Denon DP80 & DP75 Owner's Thread
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I would think the lightest lube available would be the best. My experience is that synthetic oil tends to stay 'oily' while 'natural' oil (if going thru a refinery can be called natural) tends to become 'gunky' after an extended period of time (years). If all ready difficult to remove I would think the lightest coating of whatever would be best. Now that I think of it, I have some fully synthetic bicycle grease I may try. Will apply with a Q-tip and wipe off all I can with a paper-towel, which should leave a very light coating. Won't happen until mid-July. Will be an annual PM just to guard against whatever is used drying out and becoming 'sticky'.
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srs735 nice to hear you have Mr Pigs DP-75 with a Technics EPA-500 tonearm in Denon plinth. As for the VPI plinth yes it was Harrys first product, possible inspiration was the Mitch Cotter monster plinth, Bimasta estimate of total weight of VPI plinth/dustcover with DP-75/80 motor unit and Technics tonearm is about right at 80 pounds. Size/weight not an issue for me, I have plenty of room on a large Target wall shelf, fits perfect. Also I'm a traditionalist and prefer to keep audio equipment in stock form especially less common high end vintage equipment or make sure any modifications are reversible.
Legrace
Super Member
Unless @Mister Pig has a 2nd one in his barnyard, probably not.
I bought his DP-75 motor/platter and installed it on an existing Denon DP-6700 plinth. Then I installed a Technics EPA-500 arm on. I have 3 "tubes" for the EPA. So far I've installed a Ortofon MC-3000 and a Miyajima Madake and have been more than happy with the results.
The EPA-500 did require a 2 step drilling process.
You could say I'm as "Happy as a pig in s**t"
View attachment 1505521 View attachment 1505522
No offense but why not do something about covering the hole in the armboard? Curious about location as well. Did the prior owner have a linear tracker on there or did you rotate the armboard 180? Which is not possible on my DK110 as the design is asymmetrical. Denon did this in order to support removal of the armboard without needing to remove the drive. Curious if they did this on all the plinths where the armboard sits partially under the drive. I'm assuming so.
Mister Pig
Pigamus Maximus
Turntables are fascinating to explore, arent they? Heck analog can be a subsection of the hobby that takes a lifetime to explore.
My venture into direct drives was a fun one, and my time with the Denon DP 75 and a Technics SP 10 MK II were fascinating. From my perspective, I believe the differences between the two drive units and their contribution to the overall sound is for "practical" purposes, well darn near identical. As far as how music is presented, I hear essentially twins in terms of drive units, with the arm making more of a difference, and this is with running the same cartridge.
What this means though is the DO 75 is a heck of a deal if you can get a good one. Because they can be had for under $800, and a well used SP 10 MK II from a commercial station sells for about $1200 these days.
And that was the driving factor for me keeping my SP 10 MK II over the DP 75. My SP 10 MK II came from Japan, and from the home of a Japanese audiophile rather than a commercial radio station. The condition is as perfect as an SP 10 can be, it looks like as new condition, as there is not a mark, ding, of smudge on it. I kept it because of the rarity of having a SP 10 MK II in this condition, I doubt you will find even a handful of these that have been so well cared for. Now sound wise, the DP 75 and it are so very close, its just splitting hairs.
Now I still have my VPI plinth, and its drilled for the Acos GST 9801 arm that a good friend just recently serviced. I figured the plinth would have sold easily, but to be honest its still here. If it stays around long enough and I come across another DP 75, or even a DP 80 I may very well put it back together. I would like to improve the spring system in it, and that might be worth experimenting with.
My problem is I love turntables. LOL. I bought a Sota Star Sapphire as a proof of concept purchase, and I put a SME V on it. That is a great table! However the thrust plate was damaged and so I sent the platter back to Sota for service, and in the process of it, decided to order the new Sota Gen 6 Cosmos with the Eclipse package. I am still waiting for it, and I suspect its going to be awhile before I get my hooves on it.
If I revive the Denon/VPI/Acos combo that means I have three tables, and the top of my audio rack gets very crowded. That is something I had hoped to avoid when I decided to part out the DP 75, with the plan of holding pat at two turntables. But as I said I love turntables, and there currently is one kind of rare bird out there on the used market that is calling to me. A sirens song I am trying to resist, but its been very hard. Yes its a belt drive, but its an iconic table, looks to be in perfect condition, and redefined what analog playback was in the late 80's and early 90's. I shouldn't buy it, but I should because like the SP 10 MK II I have its in perfect condition and hard to find.
