My band’s first EP is out now. A vinyl release is in the pipeline, cassettes are available at gigs, or you can buy a hand-pressed CDR by clicking on the button below. Also available as a download at Bandcamp.
I’ve owned a lot of turntables over the years. The aim of this article is to share some of my experience and offer a little advice on finding a great-sounding, reliable and affordable vintage deck.
Audio engineering, and vinyl replay in particular is as much an art as a science and everybody has their opinion on what’s best. However, in today’s used market, in terms of pure sound-for-pound value for money, it’s hard to beat an older suspended belt-drive deck like the Thorens TD150 pictured. The deck above had some minor tweaks and was fitted with a Grace 707 tonearm and an ADC XLM cartridge – a fantastic combination. I marginally preferred it to a Linn Sondek LP12 (also fitted with Grace tonearm) I had at the time.
The high-quality “transcription” turntables of the 50s and 60s were, by and large, idler wheel-driven (or rim-drive) designs. The best-quality turntables, such as the Garrard 301 and 401 and the Thorens TD124 (pictured), as well as US-made designs from Rek-O-Kut and other manufacturers, were sold chassis-only. These were designed to be mounted in custom furniture or a specially constructed plinth, with the addition of a suitable tonearm and cartridge. These units were aimed squarely at the professional or serious enthusiast and were built to meet the then stated aims of stable speed of rotation (or low “wow and flutter”) and minimisation of vibration at the record playing surface, largely described at the time as “rumble”. The turntables were also often designed to meet such professional requirements as fast start-up time, and nearly always featured all 4 speeds from 16 – 78RPM to enable them to play all types of record.
These were expensive products, largely over-engineered and out of reach to all but the most wealthy music lover. While capable of excellent results, their performance was very much dependent on careful installation. Poor installation meant that rumble from the idler wheel was often an audible problem. The effect of acoustic feedback on turntable performance was not really given the attention it deserved and the lightweight plinths commonly in use by the enthusiast would absorb airborne vibration from the speakers and transmit it back to the record surface. This would result in anything from poor low frequency performance (normally best described as a “muddy” sound) to an audible howl from the speakers.
In the 1960s, “Hi-Fi” was starting to become attractive and affordable to the man in the street. At the lower end of the market units basic idler-driven units such as the Garrard SP25 and the BSR/Mcdonald were introduced to meet the need for an integrated turntable with tonearm capable of producing decent results with a compliant stereo cartridge.
These decks just barely met the requirement for Hi-Fi reproduction. They used complicated mechanisms to provide automatic features and 4 speeds, but the general engineering quality was not sufficient to minimise rumble or feedback, and their relatively lightweight platters and mediocre motors meant that pitch stability was nowhere near that of the transcription unit. Some, like the Garrard AT6 pictured, also included auto-change facilities at the expense of sound quality. These turntables gave many ordinary people their first taste of stereo sound reproduction, and for many they were more than good enough. But as good-quality amplifiers and speakers were becoming more and more affordable, attractive and compact, it was clear to the more careful and discerning listener that better better quality reproduction was possible, and desirable.
So a niche market had emerged. Serious listeners with modest budgets. This new market of enthusiasts were willing to sacrifice automatic functions. They could do without “professional” features like instant start-up. And they didn’t need 4 speeds – why would they want to play 78s on their shiny new Hi-Fi? What they insisted on was the best sound quality possible.
Into this niche fell a new category of turntable marketed by such pioneering companies as Thorens (with the TD150) and Acoustic Research with their “XA” model (pictured left). These were integrated units with built-in suspension and a simple, belt drive system. They shunned “unneccesary” features to offer truly excellent sound quality out-of-the-box and were affordable enough to be within the reach of the working man.
These turntables were successful because they implemented an elegant and relatively cost-effective solution to many of the problems of turntable design. The stated aims of a quality turntable (i.e. a stable and vibration-free platform which rotates at constant speed) are in practise impossible to achieve. Using a suspended-subchassis with separately-mounted motor isolates the record playing surface from two main sources of vibration, namely motor vibration and acoustic feedback from speakers placed in the same room. The problem of getting the platter to revolve at a constant speed was largely solved by using a synchronous AC motor (locked to the frequency of the mains) driving a heavy platter.
A great feature from Pete Paphides here in The Times, featuring a short interview with my dad, Richard Goldsmith:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6960700.ece
I’ve just about recovered from last weekend’s All Tommorrow’s Parties, three enjoyable days of live music and partying, curated by indie noise pioneers My Bloody Valentine and held at Butlins in Minehead. read more »
Allen & Heath MOD 3 - "Vivaldi Studio 2" 1980
The old Allen & Heath MOD 3 that I spent so long renovating has been doing sterling service up to now, but sooner or later gear itch inevitably creeps in. The need to buy something “better” recently overtook me, leading to hours of obsessive scouring of the web, which ultimately ended in a drive to Farnham and the purchase of a very tidy and fully working Studiomaster Series 2 16-16-2.
Studiomaster Series 2 - Good Enough for Phil
Now, I’ve owned Studiomaster consoles in the past, and always liked them. In fact, before the A&H, the last desk I used in anger was a borrowed Studiomaster 16-8 which despite clunky, crackly operation sounded absolutely fantastic. Studiomasters were always known for having “serious” bottom end and that one was no exception. In fact the desk sounded so good that when it was later loaned to the owner of an Amek Angela, the recipient became genuinely depressed when he realised his prized console sounded no better than the ropey old Studiomaster. read more »
Just listed for sale on eBay is this cracking vintage synth. It’s just been overhauled by my friend Simon Flinn, an excellent engineer who’s been known to do work for Audio Gold, The Synthesiser Service Centre, and Funky Junk. The Korg was only passing a very faint signal through its 2-mode filter. Simon diagnosed and replaced some faulty filter amplifier ICs and the Korg is now back to its former glory.
This won’t be the last time you hear me say this, but I’d really like to keep this! It’s a great-sounding thing with real character, superb for slowly evolving melodic soundscapes.
Unfortunately, I don’t really have space for big synths in my tiny, gear-filled house, and as usual I could do with the money. I’d love to swap it for a Realistic Concertmate MG-1 if anyone’s got one…or it’s listed on eBay for £395. read more »
AKAT-1 analogue computer
Somehow the WordPress “Famous 5-Minute Install” has taken me 5 hours. I know my PC is slow (I just can’t bring myself to upgrade from my “perfectly decent” Pentium II), but this is ridiculous. I wonder how long this would have taken on an AKAT-1 analogue computer? read more »
Powered by eShop v.5