Goldmund Reference Turntable ?

Hello Kevin
Hopefully you will have the black service manual to keep you right , I have had mine for some 15 yrs now , Take note of the mechanical grounding spike as it is very important to the sound also hopefully you should have the correct oil supplied . The T3f has a sensor that doesnt like direct light for it will suddenly start tracking across your treasured vinyl , best you play around with an old record and cartridge first. My T3f has been boxed up and shoved in a cupboard for a few yrs iam using the table with a Kuzma airline/ A90 the table now sings like never before !

I've been testing a Studio/T3 for 3 years and while I'll not admit that it's a snap to set a cartridge up, I'll say that once so done the result is pure holographic. I mean- reach out and touch Mikes Davis, while the acoustic pressurizes the room. I don’t hear any image shift as the arm self corrects. Perhaps I’m just lucky or got a good match with the Cello I’m using. Kevin Olsen, noted audio expert, owned it before me and ran a Purple Heart for years with zero problems. You must protect the cartridge while moving the counter weight. And the process is awkward- if you have two thumbs get a steady handed friend to give an assist. I think Lurne’ was ahead of his time. There is a classic look to these tables and the Ref offers a high degree of mass loading. His J1s are spectacular. But there are tricks to setting them up. I’ll discuss it all in 2011 in TAS.

Peter Breuninger
Sr. Writer,
The Absolute Sound

My respects to everyone.

I have had a GRT, T3F and PL8 since 1987. I have never had a single problem nor I have found this package complicated to set up. It requires of course some dedication.
The table has a single main problem and this was the original natural oil for the spindle/shaft. I can not explain how bad it was. I use now the VdH spindle oil.

The T3F had two major problems and they are related with what Syntax and Tuchan said (lack of frequency extremes and CW mass).

I have found the aluminum headshell of this arm to be too heavy at about 7.5gr. This accounts for almost 50% of its effective mass. I changed the material of the headshell bringing the mass down to 2.5 gr. This restored a lot in the extremes, specially in the hi-frequencies.

The main problem however was in the CW, IMO Goldmund in the attempt to keep the CW hided within the bridge placed the CW too close to the bearings, with such short leverage the system can only work by increasing the mass of the CW, for example, with a cartridge of 10gr only the heaviest of the CW could be used and this one has 195gr.

I solved this issue making by CNC a prolongation of the CW shaft and by moving the CW back a mere 40mm I reduced its mass from 195gr to less than 50gr for the 10.5 gr of the Lyra Titan-i.

The gain in performance is terrific.

If somebody having this arm is interested can contact me back, I can provide the respective drawings or CAD. After all the total cost of this mod was less than 150 U$D.

Not that making this you will solve all the design issues of the T3F but the gain in performance is huge and your cantilever will work a lot less stressed.

Regards,
Claudio Abbiendi
Bangkok-Thailand.

Well, I heard HP's set-up (back then serviced by Frank Doris ) first in early May 1988 when I visited Harry Pearson together with Carol Keasler in his home in Sea Cliff.
The Goldmund Reference was running and while certain aspects of the sonic result were impressive, the Goldmund - especially the T3F tonearm and the direct sonic relations depending (or better: rooted in ..) tonearm quality - failed then and in later set-ups with the T3F to move any small piece of earth below my feet.

Well lol sorry i just checked back from being busy and see all these nice posts, thank you all very much. Some really good info and suggestions. I have to tell you all I just picked up the table on consignment for a customer and will help him sell it. It needs some work and service so will start on that tomorrow, i can see its going to take some time lol. I have extensive turntable knowledge and experience have worked on most of the best tables out there but this one looks like a good challenge lol.

We'll see how it goes. Goldmund certainly doesnt seem to want to help which is very disappointing. I'll keep trying.

and yes I have the manuals and crates.

Again thank you all very much for all the nice posts
Kevin

Still dont really know what the going rate for a used one is going for these days.