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JVC QL-?? owners thread

Well UPS tracking says to expect it Monday! Seems the seller has a very clean dust cover as well so I just payed for that as well. All in I picked it up for a really great price.
I think I'm going to leave the TT 61 motor in the plinth and give it a try. I found a Japanese manual on the internet and it looks like it has a frequency generator incorporated in the motor so I think it will perform admirably well.
What other specs I could gleam from the Japanese text is the 0.03 WRMS, + or - 2.5% speed control and S/N of 60dB (JIS) or 70dB (Din-B) so it doesn't look shabby at all.
I'm sure I will be the only one in the state with a TT 61 table motor, they sure seem to be rare.

BillWojo
 
2B8C79EF-C795-40F0-AA0E-7B5C4F7B267D.png Ive seen a Few of them on buyee, this one is cheap enough with a busted plinth. There passed over for the other models. If you could get one locally I say go for it. Is it the precursor to the others?
 
brunomarcs said:
Is it the precursor to the others?
Click to expand...

I have no idea it it was an earlier model but I suspect it was. There is very little info on this motor. I'm thinking it was a Japanese only model as the few that come up for sale are mostly from there.
If anyone has info on it, please share.

BillWojo
 
desertrat, my thoughts exactly. He even states that the vacuum platter mat has a crack in it but works ok. Sure, it's over 35 years old so you can expect the mat to be deteriorating but there are no replacements available and never will be.
As a vacuum platter it's time is going to be short lived. A new rubber mold to duplicate it would be very expensive.

BillWojo
 
They always try to get more for something like this on eBay. He might get 800 at best. Buyee had one in a Victor plinth with the victor tonearm Bill had mentioned as being a real nice arm, the plinth and the cover, the whole unit was mint and it sold for around 1300 if I remember correctly. It was well cared for.
 
Imo I don’t think anyone should ever spend that much money on anything lower than the QL-7 or actually about 1/2 that 800. If you take your time, look around, subscribe here maybe look for one and you can get a better deal.

I’m seeing them with good or great carts all ready to go for about the same as a Technics SL-1200 mk2. I don’t think it’s worth it to spend more as now other tables with better performance come into play.
 
The fellow on Audiogon that turned me on to the two arm Victor plinth turned out to be only a little over an hour away. We wound up chatting on the phone and next thing you know were trading some surplus gear to each other. So I drove up there today and after business was conducted we sat down and listened to his Victor two arm plinth with the TT81 motor. The arm on the right side is a Russian Blackbird, 12.5" long, a beatifully crafted monster. It has a Shure V15 cart with a SAS stylus. The rear arm is a Lustre 801 with a Grado mono cart. Started listening in stereo with the long arm, Jazz, and it was awesome. After a while he put on some old mono Jazz records and I was surprised at how good it sounded, there is something about those old mono Jazz records that is so right.
I can tell that I'm going to be delighted with my new Victor plinth, I just need to get my arm strategy all sorted out. I'd really like a 10" Victor UA-7082 on the right side, if I can find a good one reasonable. On the back I'm thinking about a Audio Technica ATP-12T I picked up a few months back on BT. I need to find a DIN to RCA cable and a Jelco JL-45 arm lifter for it.
Oh, after listening to the TT he fired up his Teac 2000 R to R and played a Jazz tape. I can see why folks fall down THAT rabbit hole. Crazy good.
All in all a good day. Can't wait to start on my project now.

BillWojo
 
That sounded like an amazing day Bill, I’m glad for you and envious, there isn’t anyone close to me to go see their collection of tt and arms. Especially glad to hear it was a Tt81 of which I still don’t have mine yet. Looking for slate locally to no avail for the plinth, I was told to use soapstone.
 
@brunomarcs, where are you located? States such as Pennsylvania have mountains of slate. Search around the different counter top suppliers. Also old pool tables have slate under the felt, usually 3 pieces to make it easy to handle.
The best though is to find someone that has experience working with it, even if it means ordering it out of state.
I imagine your TT 81 should be coming soon, keep us posted.

