Category: Sondek

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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

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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

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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

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Day off

Hi,

When one takes a day off from their main job is usually to take care of personal matters, go shopping, or rest and do nothing, but not me!!!

Today I spent the morning giving the finishing touches to my 2nd Linn LP12 turntable which is going to another home after someone convinced me to sell it to him. This one I got about a year ago and did not have a tonearm, I was finally able to source a mint condition Linn Basik Plus tonearm with a Linn Adikt moving magnet cartridge. Looks gorgeous and I’m sad to let it go.

On the other hand I also found a Linn K18 moving magnet cartridge which I had in storage for many years and totally forgot about it!!! It was given to me because it supposedly sounded distorted, but when I checked it today it was just dirty as hell and the stylus had a grime ball!!! Cleaned it very carefully with my secret recipe and installed it on my Technics SL1200 MkII direct drive turntable (another story), and lo and behold it sounds perfect and without any distortion at all, specially in the inner grooves were it will be immediately noticeable!!

Now both my Linn LP12 and the Technics SL1200 MkII sit right beside each other and can use either one depending on my mood and the type of music I decide to play.

Enjoy!

Vic

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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

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Options

Most of my work is around setup and fine-tuning of Linn Sondek LP12 turntables, including the installation of the full suite of upgrades made by Linn. In fact, I own a Linn LP12 turntable with all Linn components (Ittok LVII tonearm, Arkiv MC cartridge, Cirkus subchassis/bearing, and a Lingo 2 power supply.

A while ago I did own a non-Linn subchassis (Greenstreet) which I consider provides an excellent price/performance value and significantly raised the performance level of my LP12 for a relative small investment at that time, and surprisingly maintained its ‘Linn sound’ signature. Some customers were aware of this and have come to me looking for advise regarding alternative upgrades (non-Linn) since they have read much about then in internet forums. In some cases I have made clear my point of view stating that if you like the Linn sound you should stay on Linn’s upgrade path, but there may be other options which may provide a satisfying musical enjoyment experience without a significant investment, and maintain the characteristic ‘Linn sound’.

As such we are pleased to announce that we have been appointed as dealer/representative for Puerto Rico of the Dynavector line of moving coil cartridges, and StackAudio line of Linn LP12 upgrades.

Dynavector was founded in Japan back in 1975 and is highly regarded as a manufacturer of one of the finest high-performance moving coil phono cartridges in the world.

StackAudio manufactures a series of affordable Linn LP12 upgrades which are focused on the source (the turntable). Everything flows from the source, and obtaining a pure clean signal is paramount to realizing the finest musical experience from any system.

These brands are excellent options for Linn LP12 owners who want to follow an alternative upgrade path for their Linn LP12 turntable, at a very reasonable cost.

Vic

 

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Klimax

Some may wonder about the above word but it’s not what you think (in that sense anyway!). ‘Klimax’ is a range of hi-fi components produced by Linn Products which are designed to produce the most satisfying and musical listening experience ever from any audio system. Last weekend I upgraded a customer Linn LP12 turntable to the latest Linn Klimax power supply (Radikal) and phono stage (Urika II). The power supply provides power to both the motor (24v DC single pole synchronous) and the Urika II phono stage. This phono stage is unique since it sits inside the turntable and converts the fractions of a millivolt analog signal produced by the phono cartridge into a 32-bit 384khz digital signal which is fed into the Linn Klimax DSM preamplifier/streamer using Linn’s proprietary Exakt communications protocol, thus ensuring that no information is lost. The digitalized signal is then converted back to analog by two Linn Klimax Exakt crossovers which feed eight (yes, eight!!!) Linn Klimax Solos amplifiers connected to a pair of Linn Komri speakers.

The customer’s system also has two Sonos music streamers feeding two Linn power amplifiers (LK2 and LK280) to indepedent music zones in the rooms and the terrace.

To ensure proper power is fed to this system independent 240v 50A electrical circuits feed two Torus Power conditioners.

The only thing I can say is that it is an ‘orgasmik’ experience listening to music, specially vinyl, in this system!

Vic

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Tonearms

Tonearms are one of the most distinctive items of a turntable. Designs vary from S-shaped, J-shaped, straight, knife-edged bearings, race-ball bearings, gymbal, unipivot, linear tracking, and so on. Its most important function is to ensure that the phono cartridge properly tracks the record grooves and allow it to convert this mechanical energy into a very low electrical signal without adding or subtracting any energy captured by the phono cartridge. To ensure this bearing play should be nil or none and the cartridge compliance specs should be properly matched to the tonearm’s total mass.

Below is a nice example of a Naim Aro unipivot tonearm I recently removed from a Linn turntable as requested by its owner.

This tonearm was designed and built more than 30 years ago and it is still in excellent shape. A very rare example since not so many were built and the first one I’ve personally worked with.

Vic

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Power supplies

Every turntable has one, some very simple, others very complex designs, but without one a turntable won’t even start. This 1990 (28 year old) Linn Lingo 1 power supply is suffering from speed issues at 45 rpm, normal for a power supply its age. Replacing aged parts with more modern ones, adjust voltages, and it will be back in business and as good as new.

Vic