Salvation Army find

I'm gonna see about taking the Fisher to the local DJ shop today. I
know the owner pretty well. He mostly repairs those technics sl-1200's
for dj's. I guess i'll have him look at mine .

the only thing left to repair is the cassette deck. I still havent
figured out how to get the cassette door back on in. I also noticed the
spring that opens the deck when you press eject is missing. any ideas

On 30 Dec 2005 11:59:00 -0800, "rusty" wrote:

I'm gonna see about taking the Fisher to the local DJ shop today. I
know the owner pretty well. He mostly repairs those technics sl-1200's
for dj's. I guess i'll have him look at mine . snip

SL 1200s started off being the bulletproof DJ turntable back in the
mid '70s, and Panasonic still makes them today. Disco DJs back then
used to dish out the worst punishment to equipment of any users, so if
they can stand up to them, they can survive anything. As far as
performance goes, the SL1100 and SL1200 were pretty good performers,
as well, with very low flutter, enough torque to get up to speed
quickly, and very little to go wrong, since they're direct drive. It
was the Technics line's performance in commercial service that sold me
on their reliability...nothing else ever came close. The upper crust
Technics, like the SP-10 and the SL-110, could outperform many much
more expensive belt drivers, as long as you'd supply your own tonearm.
Technics arms were/are...well...clunky, at best, but well suited for
DJ use. I still have an SL 120 fitted with an SME 3009 Type II arm.
It's my "utility" turntable for LPs and 45s of less than perfect
quality. One drawback to any Technics (or any direct drive table) is
hum interference with certain cartridges. You cannot run, for
example, any Grado cartridge on any Technics direct drive turntable
because of hum radiation through the aluminum platter.

the only thing left to repair is the cassette deck. I still havent
figured out how to get the cassette door back on in. snip

I have a feeling that there are two plastic dogs on either side of the
cassette swing-out tray that have to be compressed to fit back into
the well. They also might be broken off, in which case, you're
screwed. Without any visuals, I can't offer any more than that.

I also noticed the
spring that opens the deck when you press eject is missing. any ideas snip

Hardware store.

dB

there is another adjustment that has the numbers 2,4,6 what does this
do? i've never had a turntable with this many adjustments thanks
Those settings will set the arm to drop on the beginning
of different diameter of records as I recall. 2 probably 45s, 4 probably
78s, and the 6 for modern LPs.

On Sat, 31 Dec 2005 04:44:59 GMT, "William W Western"
wrote:

there is another adjustment that has the numbers 2,4,6 what does this
do? i've never had a turntable with this many adjustments thanks
Those settings will set the arm to drop on the beginning
of different diameter of records as I recall. 2 probably 45s, 4 probably
78s, and the 6 for modern LPs. snip

Nope...those are VTF readings. Diameter selection would be 7, 10 and
12. By the way, there were 10" LPs and 12" 78s, just to keep you
honest.

dB

Hey Bob-
I see those 12" 78rpm discs all the time. What was the running time
per side, on the average? Were they mainly classical?

On 30 Dec 2005 22:48:53 -0800, wrote:

Hey Bob-
I see those 12" 78rpm discs all the time. What was the running time
per side, on the average? snip

Roughly 5 minutes, depending on modulation width.

Were they mainly classical? snip

Almost exclusively. The sessions would be recorded with the orchestra
stopping at predetermined breaks, and picking up immediately on the
next note...quite a feat, if anyone who's playing in an orchestra or
ensemble would know. I once transcribed a Victor 12" set of Stokowski
conducting the NBC Symphony on Vaughn Williams' No. 4 in F minor onto
tape for a client, and the edited whole turned out to be seamless, and
of excellent quality since the disks were near mint in condition. The
problem was "fudging" the phono equalization to match what RCA used at
the time for 78s, the "old" New Orthophonic curve. In those days,
there were no industry standards, and every label had their own ideas
about pre-emphasis, so nothing ever played back properly on all
machines, unless you had a very fancy preamp with a billion EQ curves
on it. I used a special monaural Grado cartridge wiht a 3 mil
elliptical stylus that worked extremely well on that one, and is what
I still use for 78s if the situation arises, with is rare anymore. It
should be noted that this Grado, while only having one output pair,
still uses the stereo suspension, and thus is very kind to shellac
discs.

dB

4-6 minutes

I have a full box of those 78rpm LP records. I've been waiting for
winter to list them, and will get around to listing them soon. 78rpm
sound is superior in fidelity to anything that came after it- IF you
have a good high end turntable and the "electrically recorded" disks.
The acoustic recordings were basically singers and musicians playing
into an open horn, that vibrated a needle mechanically onto the master
disk- which is why early 78's are so weak sounding.

A clean 78 will blow off any other format, including DVD audio, CD,
reel, or 8-track- about the only thing that can compete with it, is
original 2" master reels from the record company vaults. The true high
dollar audiophiles all spin a 78 table. I'm talking the guys that
spend $60,000 for speakers, and $50,000 on tube amps.

A few years back I ran across 2 huge estate sales and ended up getting
around 4000 disks 78rpm for next to nothing. Listening to that old
music, epiphany struck- the "greatest generation" had the best music
and best format, from about 1930 to 1960. The only problem is, they
are very fragile, and high stylus pressure wore them out and created
"sizzling bacon" background noise on the disk.

Find a clean 78 and it will open your eyes for sure.

DB,

Look at the price of that Soundesign.

On 1 Jan 2006 20:45:42 -0800, "rusty" wrote:

DB,

Look at the price of that Soundesign. snip

Well, you can't save all idiots form themselves, I guess...so I don't
even try anymore. The machine is just glitzed up K-Mart trash.
Someone wants to pay that for essentially a $20 machine, let 'em. I
hate it because it encourages rag pickers.

As was stated earlier, this turntable hasn't a snowball's chance in a
blast furnace of playing ANY quad disc properly. With a ceramic
cartridge like this, all the ultrasonic signal would be wiped out in
one pass, anyway.

"There once was a man from Nantucket..."

dB