Custom plinth for a TD-166 out of 3/4″ Birch using the original plinth as a template.
Birch Plinth
Rega RB250 arm
machined aluminum arm board
New 3/4″ mdf bottom plate
squash balls as feet
bottom plate damped with dynamat
metal chassis and sub chassis damped with cork
bearing well damped with dynamat
little sponges removed from suspension springs
I get a lot of people asking what is the best receiver/amplifier to use with my turntable. You will get a lot of varying answers to this question, but undeniable most people will recommend that you go with some sort of vintage amplification.
Depending on your needs you maybe want to go with separate amplifier units or a stereo receiver/tuner. Both will have built in phono-preamps which is what you need to get the correct gain from your table. No matter which way you go, I tend to prefer the vintage units made my Marantz in the 70’s. They are full, and warm sounding units with plenty of vintage power even in the lower wattage models.
For an integrated amplifier, you might want to check out something like the 45W Marantz 1090
Marantz 1090 Amplifier
Personally, I just started using a Marantz receiver which I got for free! I was driving home on garbage night when I saw big pile of boxes at the neighbors. Underneath all those old boxes I could make out the outline of some electronic equipment. I stopped the car, turned around, pulled over, got out of the car to move the boxes aside and discovered a shiny silver metal face staring back at me….
Marantz 2220b Receiver
I would recommend asking around and you will find that a lot of people have these old electronics stored in their basements because they never got around to throwing them out. The truth is that these units were built to last and could still provide you with years of audio enjoyment. With a little patience and a little elbow grease you could have yourself a perfect vintage receiver to compliment your analog setup.
Imagine having a $285 OM-30 Ortofon Cartridge for just a fraction of the price. I’ll explain how!
Well, it’s a two-step process. First you take any bottom-of-the-line OM cartridge (such as the OM5 which can be had for $25 or less). Keep in mind that you don’t even need the stylus, so if you find an OM body without the neelde you’ll be set. I had already purchased an OM20 from this seller hensbottomandassociates on ebay who has a lot of cool TT gadgets. (I actually just purchased a stylus weight gauge from him last week which should arrive any day now. )
om5-ortofon cartridge
Now, this is a little known fact, but a company called Digitrac formerly produced OEM versions of Ortofon cartridges. That division of the company may very well be out of business, but behold, the dirt-cheap Digitrac 200 stylus is actually the equivalent of an OM30 (nude elliptical) which sells for over $285 with the OM30 cartridge. It takes a bit of digging to find these Digitrac 200 styli, but they are out there. You might want to look on eBay to get one for next to nothing. Originally there was a guy selling them there but now sells them here for $20 shipped:
Digitrac 200 NE Nude Ellipitcal Cartridge
Once you receive the cartridge you can pretty much throw out the body. Apparently only 1-in-3 actually work. Luckily the stylus is what you’re after, plus you get a nice little stylus brush, screwdriver and screws. To make the Digitrac stylus fit onto the OM body you will need to remove the tab on the back of the Digitrac stylus. It’s an extra little piece of black plastic that prevents the stylus from fitting onto the OM. You will see right away what I’m talking about. To remove the tab I used toenail clippers and finished off with a nail file. By the way, an OM stylus will fit on the Digitrac body without modification (but it’s not exactly a winning combination)
Others have reported that the Digitrac stylus (tab removed) is “loose” on the Ortofon LM body (such as an LM-era Concorde 10 body) and that it took major surgery to fit it on a TM (p-mount) body.
In the end if you buy the OM from Hensbottom and then the Digitrac you’ll be looking at $55 to get a cart worth $285! I happened upon a guy selling a used OM30 without a stylus. I got it for $10 shipped. If you look around ebay maybe you’ll find something similar. Here is what you’ll have in the end (P-mount version shown)
Orotofon OM10 with Digitrac 200 Nude Elliptical Stylus
Orotofon OM10 with Digitrac 200 Nude Elliptical Stylus
Rest assured it’s not a gimmick, the cart does sound amazing when you put it all together and properly align it. I’ll leave you with a review from an avid OM-30 user:
A short review of the Digitrac stylus on an OM body compaired to OM30.
It fitted just fine after cutting off the little plastic flip. The overall impression is that it is very neutral, very similar to the 30. But there are some quite audible differences: the resolution is quite a bit better, the high end is more right sounding and the location of instruments in the soundstage is also better.
continued from Rega Planar 3 with Grace Tonearm for $202
The $202 Rega Planar 3 arrived within 2 weeks of the auciton close. Everything is as expected. The seller did a nice job packing up the table, and it`s in in pretty good shape for a 25 year old unloved turntable. Doesn’t sound too good eh?
Rega Planar Packaged Shipped
Rega Planar Packaged Shipped
As can be seen, the Glass Platter was properly removed for packing and the seller did a good job protecting the arm from swinging wildly during shipment.
Rega Planar Unpacked
Now we get to the heart of the problems with this $200 Rega. The Grace tonearm is not exactly in the best shape. As you can see it’s missing a key component. Counterweight anyone?
Grace Tonearm without Counterweight
I did plenty of research on this arm, including what kind of cables could maximize a Grace Tonearm’s potential. Here’s an idea what I had to work with:
grace tonearm 707 parts
No counterweight, no sub-weight, no lateral weight, no headshell leads, and a crack in the arm lift assembly. Hmm. In the end, I might just have to bring this Rega 3 Table back up to spec with a tried tested and true Rega RB250 or RB300 arm. To fund this, I will put the Grace arm up on ebay in ‘as-is’ condition. With the money I get for the Grace, I will be able to pay for this Rega RB250 Tonearm with upgrade RB300 counterweight and Gold RCA connectors which I won on an eBay auction for $175 US. *hint* It’s smart to search for ‘Rega RB250‘ and not to include the words tone arm. By doing so you can get auctions that are less watched or turn up less often in search results. That’s how I got the arm for such a great deal!:
RB250 Rega Tonearm with RB300 Counterweight
RB300 Counterweight Upgrade on RB250 Tone Arm
As I wait for the Grace tone arm to sell, and for the Rega RB250 to arrive, I can still look into mat options, cartridge choices and so forth. In the meantime, here is my expenditure to date:
Rega Planar 3 with Grace 707 Tonearm from eBay - $225 (with shipping)
Rega RB250 Tonearm with RB300 Counter Weight from eBay - $195 (with shipping)
I was searching around the net for places to order vinyl within Canada and I found that you can buy new records from Chapters/Indigo online. For Canadians this is great news.. It’s not readily apparent but if you go to the music section and search for “[i]artist name[/i] vinyl” you will come up with quite a few titles at decent Cdn-Dollar prices and orders over $39 ship for free. www.chapters.ca
I ordered In Utero and Rubber Soul. I have no idea what pressing etc but I got both for $23.99 (CDN) each and free shipping
Nirvana In Utero Vinyl LP for $23.99
When they arrive I’ll be sure to let you all know exactly I just bought!!