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Today I am a small blue thing..

Got mine after a Long-Wait on the weekend and thanks to Brexit I paid a bit more for it. But it was worth it. Following some of the posts on here I talced it because it felt a bit sticky straight out of the bag and a bit rough around the edges in a couple of spots. After wiping it through a tissue I swapped it and the improvement (not difference) was clear. Everything is more real, less nervous, smile inducing and even more addictive. Had a very late night with the headphones and wall of vinyl.
Cheers Mike.
 
@suzywong I have a blue belt and a tranquility though on a cirkus bearing, I don't have a Lingo but a Mose Hercules II, so a similar set up?!!? I have similar problems though I haven't tried talc or boiling, preferring to wait for it to cure by leaving it in the box but out of the zip lock bag - might be fooling myself it will cure like that. With blue belt it was about 0.5 rpm slower than the Linn belt so adjustment required you would think but it was also running higher up the pulley so should run faster you would think, it wasn't rubbing the belt guide but getting close and sounding a bit like it was rubbing but I couldn't see anywhere it could be. Too sticky is my assumption. Wow figures worse with the blue belt:

Linn: 33.55 -0.05% +0.06% wow +/-0.04%
Linn: 45.28 -0.04% +0.04% wow +/-0.03%
Blue: 33.09 -0.13% +0.06% wow +/-0.07%

I inverted my outer platter to watch it all, chucked a roll of sellotape over the spindle so I could centre my phone on the sellotape. The sellotape and phone weigh more than a 180g record but ... same for both belts.
 
Apologies, have waited a while to post ref SQ as,
1. Previous post pre boiling and Mober issues.
2. Have new speakers, so have been optimising listening via the NDS.
3. Have done blind testing; one of my lads (my Son, I’m not in a gang), swapped over belts for me and ran the deck for 20mins or so before I came in and put an LP on.
My LP12, Superline, TSC and Mober has always comfortably beaten my NDS, TXPS, TXPS+ as far as my ears are concerned.
I can confirm Simons original findings at the start of this thread (as far as my room and ears can do) that the blue belt is superior to the Linn. It not only sounds better when you know it’s on the deck, I could pick it out in a blind listen (despite Son chicanery) every time.
Well done Mike.
 
Won't be long before it's endorsed by Cymbiosis :eek: - what will Linn do then?

This is going to be very interesting indeed. Nobody can miss the improvement in SQ.
 
nobeone said:
@suzywong I have a blue belt and a tranquility though on a cirkus bearing, I don't have a Lingo but a Mose Hercules II, so a similar set up?!!? I have similar problems though I haven't tried talc or boiling, preferring to wait for it to cure by leaving it in the box but out of the zip lock bag - might be fooling myself it will cure like that. With blue belt it was about 0.5 rpm slower than the Linn belt so adjustment required you would think but it was also running higher up the pulley so should run faster you would think, it wasn't rubbing the belt guide but getting close and sounding a bit like it was rubbing but I couldn't see anywhere it could be. Too sticky is my assumption. Wow figures worse with the blue belt:

Linn: 33.55 -0.05% +0.06% wow +/-0.04%
Linn: 45.28 -0.04% +0.04% wow +/-0.03%
Blue: 33.09 -0.13% +0.06% wow +/-0.07%

I inverted my outer platter to watch it all, chucked a roll of sellotape over the spindle so I could centre my phone on the sellotape. The sellotape and phone weigh more than a 180g record but ... same for both belts.
Click to expand...

I’ve been enjoying the “injineering” aspects of playing with Mike’s belts on the Sondek (gotta do something in retirement). Been a bit slow with investigations though, as we’ve had other family issues……with less good outcomes.

I’ve now got the 167.5mm belt as close to 33 1/3 as I can (but still low with my Lingo 1). I will do one last set of tests with that one and the 165mm belt, before calling it a day.

But having done just a couple of listening tests, all I can say is - why didn’t my LPs sound this good years ago! Even on my “low spec” Sondek, the results are astonishing.

I used my Dire Straits “go to” test tracks, but the one that did it for me was Genesis’s Nursery Cryme - the LP I bought in ‘71/‘72(?) - so a fifty year old LP??!!**

**not to mention having been through 3 years of, er, Uni student life involving……. <perhaps we should draw a veil over that bit> :D
 
As an experiment I measured the time it took for the platter to come to a complete rest when stopped from 33rpm with each belt to see if there was any inherent difference in drag. Both belts measured identically at 25 seconds.
 
david ellwood said:
As an experiment I measured the time it took for the platter to come to a complete rest when stopped from 33rpm with each belt to see if there was any inherent difference in drag. Both belts measured identically at 25 seconds.
Click to expand...
David, you have a Radikal 2 I believe? Could I ask you to see how long it takes for the red LED to dim?
 
I’ve been swapping about so my radikal is probably getting a little confused. I tried it three times with blue belt 38s,21s,20s .
 
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