Official AR Turntable Owners Thread

Here's a quick shot of my Sfrost table I mentioned earlier. I really don't use the cueing for 2 reasons. First the arm has a crack I need to address and second it appears to have been installed for the original straight arm, and not the J shaped Pioneer. It should be relocated about 1/2" to the right as now the piston barely engages the arm at the beginning of play.
But I love the table and opted to keep it over a very nice Denon DP-59L as I liked the sound and had fewer concerns about reliability, since the Denons are beautiful door stops IF the tonearm electronics ever fail.
I may lighten the massive counterweight though to allow use of other 1/2" head shells as most are lighter than the one it has now and I can't balance them w/o adding significant mass. A couple discreet drill holes on the bottom rear should do the Trick once I do the math, but it has been a couple years as is, so who knows??

20190115_140453.jpg
 
Here's a quick shot of my Sfrost table I mentioned earlier. I really don't use the cueing for 2 reasons. First the arm has a crack I need to address and second it appears to have been installed for the original straight arm, and not the J shaped Pioneer. It should be relocated about 1/2" to the right as now the piston barely engages the arm at the beginning of play.
But I love the table and opted to keep it over a very nice Denon DP-59L as I liked the sound and had fewer concerns about reliability, since the Denons are beautiful door stops IF the tonearm electronics ever fail.
I may lighten the massive counterweight though to allow use of other 1/2" head shells as most are lighter than the one it has now and I can't balance them w/o adding significant mass. A couple discreet drill holes on the bottom rear should do the Trick once I do the math, but it has been a couple years as is, so who knows??

View attachment 1387295


what is the current headshell mass? for every gram of difference at headshell, 7 grams of difference at the counterweight.
 
That's more than I expected. I'll have to check out the variances and take it from there. I do know I had to add like 5 grams or more to the other head shell to balance it with the counterweight full forward.

How much and how long is the standard counterweight. This one is probably at least 1/4" longer.

More details to follow.
 
That's more than I expected. I'll have to check out the variances and take it from there. I do know I had to add like 5 grams or more to the other head shell to balance it with the counterweight full forward.

How much and how long is the standard counterweight. This one is probably at least 1/4" longer.

More details to follow.
stock counterweight is 100gr +/- 0.860" L , 1.10" W
 
Ok, here's what I have.

Standard Pioneer headshell w/ M91 E is 22.19g
M91E is 6.02 g
So headshell is ballpark 16g

Black mesh headshell w/Denon 301 is 13.67g

That's 8.5g less than the Pioneer headshell, so I'd have to remove over 40g from the counterweight.
Maybe I should just look for a more massive headshell??

BTW, my counterweight is over 1 1/4" long and 140g.
Looks like a standard one might do the trick too.
 
Ok, here's what I have.

Standard Pioneer headshell w/ M91 E is 22.19g
M91E is 6.02 g
So headshell is ballpark 16g

Black mesh headshell w/Denon 301 is 13.67g

That's 8.5g less than the Pioneer headshell, so I'd have to remove over 40g from the counterweight.
Maybe I should just look for a more massive headshell??

BTW, my counterweight is over 1 1/4" long and 140g.
Looks like a standard one might do the trick too.
Original AR headshell, empty, was 7gr
 
Any thoughts on cones vs. feet (such as the ones Kray's using, post #1703) or just simple rubber ones?
 
Any thoughts on cones vs. feet (such as the ones Kray's using, post #1703) or just simple rubber ones?

For the AR I believe it’s purely cosmetic as the suspension takes care of the vibration reduction. Although I love the way mine look :D
 
Q. about AR XA history: As I've mentioned several times, I have two AR XAs: one with Haydon motor, one with Airpax. The Haydon deck operates very well now. It's the deck in my avatar. The top plate is ugly, and I may do something about that eventually. The Airpax deck is not operating. It needs parts. If I can take care of its noisy motor, I might be more aggressive about rebuilding it. I've wanted to keep the Haydon deck close to stock, for sentimental reasons.

OK, I've been reading through old posts on the VE forum. One post suggests that the Airpax motor is not original to the AR XA. I simply assumed that AR replaced the Haydon with Airpax during the late period of AR XA production. Yes? No?
 
I have two deer hide mats - one Marc made for me when he Morinized my XB, the second I got from a guy named Jake on the auction site. One is thicker than the other which changes the SRA depending on what's required by the particular cartridge / headshell I'm using since VTA is not adjustable on the AR's. Or I can stack them.
 
Q. about AR XA history: As I've mentioned several times, I have two AR XAs: one with Haydon motor, one with Airpax. The Haydon deck operates very well now. It's the deck in my avatar. The top plate is ugly, and I may do something about that eventually. The Airpax deck is not operating. It needs parts. If I can take care of its noisy motor, I might be more aggressive about rebuilding it. I've wanted to keep the Haydon deck close to stock, for sentimental reasons.

OK, I've been reading through old posts on the VE forum. One post suggests that the Airpax motor is not original to the AR XA. I simply assumed that AR replaced the Haydon with Airpax during the late period of AR XA production. Yes? No?
The earliest of TheTurntable model came with either an Airpax or Haydon motor. Have never seen one come on an XA
 
The earliest of TheTurntable model came with either an Airpax or Haydon motor. Have never seen one come on an XA

Interesting. I personally bought the Haydon deck over-the-counter from a mail-order discount dealer in the DC area for my father in late 1969. It was in his continuous possession until I took custody of it after his passing in 2007. The Airpax deck came from a thrift shop in San Diego in the 1990s. It's interesting that someone was sufficiently invested in the deck to replace the motor. The Airpax deck has a 191xxx serial number. The Haydon deck is 139xxx.
 
I am amazed by this table. I sleep less and listen to vinyl more...
 

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