2. analog
  3. 1078279938

O.K. Fess Up. Come Clean. Sing Like A Canary.

In the last several days I have gotten myself involved in a couple of threads regarding lifting (or forgetting about lifting) the stylus at the end of play. One individual was considering getting rid of his existing turntable, and replacing it with an older semi-automatic model.

He considered himself "lazy & forgetful".

Another individual was very upset with himself because he allowed himself to forget about the stylus for "20-30 minutes" after play.

He considered himself a "moron".

Am I another "lazy and forgetful moron"? Or is this just something that happens on occasion when you choose to endure the world of analog?

As of late, this does not happen to me anymore. I installed a "lifter". Problem solved. But before this point?

I can recall sometime back, arriving home after a weekend in Manhattan with my better half. It was Sunday evening about 11:00pm. We had left the previous Friday evening. We walked through the front door, I put down the bags and noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I looked over at my stereo and exclaimed "Uh-Oh".

Needless to say, I turned on the lights, walked over to the stereo, and as I looked down at the turntable (my head now spinning in a circular motion in unison with the rotating LP), had realized that this phenomenon had been in occurence over the last 50 hours or so.

I then cued the stylus, placed the tonearm on it's rest, turned off the turntable in disgust, sighed, and silently acknowledged the fact my NEW $800.00 Grado was toast.

Alright. I admit it. I can and did admit to such a mistake. Well, the word "mistake" sound a little extreme. Let's call it an "inopportune loss of mental focus". Now..... Let's see who else will step up to the plate.

What is the longest period of time that you have forgotten your stylus in the "rotating circle of death"?
128x128buscis2

Showing 3 responses by consttraveler

consttraveler
250 posts
 
I've done it a number of times, thankfully with no damage other than my blood pressure spiking when I "wake up".

Got the lifter mentioned above, spent a couple of HOURS trying to install it, put it in the closet. Piece of crap.
consttraveler
250 posts
 
Buscis2:

My problem with the lifter may be equipment related as well as personality related.

I tried to mount it on a Rega P-25 with the RB-600 arm. That arm is tapered, with a relatively wide cross section where the lifter needs to sit. A combination of the width and the slope of the arm where it meets the lifter (the mateing surfaces are not perpendicular) resulted in my Clearaudio Discovery bouncing off of the record surface a couple of times, which further resulted in blood pressure spikes.

The lift would be much easier to install if the design was more throughly thought out. For instance, the central column could be attached the same way as the tonearm, with the height adjusted from the top using an internal thread and a set screw. Ten minute set-up is my estimate (including drilling the hole maybe 15 minutes).

Something that would have been nice to get with the lift would be a simple, paper template for locating the center of the lift. There really are not that many arm-to-spindel dimentions that they could not be accomodated on a sheet of 8-1/2 by 11.

The personality part is paying $90 for $1 worth of parts and machining, that requires three hands and two sets of eyes to install.
consttraveler
250 posts
 
Buscis2, Ed:

I have not drilled anything, and I am not recommending it. However, mounting the lifter in the same manner as the arm (I know, I know, on my Rega it would require drilling the plinth) is my opinion of the "best" installation. Once set-up, the little bugger isn't going anywhere.

Murphy's law ("whatever can go wrong, will") says if I use blu-tak or anything temporary, it will fail to function when the arm/cartridge is directly in the line of fire. Talk about a blood pressure spike! Just the thought of the needle being pushed down and across my Super Session album makes my skin crawl. Compared to that, drilling a hole in my P-25 causes me no worries.

I really doesn't matter any way, the lifter is designed to be mounted on the top of the plinth (my Rega is safe and my Thorens TD-520 lifts by itself). Someday when I'm in the right mood, I may dig it out of the closet and try again, you never know.

Dave
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