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

First Turntable

Hi! Long time no post, busy at main job including weekends but here I am.

Do you remember your first ever turntable? I do! Back when I was 16 (1978) I convinced my Dad to buy me a used music system which included a Dual 1219 turntable as pictured below.

Lovely turntable back then which included a Shure M91ED moving magnet phono cartridge. Sadly in late 1980 someone broke into our house and stole the entire system. This one was replaced by a Technics SL-B2, which also got stolen in 1982 (believe or not same burglar, but he got caught). A few years later I bought a Rega Planar 3, which was replaced a few months after by my current Linn LP12, and the rest is history.

Enjoy!

Vic

Rewire

I know, it’s been more than two months since I’ve posted anything. Main job has been hectic and summer is been hot, so not much done on Audiomaniak’s garage besides cleaning it up and and small repairs. Anyways, let’s talk about tonearms. Tonearms are an integral part of a turntable, it is the mechanical structure that joins the phono cartridge and the sub-chassis which sustains the rotating platter. The tonearm must not add or subtract any information (vibrations) extracted by the phono cartridge. As such it must be rigid and light enough to ensure this information is never lost. If information is lost there is no way to recreate it no matter what is done down the audio chain.

There are some ideas around improving tonearms by rewiring its internal cabling with exotic materials like silver litz or 99.99999% oxygen free copper wires. Whatever wiring is chosen it must be light and flexible enough to ensure the tonearm tracks the grooves as mandated by the phono cartridge.

A few weeks ago I was contacted to see if I was interested in repairing a tonearm. The tonearm was damaged by its owner while trying to solder some exotic cartridge tags. At the end the diagnostic was a full tonearm rewire was required.

Rega tonearms are one of the most favored rewiring candidates due to their simplicity. Even though I have never before tried performing a tonearm rewire, I had read so much information on how to do it that I was sure it could be accomplished.

Below is a picture of the dismantled Rega RB110 tonearm:

As you can see the entire bearing assembly had to be disassembled to be able to properly pass the wiring look thru the very small hole between the arm collar and tonearm.

Once wires were properly passed thru all holes it was just a matter of cutting excess wire to ensure it did not interfere with the gymbal bearing movement.

Took a few hours of trial and error but in the end the tonearm performed better than before. Below is the final product.

Enjoy!

Vic

Alva

Hello!

Last Thursday night Audiovisionaires LL C hosted the official release event of the new Cambridge Audio Alva turntable. Bob Scranton, Cambridge Audio Regional Sales Director, received all of us with beer, wine, and other goodies!!!

The Alva is a direct drive turntable equipped with a famous British-sourced single piece tonearm (you may guess by the pictures!) tweaked to Cambridge Audio parameters, a high output moving coil phono cartridge with elliptical stylus, integrated phono preamplifier, 33.3 rpm and 45 rpm speeds, and lo and behold, a 24bit/48Khz aptX HD standard Bluetooth transmitter, which makes it the world’s first turntable manufacture to do so.

The turntable is elegantly designed, with an appealing metal grey color. It is built and assembled in England at Cambridge Audio facilities.

Bob demoed the Bluetooth interface without us knowing, and to the surprise of ALL attendees it sounded really good!!! Yes, there is a difference but not as significant and most of us were expecting. The Bluetooth transmitter is ideal to connect Bluetooth headphones allowing you to listen your favorite LP in a wireless fashion, and in the middle of the night without disturbing you significant other.

The Alva is an excellent ‘all-in-one’ solution for those people looking for something simple to use, no-hassle setup and wireless connectivity. For USD $1,700.00 it is something that other turntable manufacturers in that price range should be worried about.

Enjoy!

Vic

Partners

About two years ago one of my business partners, Audiovisionaries, was interviewed by one of the local online newspapers. By pure coincidence I was visiting their store and I was chosen for a cameo!

Below are some pics taken while documenting the video:

The full interview video with my cameo:

Enjoy!

Vic

Philosophy

Hi,

This video presents a summary of Rega Research’s design philosophy by the one and only Roy Gandy, founder and owner of Rega Reseach.

Enjoy!