So that is this swines story.
Cheers
Mister Pig
My venture into direct drives was a fun one, and my time with the Denon DP 75 and a Technics SP 10 MK II were fascinating. From my perspective, I believe the differences between the two drive units and their contribution to the overall sound is for "practical" purposes, well darn near identical. As far as how music is presented, I hear essentially twins in terms of drive units, with the arm making more of a difference, and this is with running the same cartridge.
What this means though is the DO 75 is a heck of a deal if you can get a good one. Because they can be had for under $800, and a well used SP 10 MK II from a commercial station sells for about $1200 these days.
And that was the driving factor for me keeping my SP 10 MK II over the DP 75. My SP 10 MK II came from Japan, and from the home of a Japanese audiophile rather than a commercial radio station. The condition is as perfect as an SP 10 can be, it looks like as new condition, as there is not a mark, ding, of smudge on it. I kept it because of the rarity of having a SP 10 MK II in this condition, I doubt you will find even a handful of these that have been so well cared for. Now sound wise, the DP 75 and it are so very close, its just splitting hairs.
Now I still have my VPI plinth, and its drilled for the Acos GST 9801 arm that a good friend just recently serviced. I figured the plinth would have sold easily, but to be honest its still here. If it stays around long enough and I come across another DP 75, or even a DP 80 I may very well put it back together. I would like to improve the spring system in it, and that might be worth experimenting with.
My problem is I love turntables. LOL. I bought a Sota Star Sapphire as a proof of concept purchase, and I put a SME V on it. That is a great table! However the thrust plate was damaged and so I sent the platter back to Sota for service, and in the process of it, decided to order the new Sota Gen 6 Cosmos with the Eclipse package. I am still waiting for it, and I suspect its going to be awhile before I get my hooves on it.
If I revive the Denon/VPI/Acos combo that means I have three tables, and the top of my audio rack gets very crowded. That is something I had hoped to avoid when I decided to part out the DP 75, with the plan of holding pat at two turntables. But as I said I love turntables, and there currently is one kind of rare bird out there on the used market that is calling to me. A sirens song I am trying to resist, but its been very hard. Yes its a belt drive, but its an iconic table, looks to be in perfect condition, and redefined what analog playback was in the late 80's and early 90's. I shouldn't buy it, but I should because like the SP 10 MK II I have its in perfect condition and hard to find.
So that is this swines story.
Cheers
Mister Pig
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Could not agree more about one's appetite for fine TT/TAs. Am in a similar mental quandary about putting together my new rack to fit two or three TTs. I'm leaning towards two as it will limit the # of TTs, which is something I need some help with.
srs735
Super Member
Absolutely no offense taken. I should have mentioned that the armboard is temporary. I need to make a new armboard and I will probably this fall. Most of my tools are at the vacation house on the coast, 390 miles away. I bought the DP-6700 about 6 years ago. It had a Denon DA-307 arm ot it. I've tried a few arms on the stock table incuding an Acos GST-801and each change brought something slightly different sonically.
Anyway, I realized I was out of armboards. That armboard is what arrived with the table, drilled out for the DA-307 and I was able to rotate it 180 degrees and use it.
If this plinth had been larger I might have installed a Sony PUA-1600L. I do have another, larger plinth with the DP-6700 motor. It has 2 armboards so I plan on installing the Sony PUA-1600L on the right side and the Acos Lustre on the back side
@fiddlefye your Audiocraft AC-400C looks stunning. If it sounds half as good as it looks it's a keeper
I was trying to figure out what stain to use on my plinth and had been considering a cherry or black walnut. However the rosewood plinth @Legrace has, might be the direction I go
Legrace
Super Member
I had intended to turn mine around as well.The plan was just to put new veneer and mount the Reed to the back side solid area. Until I noted that on the 110 plinth the armboard fits only one way, at least with respect to the mounting screws orientation. And of course the Reed overlapped the old hole. So I had to think about how to fill it in to be able to solidly secure the arm base. A wooden dowel piece did nicely.
Since I have plinths on the brain I also just noticed that the DK100 plinth shared in post #10 has an intricate cut out where the rear of the drive resides. Mine does not have this. Trivia overload.
