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

Let’s do this!!!

Well it’s been a while since I’ve last posted anything, lots of work at my job as Information Security Officer in a bank, almost no spare time due to changes at work, but as I say ‘Planets are aligning’ and a new job opportunity just crossed my way and took it!!!

Anyway let’s get back onto turntables. A few months ago I got a call from Mike Nunez from Audio Degenerate regarding a customer’s turntable, a Marantz TT-15, which tonearm somehow got smacked by who knows what and the cartridge suffered serious damage as you can see in the picture:

The cartridge metal body somehow got separated from the upper plastic body and the stylus was totally wrecked. The cartridge is a Clearaudio Concept moving magnet so I proceeded to remove it from the tonearm and re-glue the metal engine to the upper body. Regarding the stylus, Clearaudio’s position is that it cannot be repaired/replaced, but on the contrary, it can be replaced with careful hands and a little surgery using an Audio Technica AT95 family replacement stylus.

Here’s the completed job:

Tested it, adjusted tonearm height and cueing device and it was back up and running as before the incident.

Enjoy!

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

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

The Pain…

The pain, oh the pain when a customer tells you there is something not right with his turntable and you figure out what the problem is:

Yep, cantilever bent backwards.

Phono cartridges are a very delicate piece of mechanical/electrical engineering. These little devices convert the grooves embedded in our precious LPs into a minuscule electrical voltage which then gets amplified several thousand times until it gets transduced into airwaves and beautiful music for our ears.

This one got replaced by a Nagaoka MP200 moving magnet cartridge and the customer is very happy with the replacement since, as many have reported, the above cartridge (Grado Sonata) is prone to hum issues with some brands of phono preamplifiers.

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

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

Sexy

Now that I’ve got you attention let me clarify, it’s not sex-related, Hahahahahahahahaha!!!

Last night I had the opportunity to setup and install a friend’s new turntable, a McIntosh MT5. From the looks I can tell you is sexy as hell, and McIntosh is known to produce very sexy and good looking audio gear since the beginning of time. The company has been in the audio industry for 70 years and its signature blue and green display colors are recognizable from a mile away. Setup was very straightforward and simple.

The McIntosh MT5 turntable:

Sexy isn’t it?

The McIntosh MT5 included a Sumiko Blue Point Mk 2 high output moving coil cartridge installed in a McIntosh branded tonearm. The turntable can run at 33.3, 45 and 78 revolutions per minute so there is not an LP speed that you cannot play. It is driven by a DC motor connected to an external wall power supply. The sound was very sexy and relaxed, too much for my personal taste.

Did a short demo against a Linn Majik LP12 with a Project 9CC tonearm and Linn Adikt moving magnet cartridge and, in my opinion, the Linn sounded more dynamic and involving, better keeping the rhythm ad tune.

If you prefer the looks and style of the McIntosh MT5 be ready to spend around $6,000 USD + taxes. On the other hand a Linn Majik LP12 is cheaper (around $4,300 USD + taxes) and, in my opinion, will provide more musical enjoyment.

But in the end, as the saying says, ‘About taste, there’s nothing written’, your preference is what matters.

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