Season’s Greetings

By Nick Seiflow

Season's Greetings!

Season’s Greetings!

Season’s Greetings – Holiday Hours

To all our customers and new friends that have helped to make our first nine months a success and joy, may we wish you and yours the happiest and safest of Holidays. You have made our venture a joy and we thank you all for your support. Keep spinning the vinyl, and we’ll see you in 2015!

Best wishes from us all,

Nick, Evan, Mike and Pete

We will be open regular hours this holiday season except as follows: Closed Dec 25th, 26th – Open Dec 31st 11am-3pm – Closed Jan 1st, 2nd.

The Thorens TD 125 and Thorens TD 126

By Nick Seiflow

Continued from Part 1…

Thorens TD 126 Turntable

Thorens TD 126 Turntable

The TD126 that followed offered even more electronic sophistication, including (again with original Thorens arm) semi-automated arm and start-stop functions. Ultimately, in the Mark III iteration, even the venerable synchronous motor made way for a DC unit, with even more electronic complexity. Perhaps more to go wrong, but servicing and parts isn’t yet a problem, and probably will never be. Some of us won’t let that happen…. Continue reading

The Technics SL 10 Turntable Part 2: Under the Covers–Adults Only…

Under the Covers of the Technics SL 10 Turntable….

by Nick Seiflow

The beautifully easy-to-operate Technics SL10 is anything but simple under the smooth lines of its aluminum skin.

What follows is not a manual for disassembly and maintenance, but more of a tribute to the Golden Age of turntable design.

Such a table as the SL-10 could never be made again. Sad, but based on the economies of scale whomsoever tried to build and market such a machine would quickly find themselves selling pencils on the street corner. To design this table from scratch alone would involve massive amounts of R&D. let alone actually  making and marketing it.

Technics SL 10 Turntable - A view of the armassembly before the work begins... The problem - broken thread, no arm movement, no music. The dust looks worse than it really is.... mant screws to remove, and some wiggling to remove the record clamp, and work can begin!

Technics SL 10 Turntable – A view of the arm assembly before the work begins… The problem – broken thread, no arm movement, no music. The dust looks worse than it really is…. many screws to remove, and some wiggling to remove the record clamp, and work can begin!

Continue reading

Thorens TD150 Turntable Review – The Most Underrated for 50 Years?

by Nick Seiflow

1965 Thorens TD150 Turntable with 1959 Quad ESL 57

1965 Thorens TD150 Turntable with 1959 Quad ESL 57 Speaker – Yes, your grandfather had it this good!

When Thorens and Garrard were duking it out in the early 60s you had your choice: in the German/Swiss corner was that marvel of precision engineering, the workhorse of radio stations ands recording studios, the TD124. One of the most beautifully built idler drive tables ever conceived, and just so German; no one else would have added a belt to an idler drive (situated between the the idler wheel and the motor, and whose sole purpose was to isolate the platter from the really rather minor vibrations of the motor). The 124 has a permanent seat at the adult turntable table; used prices reflect its coveted status, reaching into the $1000s for a rebuilt example. Continue reading

Transcriptors Skeleton Turntable Review – Perhaps the Most Beautiful?

by Nick Seiflow

Transcriptors Skeleton Turntable with Vestigial Tonearm

Transcriptors Skeleton Turntable with Vestigial Tonearm

Perhaps the most beautiful turntable ever designed, the Transcriptors Skeleton, circa 1973, still arouses the same astonishment today that it did some forty years ago. Designed by the late genius, David Gammon (and apparently initially sketched on the back of a cigarette packet) the Skeleton  is a true beauty.

Continue reading

Turntable Anti-skating: Are you protecting your vinyl?

What is anti-skating?

by Nick Seiflow

Most of our beloved ‘tables have an pivoting arm on the top right side; this holds the cartridge, and in the cartridge is the needle or stylus.

When a record is spinning and the needle drops into the groove the needle actually would prefer to hurtle right into the centre of the record and stay there. Obviously the groove helps to keep things in place, but that little needle is somewhat determined…..

Turntable Drives : Which drive maintains the correct speed?

by Nick Seiflow

In the wonderful world of record players there are three main ways to spin our vinyl – ah, the joy! And there are some very strong opinions out there as to which is the best way to get these black frisbees turning at the right speed; direct drive, belt drive, and idler drive. Which of these turntable drives is best? Answer; they all are, if properly made. Continue reading