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JVC QL-A75, filling the void!

jimreeves

jimreeves

Poopy & Me
My JVC turntable has been spinning LPs faithfully for a while now, and I've had no complaint with its sound quality. But I have read several threads about filling in the voids within the plinth to improve performance and finally decided to give it a try.
The motor~platter assembly is held within a large aluminum casting that has no damping between its bottom and the pcb's, so I added 6 pounds of plasticine clay here.

75pcbs.jpg


I used some foam sheeting to separate the pcb's from the plasticine in case any oils might leech from the clay, which will end up above the pcb's once the table is righted.

The plinth itself is 3.5" tall and had two layers of .75" thick particleboard at the top. So there's still 1.5" of empty space below that with a .5" thick bottom board recessed flush with the bottom.
To fill that, I lined the particleboard with rubberized cloth tool tray liner, then added a 1" layer of HDPE polyethylene board scavenged from work.

JVClay1.jpg


Once that was in I added more tray liner and then added a .5" thick layer of particleboard I had left over from other projects, cut to fit.

JVClay2.jpg


One more layer of tray liner and the bottom board reattached along with the feet.

JVClay4.jpg


The end result is a very solid constrained layered plinth, the turntable now tips the scales at 42 pounds! According to the manual it started out at 30.9 pounds.

75-1.jpg


I haven't had time to listen critically yet, but I think the bass is tighter, more controlled. :scratch2:

Anyway, it was a fun project! :thmbsp:
 
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Nice deck, and your quick findings echo what happened when I did a similar thing to the underside of a Sonab 85s, better bass and more focused over all :thmbsp:
 
Great work! These are some of my favorite turntables. Vintage, yet somehow modern looking, and just all around great looking build quality.
 
Thanks fellas! Maybe I'm nuts, but I really enjoyed cutting up paper patterns for the layers and fashioning the materials to fit. There's definately more focus in the soundstage than before. :thmbsp:

Balifly said:
Have you done the same to your Luxman PD 277 yet ? :scratch2: :music:
Click to expand...

With the Luxman there was much less empty space, I filled in the voids with glued in layers of mdf between the pcb's. The difference wasn't as noticeable, but I was already impressed with the Luxman's focus.
 
jimreeves said:
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With the Luxman there was much less empty space, I filled in the voids with glued in layers of mdf between the pcb's. The difference wasn't as noticeable, but I was already impressed with the Luxman's focus.
Click to expand...

Good to know!

I would not want to spoil a good thing! :music:
 
As someone who is definitely not a "do-it-yourselfer" I am always fascinated by these kinds of posts. Nice work there. And that is a REALLY cool looking turntable.
 
Check the feet on these tables, on my Y5F the rubber in the OEM feet was hard as a rock. I put on Vibrapods and they helped a lot. I have some Dynamat left over from some speakers I did last year. I might try that in the plinth.
 
I have just finished covering the complete inside of a Technics SL-D2 with Dynamat, and yes it does make a significant difference, I have also fitted Sorbothane pads to the feet, I didn't expect a great improvement but was very surprised at the results.
 
Update to my above post, I have now added a high-quality RCA cable to the D2 and added Sorbothane rubber around the motor and under the transformer, I am also using an AT VM95ML cartridge, it is amazing that such a modestly priced turntable can sound so good.
 
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