My Dream Coming to Fruition

My Dream Comes To Fruition

Well, the time has finally come for my precious to get some attention. I bought this AR "The Turntable" a few years ago from a shop here locally and used it for about a year with the intentions of finding a new arm and putting a few mods on it. I put it in with my kitchen system when I bought a Marantz 6300, with the intention of the upgrading it and planned on using the Marantz in my main system. Time got away from me and now it's been about two years since.
I have loved this model of turntable since the 80's and I have found myself going to Vinyl Nirvana and Sound of the Wood almost on a daily basis to look at the upgrades. My obsessing over it is finally over and I'm going to do something about it.

http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k565/GaleVincent/2014-04-05181353_zps801d8bcc.jpg


I have already made all of my major purchases and I'm just waiting for all of the shipments to come in. From Sound of the Wood, I have ordered a custom chrome platter, a Zorin PUA-9 tonearm, custom Olivewood tonearm board, a custom piece of olivewood to make my plinth top, a new bearing with Teflon disc, Jasmine tonearm cable, motor, heavy duty springs, and a gold record clamp. From Vinyl Nirvana, I've ordered new studs for the springs, new belt, a replacement pulley and a Music Hall 2.0 speed selector. From the internet I've ordered, sound absorption panels, gold spikes and discs for the feet, deerskin mat, a Denon DL A100 anniversary cartridge, and I am contemplating the Merrill sub-chassis.

I was planning on a re-veneer with a burled olive wood, although that changed when I met a gentleman last week with 42 years experience as a woodworker. So I am having him build me the plinth with the olivewood top that was ordered from Eric. The sideboards will be made with walnut, except the mitred edges will go all the way around like a frame.
I also took the top plate in for a custom chrome job and the frame around the power switch is getting gold plated.

The weird thing is, I looked at the back tag where the manufacture date is and it says April 28, 1984. It's going to get a new facelift for it's 30th birthday.


Not much is going to be left of it. Right now, the sub-chassis, the top plate, power supply. I think that's it. I'll make another one out of the rest of it after finding the few remaining parts I need. I'll sell it to help offset the cost of this big project. Or more than likely give it to one of my daughters.

All I can say is that Eric from Sound of the Wood has been a great help. He goes out of his way to answer your questions and is a joy to deal with. I've heard the same thing about Dave at Vinyl Nirvana, although I haven't had the chance to really deal with him personally. It's been great fun researching and putting this project together.
I'm also in the midst of restoring a pair of Altec 19's and they should be finished in a week or so.
I will keep the site posted with updates and pictures and especially my overall review of the system when finished.

http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k565/GaleVincent/2014-04-05193321_zps5e390052.jpg

Nice TT, and some aggressive plans - it always helps to have a good plan!

I'd suggest that you take more pics. You can always thin some out later. Create a separate album in Photobucket for your project.

Good Luck - - -

Thanks Steve. I'll take more pics when I start getting everything in and actually start working on it.
After all of this, I just hope it sounds better than it did. LOL

Sounds like a fantastic project!
Look forward to pics as this unfolds.

Good luck & enjoy!

Sounds very very cool....

But couldn't you have bought the spare parts off Ebay or somewhere and sent this working table off to a new home?

Regards
Mister Pig

It sound like you planed this well sir:yes:. Best of luck to you.

Aaaah Yes MP..... But the fun is in the chase. And the chase is always better when shared with friends.

Mister Pig said:

Sounds very very cool....

But couldn't you have bought the spare parts off Ebay or somewhere and sent this working table off to a new home?

Regards
Mister Pig

Click to expand...

Don't worry Mister Pig, I have plans to find the rest of what's needed of the original and build the old one back. It may take a while to find the few parts, but it will happen. It took me two years of daily searching to find Altec 19's, but I finally found them. I never give up.

I will get the original plinth veneered and this project will happen again, but for a hell of a lot cheaper. I will sell that table to help offset the cost of this Frankentable.

ghazzer said:

Aaaah Yes MP..... But the fun is in the chase. And the chase is always better when shared with friends.

Click to expand...

So true Steve.

The fun has really been the researching, finding, dealing, and now assembling. Also can't forget the sharing.
I would suggest it to anyone who has a desire to build one.

Thank you for your encouragement drtool and 3kitty.

Finally Starting To Come Together

I finally have an update regarding my AR Frankentable.
A lot of my parts are finally coming in and my plinth is finally finished. Here are some pics of the plinth next to the old one. The new one is made of walnut for the sides and Bethlehem olivewood for the top that I purchased from Eric.

Geoff, the furniture maker that I hired to make the plinth did an outstanding job.

I will give more updates and pictures, hopefully sooner than my last post.

Vincentz said:

Not much is going to be left of it. Right now, the sub-chassis, the top plate, power supply. I think that's it.

Click to expand...

Enjoy this. I have an old empire I took years to restore including a custom granite base. It is a joy to listen to and to look at. Plus there is something cool about having it built to your vision what the turntable should be; one-of-a-kind and all that. From personal experience this will turn out to be a very satisfying journey.

That plinth is just exquisite. The walnut and olive wood is a great compliment to one another. Looking forward to seeing this completed. When it is finished, please post some pics in the Official AR Owners Thread.

You are off to a wonderful start!

Vincentz said:

I finally have an update regarding my AR Frankentable.
A lot of my parts are finally coming in and my plinth is finally finished. Here are some pics of the plinth next to the old one. The new one is made of walnut for the sides and Bethlehem olivewood for the top that I purchased from Eric.

Geoff, the furniture maker that I hired to make the plinth did an outstanding job.

Click to expand...

