allenh

See when you listen to the Garrard all you'll be thinking is, just how much better would it be with the 3012 on it? I've got a plinth for my 401 now so I should have that built in a while, there's a fair amount of service work to do on the 401 but I won't know how much until I try it in a plinth. It's got an SME 3009 cut out arm board on the plinth so I'll go with that first but I have a mystery arm that I'm going to make into a 12" arm and put on it eventually, I'd love to know what arm this is but it's a new one on me

No problem, I did wonder when my local said he couldn't get it. If I turn any up I'll let you know.

Surely that SME belongs with your Garrard

You'll soon see how big a mistake it is if it gets it's own Discogs listing. I would expect there will be a few of them because of the fact it made it out of the plant, if it were noticed at pressing the run would have been abandoned or destroyed before packing. I would assume it would have been a reasonable sized run but that run depends on how many the machine was set up to do and how rare it will be depends on how many get into the wild and stay there, as people take them back those returns and any on the shelves from that run will be returned to the label and destroyed or if it's a big number possibly repackaged with the correct sleeve and re issued as a limited run. Either way I'd hang on to it.

Well mine are in trouble then, I must tell the wife her time is up, the child I've already sold, noisy thing. I'll report back on the results when I can stop them hitting me with those big sticks.

Great thanks very much. PM me with what I owe you and we can go from there

Yes you need to listen to as much as possible and especially if it's vintage as you need to know what a good one sounds like so that someone doesn't try to sell you a very shiny box of problems. The same basic rules apply to buying anything old and mechanical or electrical, it's old and might not have been looked after as well as the current owner would have you believe.

That Marantz is an integrated amplifier, just seems a bit pricey for that model in that condition.

Any chance that offer's still open? My local isn't being offered it.

My first thought is it's way over priced, it certainly doesn't look clean or like it's had a service in a good while but if you like it you can always wave a more sensible amount of cash under the guys nose and then leave him with your phone number, they don't always ring back as it depends on how indignant they feel but it's worked for me on a few occasions.

I'd try the AKG's in something else first to see if you get similar issues. I've found this with a few headphones in that they are designed for mobile use and they do the Bose trick of shifting the tonal balance up to make it sound like you're getting the detail that shouldn't really be there with the mobile device. Headphone manufacturers are going to sell a shed load more units for mobile use so it pays them to adjust the device for the market.

If they're designed for mobile use chances are they're going to sound bad on a proper headphone amp as a proper ones going to resolve a lot more information than a mobile one. Getting a dedicated off board headphone amp will probably make things worse.

Go and listen to it and see if you like it before you even think about money. Vintage amplifiers tend to have a very different sound to modern ones so you need to know you like it and early US made Marantz amps have a distinct sound that is very particular to the brand. If the price was right you could gamble on it as they always get a reasonable price so if you didn't like it you could move it on but at that price you'd struggle. Personally I like them and much prefer older amplifiers in general but that Marantz will sound very different to your active speakers so make sure you like it.

There are a few things you do in the US with electricity like not tying the earth to the neutral at the substation that I find odd but it doesn't necessarily make it wrong

The dimmer switch thing tends not to be a problem here in th UK because the mains and lighting are on separate circuits

Well you shouldn't need a ground wire between the 551 and the 351 but I would try it anyway. It does sound like the 551 is your problem or its power supply but the only way you can prove that is to have another set to substitute it with

I know you say you've done all the plug changing around etc. And it does sound like it the 551 somewhere but: Does it do it with other sources? Does it do it if you plug the 551 into another input? Have you got a ground wire between the 551 and the 351?

OK thanks that's good of you, I'll let you know on that

Ok Good Shout, I'll ask mine he's usually pretty good at getting them

Just re asking the question really, has anyone had any luck finding the indie exclusive in the UK? I've tried all the obvious places, Banquet, Normans, Piccadilly and nothing, I'm assuming we are only getting the standard black so I'm probably going to go for the F.Y.E clear as I can't easily order from Bullmoose but have been hanging on doing so just in case.

You rang? Where do I sign? In all seriousness this has the power to either be very helpful or or a huge hindrance so I like to read it before I pass comment, but yes very needed in today's world, yes you can use google to research but you still need a basic grounding as there is so much conflicting information and too be honest blatant bullshit and opinion written as fact on the subject.

What's specifically wrong with the sound? Is it missing at one point in the spectrum i.e lacking bass, mid or treble? Is it thin all over? Is it lacking detail compared to the digital? Does it sound muddy? Does it sound distorted? Is it not imaging i.e the sound stays in the speakers and doesn't project out of them? Does it ever sound good? Does it happen consistently with every record? Does it happen only at the end or beginning of a side? A lot of questions I know but it's much harder to diagnose an analogue problem without hearing it than it is with digital. Technically any analogue source is inferior to a high bitrate digital source but the analogue source will sound different and can and should sound nicer to the digital, but that of course is a matter of opinion. And as Slinch implies it's a lot easier to get a digital source to a certain level but the difference with analogue is that whereas a good digital source doesn't sound a lot better than an average one and a high end one doesn't sound a lot better than a good one if you listen to them all through the same decent amplifier with a turntable a good one sounds a lot better than an average one and a high end one sounds a lot better then a good one and the higher up the food chain you go with an analogue source the more the quality of the media matters. The two things it's easy and relatively easy for you to change are the cartridge/or stylus (that body can take the blue stylus) and the phono stage. Both the Project and the Ortofon red have fans and detractors so you need to work out if it is an actual problem or if you just don't like one or all the parts of your analogue chain.

I've also found that in general all these types of AVR's lie like a Japanese cars speedometer when it comes to power output so if your speakers are difficult to drive then that could be a problem. It's not so much the quoted output, they can probably achieve it for at least 3 or even maybe 4 nano seconds with a run up but then they need a little rest to recover so they can't produce decent current levels for any meaningful length of time, My AV system has a pair of very big and difficult to drive Mordaunt Shorts and with every Denon and Onkyo I tried even the very big ones they just didn't work, My original Rotel and my current Yamaha drive them perfectly well. Sadly the Yamaha's phono stage isn't great and the Rotel didn't have one so I've had to add a separate one.

Could be many things, my instinct is also for the phono stage as they are generally poor in AVR's but have you tried a digital source like a CD player into it and if so is it as bad? I also agree with looking at speaker placement as ajxd is correct those things need room but my instinct is to look at the front end first.

Unless you never clean anything and or run at stupidly high tracking force on a badly set up crap turntable I wouldn't worry about it yet. I have carts here dating back to the 70's that work perfectly so unless it's a abused your stylus should last a very long time. Generally manufacturers quote figures between about 500 and 1000 or so hours playing time which varies from cart to cart so look it up on the manufacturers site. This depends very much on how clean you keep your records and stylus and how well set up it is. For that AT I would reckon on the higher side so somewhere around 1000 hours plus in normal use but basically when it starts to sound bad if it doesn't improve after a clean you need to replace it, generally you'll hear the top end start to fail first. And if it's this early look very hard at your arm, turntable and how you look after your records and kit.