After a hard crash last December which abruptly killed the christmas analog experience I finally collected my tt from Mr Homyar Masani. Due to issues with his health and the pandemic curfew restrictions, it took him almost 5 months to get the tt up and running. I suppose patience pays...I am eternally grateful to him for his perseverance and zeal when working with vintage gear despite his problematic eyesight. He is probably the only old-school tt expert in mumbai. Really a dying breed. I hope and pray that God keeps him going for a few decades more.
The tt sits flush on the perfectly levelled Ikea laemplig bamboo chopping board thus sparing me the botheration and idiocy of levelling the tt itself as I had done earlier (evolved thinking perhaps lol) Nevertheless, paranoia ensured that I've checked and rechecked the levelling before/after placing it on the board. No fancy footers ever again. Just the same old earlier feet. As many of you have advised - just keep things simple and uncomplicated !
View attachment 56799 @oldmonk thanks once again for suggesting the Ikea board. There are millions of ideas online but I was in a constant state of flux swinging between the different types of wood available. Bamboo shelves are indeed one of the hidden secrets of the hifi world. Not a secret anymore though lol.
Both 33 & 45 speed selectors went awry resulting in annoying deviations from the correct pitch especially when switching between speeds. Anyway he sorted that out. We also used this nifty app called 'RPM Speed and Wow' and ofcourse the stroboscope for speed recalibration. results for 33 and 45 speed calculations from the app seem reasonably acceptable.
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all internal contacts have been serviced and are now working fine. Tonearm alignment went a bit off so had to be realigned. That takes care of that dreadful igd. He also had to replace a microcontroller switch for the auto/manual control. He did mention that parts are very hard to come by for these vintage players. Vtf set to 2gm as earlier which is the ideal tracking weight for the pearl. Antiskate set to 2. The cart's azimuth alignment was rechecked. I'm using the Belden 8402 ic from tt to phono amp.
Happy to be back in analog land again !