Billwojo
 
I’m north of New Orleans 25 miles or so, been in touch with 3 countertop guys, no slate. Have about 20 more places to search. One told me I’ll have to get something shipped to me from Pennsylvania like you mentioned.
 
Maybe a few calls to the slate belt area of PA to some counter top folks could yield some results. Google PA slate belt to find the area. Since material cost would be low and the know how to manufacture slate products would be high you may be able to get a surprisingly good deal. Shipping really shouldn't be a major cost.
A phone call would get you some good information as what they could do. I assume the shape would be cut with a waterjet. Things I would want to know is can they drill holes so you could epoxy threaded inserts for feet and such? Can they route a step in the arm cutout area to flush mount an armboard? Or is an armboard something that must be top mounted?
Also how can they finish the exposed edges and what will the top surface look like? Lot's to find out before you depart with the cash.
Let me know what you find out if you go this direction. If you do, pictures of the finished table are a must. I think it will look awesome.

BillWojo
 
Yep Bill I asked the guy who does granite countertops and he’s said all of this could be done using slate, I sent him pics of what I’m asking. He Said he’s only done a handful of slate jobs though, doesn’t seem like it garnishes the attention of granite. Those ready made slate plinths for sale that fit that transcription table are astronomically high, I’m not gonna pay anywhere near that. Diy in mind.
 
well, I've joined the JVC club. got a new turntable! it arrived yesterday. fully recapped and restored semi auto JVC QL-Y5. Sounds absolutely incredible. It's a big upgrade from my full auto Kenwood KD-5077, which is starting to get weird. The JVC sounds quite a bit better. Now that I have a new table, I can take some time to pull the Kenwood apart again and see if I can finally resolve some issues with it...
y4mA7d-WQmsXuxzUxai0vdxQEFTD47LbX7e3TgJe_uwD13RhHq7mjzAPta1SfWfCp-XOQwWS1UACMhg4QzBfJg-5AsJeUiUEUryi1M1BZBDHVRioZWR_gXwO2kGnznBQxf41FzAiExQ6Mbm7DXW_t_4RVGWz89RtTiSMV9mbfRDlhdA7Yb-DLcNTquPQ-8s7OnU5VmDM7GxSYwGhUsrQNv4Cg

y4mHG_-3lj4eoH-crSTKq6AqEmNE9D_BBQoDuAxHgkVD-xIrVLcJ2JgUoCxn4WbKtGfQznholFq0qUEdRaFVGWPbOh9himkxnZCFJ5xW9lkTik8G8drUO3XgLMhbBRc5_vbJMQxSyJc21LhycOI_vnE4f2qr_fcORN4JHQOBpEjJdrOeUgByCxLjZ6pZHWus_JVkr12AtgXCZICrTyJwoJ2Rw

picked it up from https://www.youtube.com/user/captmark09, who sells Japanese direct drives he recaps and restores himself. He specializes in Denon's, Kenwood's, and JVC's primarily... If you're in the market, I highly recommend him. His service was above and beyond what you might expect.
 
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There's a member on Audiogon by the name of lewm can't recall what part of the US he lives in
but he had a slate plinth cut and built seems was mostly a DIY affair.

Having gone through the process and described as successful might be worth looking into
he's mentioned it on occasion and might be further info that he's posted or a PM if you participate
on the forum.
 
That's an interesting forum, I am a member also. lewm is very active there, that would be a good idea. Check out the thread
??? Wood Plinths: Layers: 7/2/1 ? Wood Type: Solid or Veneer or Vinyl Wrap wood look ? for a discussion on wood plinths as used by manufactures such as Victor, Denon, etc.

BillWojo
 
very nice deck @isotopesope. I find the QL-Y3/5(F) very beautiful, I almost went with that actually.

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In other news, I have received my NOS spare stylus for the stock MC-100 II EB.
I was hoping there would be documentation that denotes the cut of the diamond, but alas there isn't. Oh well
 
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I’ve also joined the JVC revolution.
Picked up a QL-7 in near pristine condition wit an audio technica signet tk7su cartridge and tkn3 shibata Stylus. I’ve had a SL-1210 mk2 for a while but this setup is wonderful.
needs new shoes so any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
BT
 

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