SP10 Mk II vs Mk III

Hello Lewm and Albert and Many thanks.

Albert, I probably misunderstood when reading of your plinth on sound fountain, it seemed to me you put the rod in place of the bearing cup, working its end to suit, and felt a bit afraid of going in such mod. Having a rod touching it (with some pressure?) is easyier and safe. Thanks.

In fact Lewm answer was necessary and obvious (it appeared to my mind a couple of hours after posting...) I was so lost in finding a good way to organize the layers that I missed the point!

The graphite market is increasing for various different uses, metallury, batteries, chips (!) so there are many businesses around, big and small where the material is available. It is enough to have a look out of the audio market. Graphite is not exactlly cheap, but it seems that those company making audio products out of it are decuplicating the price of the material (at least...). I get mine from a friend in Rome, he's running a small business of fairly priced graphite audio pruducts and can cnc machine any sort of piece.
But I guess this info is not of much use: if you start shipping heavy manufacts overseas you'll probably loose the good price, I would have a look around searching for small companies selling graphite there in the US, they will very luckily have a cnc machine at hand and hopefully be willing to make a few pieces on design.
But... well, in case your planning a trip to Rome, bringing back some pieces (small) can be done!

Dear Silverprint, I doubt that "decuplicating" is a word in English, but it is a very good invention, and the meaning is obvious. Yes, there is a lot of decuplicating going on in the computation of the prices of audio products that derive from materials used in other applications. Sad but true.

Hi Lewm!

True! It really seems i invented it! Funny... I am laughing of myself. Usually "englishing" latin words, specially with unusual terms, works well... well usually, not always!
If others don't get it "decuplicare" in italian means multiplying ten times. Does an english word meaning this exist?

Olde English might suggest tenfold. 8^)

Hi Lew, yes, I was referring to the EPA-100. My friend has used one for a while, only because he's not had the funds to replace it. He has one of those 'Mod Squad' versions, which was considerably better than the original, which he also has. So I've had a lot of exposure to both versions. I agree it is well-built, but it is also massive and the bearings are in the plane of the arm tube rather than the plane of the platter surface, which means that the arm has difficulty with warps and bass notes.

For clarity, the stock base I saw on eBay was what the MkII came with back in the 70s.