard my Linn LP12 sound so good!!! This is a job well worth it’s price, and a lot better than a simple cantilever replacement (glued) or a stylus retip. Why? suspension parts are made with rubber and after 20-30 years these are prone to dry out and affect cartridge compliance thus changing its sound and the way it tracks the grooves in the LP.

Here’s my ‘new’ Linn Arkiv after the rebuild:

Here is the Linn Arkiv after being installed on my LP12:

It is sounding spectacular and musical in all terms!

Enjoy!

Vic

Phono cartridges

As you may know I do this on my spare time and for the last few weeks I’ve been studying for a certification exam related to my main business line of work so I have not had much time to post on the blog.

Phono cartridges come in various flavors, moving magnet, moving iron, moving coil, and optical (yes, optical!!!). The most common ones are the first two types since most brands and models are relatively cheap but make no mistake, some of them are stellar performers. For example, the Audio Technica AT95E, has been regarded as a ‘giant killer’ since its performance and musicality is way over its relatively low cost (aprox. USD $75), but still has its limitations. As the name says, it is a moving magnet attached to a cantilever with a precious stone stylus, and the moving magnet induces a voltage into the coils which is then sent to a signal amplifying device when the stylus traverses the grooves of a vinyl LP. Below is a diagram of a moving magnet cartridge:

The most expensive ones are known as moving coils, which as the name implies, are coils that move as the stylus traverses the grooves on the vinyl LP. In this case the magnet is fixed and the low mass of the coils allow the stylus to traverse the grooves with more precision. The only drawback is that the signal generated by the moving coils is much lower than that of a moving magnet cartridge and requires a special moving coil phono stage. Below is a diagram of a moving coil cartridge:

One advantage of moving magnets/moving iron cartridges is that the stylus can be easily replaced if damaged. This is not the case of moving coils, they need to be scrapped, traded-in, or sent back to the factory or 3rd party for a stylus/cantilever replacement or a full rebuild job, which I fully recommend since moving coil cartridges can last for many years before requiring service due to their exotic stylus profiles which tend to last a lot longer than the ones used in less expensive moving magnet cartridges.

The following picture is of two different moving coil cartridges (Linn Arkiv) which were sent a few weeks ago to a certified moving coil cartridge rebuilder. The one on the left is is my personal moving coil cartridge which only requires a replacement stylus, but since it is an almost 30 year old cartridge I requested a full rebuild service, and the one in the right is from a customer which by accident tore off the cantilever and stylus while cleaning his turntable, and is also requiring a full rebuild. For what is worth a full rebuild involves replacing the stylus/cantilever, damping material, coil rewind, and full tuning of the suspension assembly.

When these cartridges come back they will be as good as new or even better since stylus profiles, cantilever alloys and damping materials have evolved since these were manufactured back in the early 90’s, so I’m eagerly waiting for their return to install mine and have a very long music listening session!!!

Enjoy!

Vic