Since I have plinths on the brain I also just noticed that the DK100 plinth shared in post #10 has an intricate cut out where the rear of the drive resides. Mine does not have this. Trivia overload.
Nice to hear from Mr Pig and his experience with the DP-75, not an easy choice when you have to choose between such great tables. For those that don't own a DP-75/80 and feel priced out, the prior DP-6000/7000 series is nothing to sneeze at, the DP-6000 was introduced at the same time as the Technics SP-10Mk2 in 1975 I believe, intended for both professional use in broadcast/recording along with the high end consumer market. If you compare with what new gets you today at the same price point I'd consider the DP-6000/7000 a bargain.
The Audiocraft does sound very good and yes, I think it looks the part where it is. The one drawback to the arm is that being a free-range unipivot in spite of taking a SME-type shell it isn't exactly a quick-change operation. It not only has a whole lot of parameters that can be adjusted, but each and every one of them must be dealt with. Adjust one and it changes the rest so it is a bit of a long rodeo from start to finish. Once set up it is nicely stable and I haven't had to touch a thing since I finally got it right. I do suspect I'd be rather quicker the next time around, plus I think part of what made things a moving target initially was that the arm was essentially NOS, things kind of broke in a bit and the damping fluid took its sweet time in completely settling as well.
bimasta
Addicted Member
As I don't use a plinth, I forgot...
I have Denon's original template for the cut-out. My DP-80 came with all associated documents. It's not a sketch, it's a precise engineering diagram at 1:1 scale. "Intricate", as Legrace describes it. I think it was intended for radio stations: lay it flat on the console and trace through it, then cut. Easy with a saber-saw (jigsaw) — unless you're making a plinth from slate or a meteorite.
If it's of use to anyone, I can dupe it. It will have to be a photo, scaled down. But the correct dimensions/
distances are on the template — it's easy to calculate the % enlargement. I've printed a few arm-mount templates and protractors and the print-outs are exact.
Let me know. It'll take some time. I must find the folder, and the time, and set up to shoot it so there's no parallax or spherical distortion; not difficult, but not a speedy process.
I don't need it, but it sounds like a very worthy thing to do!
If you are on Vinyl Engine you can download the DP80 plinth cutout template in .pdf.
https://www.vinylengine.com/library/denon/dp-80.shtml
https://www.vinylengine.com/library/denon/dp-80.shtml
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bimasta
Addicted Member
Not that bad. A puzzle with only two pieces, with straight sides and lines that line-up. It'll fit on two sheets of 81/2 x 11, with the fat part (the controls in front) centered on the 11" seam. If your printer is 11 x 17, one sheet.
bichitus
Active Member
Hi, all members, I humbly want to contribute in this thread with my turntable. Is a Denon DP-75 with a Denon plinth DK-110, comes with a SME 3009 S2 improved and Denon cartridge model DL-103D. I have the original armboard but I made another one to SME tonearm and I need veneer it but meanwhile it stays like this. Regards.
bimasta
Addicted Member
I love that arm. As long as I've been in this, maybe 30 years, I always seem to have one, maybe 3 or 4 in total. If all my fancier arms disappeared, I'd still be happy. With minor mods to increase the mass, and loading on the knife-edge bearing, I've used low-compliance MCs with great success. Checking current used prices online prove its enduring value despite the decades. And you have the detachable headhsell — mine is fixed, I have to change that.
As for the Denon, 'nuff said already on this thread. You have a great vinyl rig. Beautifying the plinth can wait: it won't improve the music — except for the psychological effect, which will improve your love of the music.
As for the Denon, 'nuff said already on this thread. You have a great vinyl rig. Beautifying the plinth can wait: it won't improve the music — except for the psychological effect, which will improve your love of the music.
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bimasta
Addicted Member
Suspense, and the slow reveal, while the world wonders What turntable can it be? — your narrative MO. I a voyd guesswork, I'm not an oracle, I'm not even tempted to try.
Mister Pig
Pigamus Maximus
No not a Voyd. Heck I doubt I buy it, as I dont need a third table. But its a Well Tempered Reference. The ones offered up often have a bit of damage to the Corian style plinth, but this one looks perfect. But I doubt it is the equal of a Gen 6 Cosmos and SME V, so I have a hard time justifying buying it. Sure is tempting though.
Cheers
Mister Pig