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System pics 2018

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Just installed my new Koetsu Red T

How do you find the Koetsu works with the V? Do you need to use the fluid damper to make it work compliance wise? If so what position is the damping adjustment control set to? All the way down, halfway down, just a touch? Thanks in advance.
 
Around 95% of my listening is via headphones these days. I've been using a Graham Slee for years, but recently bought/built a Bottlehead Crack amp and i'm really pleased with how it turned out. Sounds great too, and i'd definitely be keen to have a go at building more in the future.


Anyone have any experience with some of the DAC kits? I quite fancy a TDA 1543 based system...

Can't insert an image for some reason, but here it is:

https://imgur.com/a/q4JoE2b
 
How do you find the Koetsu works with the V? Do you need to use the fluid damper to make it work compliance wise? If so what position is the damping adjustment control set to? All the way down, halfway down, just a touch? Thanks in advance.
Hello - I'm not using the fluid damper. About 10 years ago, I owned the SME V and experimented with the fluid damper with a few carts. including a Koetsu Black. I couldn't hear any positive effects. The V I own now was bought used without the damping fluid. Its early days, but I'm very happy with the Red T. I know that other arms are maybe a better match, compliance wise, for K's, but I'm too busy listening to my LPs to bother now ...:)
 
Hello - I'm not using the fluid damper. About 10 years ago, I owned the SME V and experimented with the fluid damper with a few carts. including a Koetsu Black. I couldn't hear any positive effects. The V I own now was bought used without the damping fluid. Its early days, but I'm very happy with the Red T. I know that other arms are maybe a better match, compliance wise, for K's, but I'm too busy listening to my LPs to bother now ...:)

I never found the Five to improve performance using the damping fluid either, and it does get yucky over time. Likewise, my Black Goldline (Sugano son) worked well in my Five before I changed horses; even my Urushi worked well, despite the Five's 11g eff. mass (lower end of medium mass range), as it's quite a versatile arm. I have to say that the Urushi preferred my 12" Ace Anna (circa 14g) when I changed, though.

Alan, I guess you know that the K won't really be sonically stable for at least 50 hours and bias should be on the low side (0.5 to 0.75 g). My Urushi took even longer with its ups and downs, but the styli in all of them last well over the cart. benchmark 1000 hours if looked after. Healthy output, too, on yours.
 
I never found the Five to improve performance using the damping fluid either, and it does get yucky over time. Likewise, my Black Goldline (Sugano son) worked well in my Five before I changed horses; even my Urushi worked well, despite the Five's 11g eff. mass (lower end of medium mass range), as it's quite a versatile arm. I have to say that the Urushi preferred my 12" Ace Anna (circa 14g) when I changed, though.

Alan, I guess you know that the K won't really be sonically stable for at least 50 hours and bias should be on the low side (0.5 to 0.75 g). My Urushi took even longer with its ups and downs, but the styli in all of them last well over the cart. benchmark 1000 hours if looked after. Healthy output, too, on yours.
Hello Mike - thanks, yes, I've set the bias at 0.75g and I'm loving it:)
 
Hello Mike - thanks, yes, I've set the bias at 0.75g and I'm loving it:)

That's great. Can I suggest, after a couple of hundred hour or so, to stick a mirror on the platter, lower the cart. and just check that the cantilever is still pointing straight forward. You may be able to see this easily enough by eye anyway. It will give you an indication of whether 0.75 g is too high (as I don't think it'll be too low)

I could be confused here, but I feel that if bias is too low, the cantilever strays to its left (looking from behind, or toward the record edge), so I'd imagine that the converse is also true.
 
7Kv5aSs.jpg


Around 95% of my listening is via headphones these days. I've been using a Graham Slee for years, but recently bought/built a Bottlehead Crack amp and i'm really pleased with how it turned out. Sounds great too, and i'd definitely be keen to have a go at building more in the future.


Anyone have any experience with some of the DAC kits? I quite fancy a TDA 1543 based system...

Can't insert an image for some reason, but here it is:

https://imgur.com/a/q4JoE2b
 
Hello - I'm not using the fluid damper. About 10 years ago, I owned the SME V and experimented with the fluid damper with a few carts. including a Koetsu Black. I couldn't hear any positive effects. The V I own now was bought used without the damping fluid. Its early days, but I'm very happy with the Red T. I know that other arms are maybe a better match, compliance wise, for K's, but I'm too busy listening to my LPs to bother now ...:)
That was my experience of damping with the V- it sounded great in theory but didn’t enhance performance, only altered the sound somewhat. I dare say for some carts it might be useful. The other issue of course is avoiding getting the fluid in the arm bearings...
 
That's great. Can I suggest, after a couple of hundred hour or so, to stick a mirror on the platter, lower the cart. and just check that the cantilever is still pointing straight forward. You may be able to see this easily enough by eye anyway. It will give you an indication of whether 0.75 g is too high (as I don't think it'll be too low)

I could be confused here, but I feel that if bias is too low, the cantilever strays to its left (looking from behind, or toward the record edge), so I'd imagine that the converse is also true.
That’s interesting Mike- I’d always assumed (and quite possibly incorrectly) that bias would only exert its force under dynamic conditions, ie with the disc spinning and the needle travelling.
 
That’s interesting Mike- I’d always assumed (and quite possibly incorrectly) that bias would only exert its force under dynamic conditions, ie with the disc spinning and the needle travelling.

No, you're not wrong, Dec. Of course anti-skate only works under dynamic conditions, and I'm nonplussed as to what I said that would indicate otherwise. The side pressure of biasing, if too high or low for required anti-skate, can (with a boron cantilever on m/coils, at least) slew it to one side after a few hundred hours. I've seen this on a Koetsu, and it is that cart. which exemplifies this, as many owners have run them with little or no bias on s.q. grounds in the past.

The only example I've seen was an upper K where the cantilever was obviously a few degrees out (and to the record edge if I remember). Some have claimed that this slewing doesn't affect s.q., but unless you set it up to compensate (tricky), I can't see how this can be. The fact that K styli are reputed to be among the longest lasting, you may see why this situation may have come about sufficiently to be fairly well known. I s'pose, if you had one like that, you could slew it in t'other direction by over-biasing for a few hundred hours, but not sure I'd fancy listening during that period !:(
 
No, you're not wrong, Dec. Of course anti-skate only works under dynamic conditions, and I'm nonplussed as to what I said that would indicate otherwise. The side pressure of biasing, if too high or low for required anti-skate, can (with a boron cantilever on m/coils, at least) slew it to one side after a few hundred hours. I've seen this on a Koetsu, and it is that cart. which exemplifies this, as many owners have run them with little or no bias on s.q. grounds in the past.

The only example I've seen was an upper K where the cantilever was obviously a few degrees out (and to the record edge if I remember). Some have claimed that this slewing doesn't affect s.q., but unless you set it up to compensate (tricky), I can't see how this can be. The fact that K styli are reputed to be among the longest lasting, you may see why this situation may have come about sufficiently to be fairly well known. I s'pose, if you had one like that, you could slew it in t'other direction by over-biasing for a few hundred hours, but not sure I'd fancy listening during that period !:(
I bought a s/h deck once where the AT OC9 had a cantilever bent like a banana! It played OK but I kept thinking I should shift the SMV to line the cantilever and tip up and not the head shell/ arm tube as normal in the SME protractor. I still have it in a drawer so where and must try to get a pic!
 
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