advertisement


Do belt nerds exist ?

mercalia said:
does every one here wax their belt to smooth out imperfections as suggested by Roksan?
Click to expand...
The suggestion was to clean the belt with a wax based furniture polish every 12-18 months. This was intended as a means to restore grip rather than anything specifically to do with smoothing out belt imperfections.

IME, it is much better to gently pull belts through a clean damp cloth. Especially so, when one looks at the material data safety sheets of so called wax based furniture polish and finds out that many have more silicone than wax within.
 
vinylslug said:
The frustrating time I had with the non-Linn belts is that I couldn’t get them up to 33rpm, let alone being bothered about decimals.
Click to expand...
With the Linn pulley design slight differences in belt inside diameter, width and even modulus of elasticity will nesessitate readjusting the motor for distance and/or azimuth, else the belt fail to accuratly ride the intended pulley circumference. You likely as not could have got them all to run at 33.something, no doubt, some more consistently than others.
 
Craig B said:
With the Linn pulley design slight differences in belt inside diameter, width and even modulus of elasticity will nesessitate readjusting the motor for distance and/or azimuth, else the belt fail to accuratly ride the intended pulley circumference. You likely as not could have got them all to run at 33.something, no doubt, some more consistently than others.
Click to expand...
Yeah - I was having to adjust too much for my liking to get into the 33 window. Like I said earlier, other people have been really happy with these belts, but in my system the Linn belt behaves best. I really wanted to like the blue belt - it sounded stable, but I felt I was having to angle the motor far more than I was comfortable with to get to 33, let alone 33 1/3.
Luckily LP12bits sells nearly new Linn belts at half the price of new, so cost-wise it’s not so bad.
 
I've only heard about belts (and by association, belt nerds) since the blue one was out and about in the last few weeks. Whilst I'd heard about a Rega white belt before, and it was a bit nerdy, the price was very reasonable so not much mattered.

Things do matter when Linn charge criminal prices for their belts
 
ex brickie said:
I've only heard about belts (and by association, belt nerds) since the blue one was out and about in the last few weeks. Whilst I'd heard about a Rega white belt before, and it was a bit nerdy, the price was very reasonable so not much mattered.

Things do matter when Linn charge criminal prices for their belts
Click to expand...

Glad you found a way to continue ownership of your LP12. Me, I don’t feel spending $69 every 5 years on something as important as a drive belt a big deal.
 
I thought I’d found some EPDM (BS559) O rings for my Townshend. Bearing King accepted my order for a dozen and their web site showed them as in stock. Two weeks later the order was still shown as awaiting despatch so suspecting some sort of Brexit embuggerance (I’m in France, they’re a UK company) I contacted them as to why. Turns out their supplier’s stock was counted as theirs and there was a 16week delay. I could live with that but the next thing I know they’ve refunded me and taken those O rings off their list. The supplier has a minimum order of 2100 apparently. So back to the Nitrile rubber.
 
vinylslug said:
Yeah - I was having to adjust too much for my liking to get into the 33 window. Like I said earlier, other people have been really happy with these belts, but in my system the Linn belt behaves best. I really wanted to like the blue belt - it sounded stable, but I felt I was having to angle the motor far more than I was comfortable with to get to 33, let alone 33 1/3.
Luckily LP12bits sells nearly new Linn belts at half the price of new, so cost-wise it’s not so bad.
Click to expand...
Which version did you have? The first version was 0.8mm thick and some people reported trouble getting up to 33rpm. Later the thickness was revised to 1.0mm and this solved the problem. I also have 1.1mm and 1.2mm thick ones just in case.
 
Durmbo said:
My used late 80s Rega 3 came with a loose belt. It looked like a regular o-ring, so, knowing no better, I bought several from an engineering supplier after checking its diameter & approximate durometer, & choosing two or three with different circumferences. One fit the drive train & I was pleased with the result.

Many years later Rega's white belt came along & I bought one. I thought it was a significant upgrade until a couple of years later when I'd had enough of the bass getting soggier & the music losing its snap. The damn thing had stretched. I reinstated the old o-ring, & it's stayed ever since. The platter speed is accurate.

Until reading this thread I'd forgotten about the Reference EBLT, & I've been spurred to track one down.
Click to expand...

I bought one but not fitted yet. Will be part of a sub platter upgrade and general bearing clean/oil change.

Seems rather expensive but Rega apparently put quite a bit of R&D into the thing.
 
Mike P said:
Which version did you have? The first version was 0.8mm thick and some people reported trouble getting up to 33rpm. Later the thickness was revised to 1.0mm and this solved the problem. I also have 1.1mm and 1.2mm thick ones just in case.
Click to expand...
Oooh, I'm not sure now...I'll have to dig it out and have a look/measure it.
 
RoA said:
I bought one but not fitted yet. Will be part of a sub platter upgrade and general bearing clean/oil change.

Seems rather expensive but Rega apparently put quite a bit of R&D into the thing.
Click to expand...
Seems a missed opportunity, not trying EBLT with the existing Rega hub/bearing.
 
Mike P said:
Which version did you have? The first version was 0.8mm thick and some people reported trouble getting up to 33rpm. Later the thickness was revised to 1.0mm and this solved the problem. I also have 1.1mm and 1.2mm thick ones just in case.
Click to expand...

I’ve got three of your second release. They work fine on a Radikal deck which happily adjusts speed itself. All three had issues on a Lingo 4 deck however which could not always lock on to the correct speed. Worst though are any LP12 using a standard 110V AC motor using Valhalla, Hercules or Armageddon which as suggested above, cannot even make 33rpm. Tried on at least 10 decks now in the hope that one day I’ll find a motor that likes one of them. I presume mine are 1.0mm anyway.

I’ve tried loads of different belts on LP12’s and the only ones to work correctly are genuine Linn and Thacker.
 
When I owned my LP12 many years ago, the only belt that sounded right was the Linn belt, correctly fitted.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top