Rek-O-Kut Rondine Jr. L-34 turntable with Empire 98 tonearm need a Plinth

[Panamafred]

Here's mine. Plinth was made from a cutout scrap of 2" slate from a Garrard 301. Enjoy the table. Good stuff.

Jim

Breadhead that is incredible! Notice a big improvement isolating the tonearm from the motor like that?

 

[corpblues]

Here's mine. Plinth was made from a cutout scrap of 2" slate from a Garrard 301. Enjoy the table. Good stuff.

Jim

Very nice! But way beyond my skill level.

I plan on building a plinth out of plywood. I’m not a woodworker but going to give it a try.

Looking for tips on how to glue and clamp 5-6 pieces of plywood together. Advice?

 

[bigbargain]

They were noisy as a freight train when new and the Empire tone arms with their troublesome head shell mounting platform were very undependable. You'd be much better off with an Empire 598 TT with an Shure SME 3009 tone arm. from the same period. The Rek-o-kut was used by small radio stations but they had a 50 or 60hz filter in the phono pre-amp before the signal ever went to the broadcast mixer.

I’ve never had that experience with any of my 3 ROK K33’s, but they’re the belt driven ones. As you might guess, I’m biased away from idlers because of the rumble.

 

[adnick]

I’ve never had that experience with any of my 3 ROK K33’s, but they’re the belt driven ones. As you might guess, I’m biased away from idlers because of the rumble.

Interesting because the quietest ROK produced was the Rondine Deluxe (B12H) -57dB
Plus it can be made much quieter with a heavy plinth, Delrin idlers and a plastic ball or thrust plate….


Original ROK ads: https://archive.org/details/RekOKutTurntablesDiscRecording1960REM24/mode/1up



VR
Andy

 

[bigbargain]

Thanks for that advert. I studied it a bit more and noticed all except the rondine delux used the same motor, with the “custom built hysteresis synchronous motor” in only the rondine deluxe, which gets the better s/n. All the others indicate a “ new design hysteresis synchronous motor” and when they do, the idlers are about the same as the belt driven ones. Also supporting the theory that its the motor is that the rondine with the induction motor is significantly worse than all the others. It appears idler vs belt does not make a difference, but a motor does.

i didn’t have to replace my belt to quiet it but on a rim drive, i would be surprised if someone wouldn’t have to replace/rebuild the idler to get it useable (at least that has been the case with rim drives i’ve been exposed to. No rondines, but i have spent some time around a lenco and a stanton rimdrive - which i still own mostly because that mag levitations is neat and I’m a sucker for unique)

and i really don’t have a reference back to my k-33h’s stock, so maybe if i went back, i wouldn’t be so happy.

 

[adnick]

Thanks for that advert. I studied it a bit more and noticed all except the rondine delux used the same motor, with the “custom built hysteresis synchronous motor” in only the rondine deluxe, which gets the better s/n. All the others indicate a “ new design hysteresis synchronous motor” and when they do, the idlers are about the same as the belt driven ones. Also supporting the theory that its the motor is that the rondine with the induction motor is significantly worse than all the others. It appears idler vs belt does not make a difference, but a motor does.

i didn’t have to replace my belt to quiet it but on a rim drive, i would be surprised if someone wouldn’t have to replace/rebuild the idler to get it useable (at least that has been the case with rim drives i’ve been exposed to. No rondines, but i have spent some time around a lenco and a stanton rimdrive - which i still own mostly because that mag levitations is neat and I’m a sucker for unique)

and i really don’t have a reference back to my k-33h’s stock, so maybe if i went back, i wouldn’t be so happy.

You missed the point, which I’ll assume wasn’t intentional…

You had stated “As you might guess, I’m biased away from idlers because of the rumble.”

My point is that an idler is the quietest table ROK built, and also using the same motor the top of the line belt drive and the basic Rondine idler have the same rating -53dB

Lowest rumble by ROK is an idler
Next tier of tables ROK sold, one belt, one idler have Equally Low Rumble

Replace the hollow box plinths that the idlers came with and those rumble figures will get even better…

Unfortunately that’s not the case with the belt drives, as you pointed out, they require a motor upgrade or some change to the motor mount system, but they can do better.

Your biased away from idlers because of rumble is unfounded, even with stock unmodified tables….

VR
Andy

 

[RobRoy]

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Some pictures.

Appears to be in extremely good condition. I have asked the seller to see if he can remove and provide me the table board to use as a template. Hopefully he can get it out of the console.

Have to say I was a bit surprised to get a box with all the pieces when I arrived to pick it up, instead of it still mounted on the table board in the first picture.

Hopefully this was a great find after I get a plinth built for it. It came with two headshells. Stylus look useable to my naked eye. Seems I bought another project.

That is truly beautiful! You don't need to be a pro woodworker to create a plinth base for that thing. It appears it already has a flat base as part of it, or you could use it as a template to cut up a piece of plywood, and after finishing it, bolt it to a simple wood base that you could also build yourself. If necessary it could be as simple as the wooden square that holds up the early AR-XA's. You could finish the wood or paint it. I have to confess that paint might look cool with that gold. But so would poplar or walnut.

I can tell you it is really not that complicated, and could be quite rewarding.

 

[FreaK]

Curious how this project has turned out.