Rustic, yet elegant and highly distinctive. :tresbon:

Nice work so far and I a sure you will have a "lifetime" table when finished.
I have an AR ES-1 which as you know is almost identical to your table.
I have made many of the modifications you have planned and you will be very satisfied with the results. Keep the photos coming as you progress.

My tonearm was damaged in shipment when I received it. Would you be interested I selling the original arm? I wanted to keep mine stock looking and haven't had any luck finding an original arm.
Best of luck with your project.

Thanks for all of the compliments and encouragement. This sure has been a journey that I have enjoyed. Can't wait to finally get it done. As if that will ever truly happen. LOL

Flasher1 - I will PM you when I get this done. Not sure if I'm going to sell the parts off yet or try to rebuild back an original. I'll let you know either way about the tonearm.
Thanks.

It's finally completed!

Wow!! After five months from first starting this project and two years of research and planning, I am finally finished.




The longest part was waiting for the new sub-chassis to be made by George Merrill. But it was well worth the wait.



I'll start with the plinth. The top comes from Israel and is harvested by licensed pruners that only prune the trees for the wood. The trees are between 200 and 2000 years old and are highly valued and protected. The tree that the top came from, is still alive somewhere in Israel. The sides are Walnut and it was made by a furniture maker, Geoff Deering, he has over 40 years experience. I think that he did a fantastic job.
The armboard is also Bethlehem Olive wood and comes from Sound of the Wood. They specialize in AR restorations, in case you are not familiar with them. Another company called Vinyl Nirvana also does, as well as Thorens tables. Both are great to deal with.



The inside of the plinth is covered in copper foil to avoid motor hum. It was then covered with a material called Sound Barrier to reduce any unwanted resonance. I can knock on the shelf quite hard, with no sound affecting the table. I was pretty surprised.


Foiled




Sound Barrier

The top plate, I had professionally chromed as well as the power switch cover being gold plated. I was going to have the top plate, gold plated, but with a quote of over $350, I went with the chrome. The platter is chromed and comes from, Sound of the Wood. The platter cover is two layers of deer skin. The record weight is precision machined and then gold plated.

Getting the balance right.


The tonearm comes from a company that specializes in high end equipment called Zorin. They make precision parts for sports cars and have taken their skills to develop products that they have a passion for. Their headshell is state of the art and patented. You can put the cartridge practically anywhere you want it. The arm is made of stainless steel, titanium and gold plated, with hand machined parts. The attention to detail is incredible.




I'm using a Denon A100 cartridge, but using my old Denon 103 to compare against my old Marantz turntable. The phono cable is from Jasmine.



I hand gold leafed the AR badge, LED frame and hardware. I then applied several coats of clear coat. I leafed the LED frame and badge to match each other on the front. The gold plated spike feet are special ordered from BBC.



The sub-chassis is special ordered from Sound of the Wood and is made by the well respected turntable designer George Merrill. It is made from a terpolymer special non-resonant material. The push bearing comes from George Merrill as well. On top of the push bearing is a special made disc of PTFE that makes the bearing super slick. The platter will spin for around 3-4 minutes with no power connected.



The motor pulley comes from Vinyl Nirvana as well as the speed controller which is a Music Hall. They also specialize in AR and Thorens rebuilds.

The motor is custom made and comes from Eric Whitacre from Sound of the Wood. He was a big inspiration for me as well as Dave from Vinyl Nirvana. The springs and stud kit came from Dave.

http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k565/GaleVincent/AR Turntable/2014-09-19195356_zpsd1cc5ce6.jpg

Not many things are original on it. The sub platter, power supply, switch, LED light, and that's about it.



I realize that it's no longer a real AR turntable. But, it is in design and heart and soul. That's why I put the badge on it.


How does it sound?? Actually better than it looks. I was worried that it would sound worse than my old table. A Marantz 6300. LOL Was I pleasantly surprised.
The sound is a bit warmer with much more detail. The sound is three dimensional with a wider sound stage. The timing seems different, I can't quite put my finger on it. Everything just sounds more real. Like the musicians are right in the room with me. I have never experienced this level of sound on my personal equipment. I can't stop wanting to listen to all of my albums, it's like I'm hearing them again for the first time.

I am really quite surprised and happy, after all the effort, time and money that I put into it. I might put an acrylic platter on it in the future, but I am digging the chrome one for now. I also might upgrade the power supply. That is still original.



It will be quite a while before I attempt a project like this again. But, it was well worth it. I learned quite a lot and now have something that I can be proud of for the rest of my life.



Please let me know what you think and let me know if you have any questions,, I wish you all could hear it.

Simply awesome.

Vincentz said:

Don't worry Mister Pig, I have plans to find the rest of what's needed of the original and build the old one back. It may take a while to find the few parts, but it will happen. It took me two years of daily searching to find Altec 19's, but I finally found them. I never give up.

I will get the original plinth veneered and this project will happen again, but for a hell of a lot cheaper. I will sell that table to help offset the cost of this Frankentable.

Click to expand...

If you are talking about the original plinth on "The Turntabe'" it is my understanding that the sides of the plinth are natural wood and not veneer. However, the top plate is a small layer of veneer. You have to be very careful sanding the top plate or you might take off all of the veneer.

My ES-1 has the original cherry plinth, and it looks exquisite.

4Play said:

If you are talking about the original plinth on "The Turntabe'" it is my understanding that the sides of the plinth are natural wood and not veneer. However, the top plate is a small layer of veneer. You have to be very careful sanding the top plate or you might take off all of the veneer.

My ES-1 has the original cherry plinth, and it looks exquisite.

Click to expand...

The TheTurntable, except for the extreme early examples, were veneer sides as well.