Simple solution -- chips have no place in a turntable that's "built for the ages". AC synchronous motor (or a washing machine motor) and belt or rim (idler) drive gets the job done.
There
is such a thing as too much technology...
The day that any standard production washing machine motor --no matter how much you tweak it-- can remotely approach the rotational speed stability of those top-end Japanese DD TTs, I'll drink a quart of motor oil! [Um, speaking figurately, not literally!
]
No unobtanium chips in my Thorens TD160S...
Great post Arkay
Thanks. It was a fairly brief conversation, since I had to cut it short to go to work, but it gave me a lot of food for thought. Of course, I've known this all along, in theory. I know that ANYTHING with chips and digital technology in it, has a ticking-down time clock in it, and WILL "die", because of the economics of chip technology over time.
But I somehow think of DD TTs as things that can be kept going for a long, long time. Generally, EXCEPT for the chip problems, they could outlast even many belt drive TTs, as their bearings are usually subject to much less friction and wear. Many never need lubrication, or only the tiniest drop every ten years or so. Other components, like resistors or capacitors, aren't going to become unobtanium within the foreseeable future. BUT I hadn't given much thought to the fact that there are also TWO IC chips in each of these, and those eventually (of course) will fail, and that some of them are already approaching the time when they quit, and spares/replacements may be soon or already unavailable.
Since these TTs were produced in relatively few numbers and usually sold ONLY in Japan, and some of them were discontinued --and the companies got out of hi-fi completely-- soon after they were made, because CDs, LDs and home theater became the "big thing", the number of chips made was (therefore) not huge.
Understand that we will not always have the opportunity to use these old DD tables. Everything that is born will die, everything that is put together will come apart, and everything that appears will disappear. Their time is limited; it is certain that these electronics will come to an end, but we do not know when. It is of the greatest value to recognize the opportunity that we have now and desire to take advantage of it.
:yes:
OF course, this is wisdom that applies to all things.
Buddhism teaches this.
Tao encompasses this.
But it doesn't mean that we cannot hope that our favorite DD turntables last a bit longer, even if in a spiritual sense this might be construed as a form of "weakness" or "room for further growth".
Why would you toss the entire TT for a motor failure? Great plinth, platter, arm? Somebody with more time than sense could come up with someway to make the record rotate.
Of course, if the plinth is good, one would retain it. Ditto for the arm. But the motor? Don't forget that in a DD TT, the platter IS, essentially, the rotor of the motor. You wouldn't want to put a belt-drive on it and drive the motor, so to speak. Of course, some (many good) DD platters use a sub-platter rotor to which the outer LP platter is fitted. In this case, you could recycle the outer platter. Rest assured that Tommy DID recycle anything worth recycling from those TTs, such as tonearms. But otherwise, they'd probably only be useful as parts donors for other same (or close) model TTs.
