advertisement


Fiddling with my TD-150

V

vinyl_paul

pfm Member
I fancy a little project on my TD-150. I would like advice on whether this is madness or got for it.
I bought it earlier this year and its settled in but without any fettling at all - except earth cables and RCA leads as discussed on another thread.

Two ideas:
1) Try Valhalla power supply replacement. I have one ready to go. Need to change the phase cap from what I have read elsewhere?
2) Rebuild and rewire my SME 3009 II Imp fixed head arm. Never been touched but might benefit from a service/check-over?

Or leave it all alone and listen to some more music :)
 
Well, I found the Valhalla mod effective and had fun doing it, as always.

Less convinced by the re-wire job, however. I have always found that cables made no difference to the sound (common sense here). Just clean or replace the tags and the RCA plugs if they are oxidized.

And yes, I kept the Thorens original phase cap.
 
I took an old linn axis controller that had a faulty motor and used it to upgrade a 150.

Worked really well and gave 33/45.

Managed to squeeze it into an LP12 plinth.
 
Mine is mounted in a Trio/Kenwood "artificial marble" plinth from a KD2055. It's epoxy resined into place. No bottom cover is fitted. Original springs but foam taken out. Arm here is Audio Technica AT1005 MkII. Sounds great!
 
I agree. I reverted to no dampening except around the motor - hard and silly work :D.
 
I spent some time fiddling with my dad's 150, about 40 years ago... Fitting a heavier mat and removing the foam from the springs made the biggest difference, improved the bass (which I'd blamed the speakers for, for many years) and oddly seemed to make the speed stability better - maybe the subchassis was more stable? It eventually disappeared and was replaced with an awful Bose radio, but at 96, he can't remember where it went, and he can't hear much now anyway. I'm hoping it'll be in his loft when he eventually shuffles off though at the moment I think he may outlive me!
 
vinyl_paul said:
2) Rebuild and rewire my SME 3009 II Imp fixed head arm. Never been touched but might benefit from a service/check-over?
Click to expand...

Thanks for all of the comments on the TD-150 and I now have a path ahead for that.

What about the SME 3009? Its not the rewire I really care about but a lot of people talk about a rebuild to replace the probably hard and perished rubber joint? Anyone got a view or experience on that one? Apart from 'get a better arm' :)
 
chartz said:
Less convinced by the re-wire job, however. I have always found that cables made no difference to the sound (common sense here). Just clean or replace the tags and the RCA plugs if they are oxidized.
Click to expand...
The arm wiring is one of the few cases where a change really can make measurable differences.
You can affect arm effective mass, arm tube internal damping, stiffness across the bearing
 
vinyl_paul said:
What about the SME 3009? Its not the rewire I really care about but a lot of people talk about a rebuild to replace the probably hard and perished rubber joint? Anyone got a view or experience on that one? Apart from 'get a better arm' :)
Click to expand...

The Series II Improved has a different rear arm/counterweight assembly which doesn’t seem to suffer the same way as the earlier version. If you have an earlier pre-Improved arm then I’d be inclined to buy the replacement grommets which are available on eBay and I assume straight from SME even if you don’t fit them immediately. I’ve got a few 3009s (four!) and the one actually on my deck is not showing any signs of needing it yet, so whilst I have a set of rubber decoupling grommets in its box waiting until it is necessary. I did fit a set to the other early arm I own and have done a couple of others and it is not a hard job at all. These are very simple and serviceable arms, the knife-edge vertical and removable lateral ball-races make them far easier to deal with than many arms. Even so I’ve not internally rewired any of mine as they still seem fine as-is. I did replace the armbase on the one in use with a SME RCA upgrade kit which makes it a little more user-friendly when it comes to arm cables.
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Thanks again all.

@Tony L i have already fitted the SME RCA mod (on your previous advice!) and got custom made RCA tails to have a similar "LP12" coil/loop to keep that bounce going!

It also solved the height issue with the 3009 fitted to the TD150.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top