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Victor Quartz Lock QL - Y5 turntable... Japanese

M

Matty Red Sox

New Member
Hi - I was just given a Japanese Victor (JVC now) Quartz Lock QI-Y5 (I believe that it should be QL-Y5 - but it was miswritten on the actual turntable) turntable.

My dad worked in Japan during the mid 80's to the early 90's and picked this turntable up and it is now mine. I know little about it and it's set up and I am asking for any help or comment.

Some info - it has what is listed as "Electro Servo Operation", the tone arm is a strange combination of an "s" shape into a box that says "Electro Dynamic Servo Tone Arm".

The base is a nice polished Rosewood, it's a direct drive, with a heavy platter. All of the controls are located in the front, and there is a cloudy dust cover.

I will post info about the cartridge on another thread - but it is an AT-MS11 (audio technica).

I welcome any info from how to set this up, to it's value, to advice, to concerns that I should have... it's been in a garage for probably a decade :worried:, but it looks okay, I will hook it up on Monday evening...

I was originally led to believe that it was a Thorens, but my dad realized that when he got it used, someone must have told him that it was comparable to a Thorens...
 
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Is it a QL-Y5F? Does it look like the attached picture? I am on the lookout for this machine.
 

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That is a very nice turntable!

I don't have specs, but I've seen it before. JVC/Victor turntables remain mostly "under the radar", but they made a few quite good ones. The BEST ones they made are probably these (showing both Japanese-market and export-equivalent model designations):

tt101 (QL-10),
tt81 (QL-8)
tt71 (QL-7 und QL-A7)

Yours is just below these, but still of similar type and very good/high quality, compared to many 'tables. Congratulations on a worthy catch! :thmbsp:
 
I have been over at vinyl engine! I appreciate the help folks! Unfortunately my turntable is "slightly" different than the ones shown... it appears not to have the record size buttons, and the auto repeat... but I am happy about this actually, the more mechanics, the more than can go wrong (I have a Technics SLB-100 fully manual for this reason - but I believe that this Victor is a step in the right direction sound wise).
 
The slight differences shouldn't matter much. The key takeaways from the manual are set up, which should be pretty consistent across the JVC models in this lineup, and that's the info you were looking for to start with.

The electronic servo control is a way to electronically overcome variables in sound reproduction that can be impacted vibrations/resonances that can occur both as a result of playing an imperfect disk, but also external vibrations. The electronic damping attempts to maintain consistent contact with the groove and maintain the constant resonant frequency in the tonearm. Cool idea if it works, and most who had this series of tables thought that it worked fairly well.
 
Damn... it sounds incredibly good. I still have to pick up a new stylus, but this one really doesn't sound bad... actually the whole rig sounds great... what an upgrade from the Technics SLB-100 that I'd been using.


I guess now I want better speakers... :scratch2:
 
whell said:
The electronic servo control is a way to electronically overcome variables in sound reproduction that can be impacted vibrations/resonances that can occur both as a result of playing an imperfect disk, but also external vibrations. The electronic damping attempts to maintain consistent contact with the groove and maintain the constant resonant frequency in the tonearm. Cool idea if it works, and most who had this series of tables thought that it worked fairly well.
Click to expand...


I tried out a really warped copy of Born to Run for the trial run and stylus check... it held on, even as I could watch it rise up and down from across the room and I never heard anything that didn't sound as smooth as a CD speedwise, pitchwise or anything of that sort... and then there was that warm sound that no CD would ever have... no matter how good the mix.
 
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