Yamaha GT-2000 Turntable Social Group

[chobochobo]

As an aside, I was doing some tidying and got out my LP12 from the 1980s, and changed the old Valhalla board to a Hercules II. It's odd going back to the Linn with it's bouncy platter and arm, saying nothing about the time it takes to get up to speed. But it doesn't sound half bad, even though it's running through a cheap Chinese Little Bear T8 phono stage. I would use the phono stage on my amp, but the cables don't quite reach.

Of course, it helps that I'm 'testing' with one of favourite pieces of music - Schubert String Quintet (nonTrout) D956.

 

[brunomarcs]

One thing not mentioned in the pursuit of an aftermarket platter, get yourself a nice phono pre, a base, footers. A nice cart and cables before you purchase a platter. Then the platter would be the icing on the cake and it would then do your analog justice. The last step! I personally don't think spending the money on a platter first would be the way to go!

 

[dinoTEX]

Reached out to Artisan Fidelity about platter pricing. He responded that a one-off would cost $$$$ and gave me the contact information of a few other people who have inquired about it to see if I felt like arranging a group buy. I figure those people are likely also on here. I wonder what the per-piece cost would drop down to if we could somehow arrange to purchase, say, six of them. If it's much closer to half the price he quoted me, I'd be interested in doing the legwork.

Also, I received an email saying EMT cartridges have shown up stateside once again. Has anyone tried one on theirs? They look real cute.

 

[brunomarcs]

I would source the material for a platter locally like I did. 400 bucks raw stainless in a blank at the correct thickness and diameter and find a local experienced maybe retired machinist to do the work.

Probably for around 1500 for a one ought job, labor and materials. You can give him your platter and spindle when the time comes. No shipping fees added and you can check on your work.

I haven't ever seen or heard of a bad machinist other than the one here of which the spindle was loose. I mean come on man, your gonna build a beautiful disc and the most important aspect of it is the arbor? And it's a bad fit? I believe it could've been repaired myself. Some of these stainless blanks will have holes in them upon casting and the machinist welds them.

I never followed through with mine as mentioned previously.

 

[Mark B]

One thing not mentioned in the pursuit of an aftermarket platter, get yourself a nice phono pre, a base, footers. A nice cart and cables before you purchase a platter. Then the platter would be the icing on the cake and it would then do your analog justice. The last step! I personally don't think spending the money on a platter first would be the way to go!

It's not necessary to have a several thousand dollar cartridge & phono stage in order to reap the sonic benefits of the heavy platter. Like the YOP-1, a heavy platter is an upgrade of the base turntable.

 

[Mark B]

I would source the material for a platter locally like I did. 400 bucks raw stainless in a blank at the correct thickness and diameter and find a local experienced maybe retired machinist to do the work.

Probably for around 1500 for a one ought job, labor and materials. You can give him your platter and spindle when the time comes. No shipping fees added and you can check on your work.

I haven't ever seen or heard of a bad machinist other than the one here of which the spindle was loose. I mean come on man, your gonna build a beautiful disc and the most important aspect of it is the arbor? And it's a bad fit? I believe it could've been repaired myself. Some of these stainless blanks will have holes in them upon casting and the machinist welds them.

I never followed through with mine as mentioned previously.

It does boggle the mind.

I gave him a chance. I shipped it back to him with the stock platter and he still failed to get it right.

 

[Mark B]

Reached out to Artisan Fidelity about platter pricing. He responded that a one-off would cost $$$$ and gave me the contact information of a few other people who have inquired about it to see if I felt like arranging a group buy. I figure those people are likely also on here. I wonder what the per-piece cost would drop down to if we could somehow arrange to purchase, say, six of them. If it's much closer to half the price he quoted me, I'd be interested in doing the legwork.

Also, I received an email saying EMT cartridges have shown up stateside once again. Has anyone tried one on theirs? They look real cute.

I got quotes from A.F. for orders of from 1 to 5 platters, There is a massive reduction in per unit cost for 2 or more platters, and smaller but not insignificant discounts in per unit cost for 3, 4 and 5 platters.

 

[brunomarcs]

Hi. Here's an old picture of my cocobolo GT2000L.

How did I miss the coccobolo plinth. That's nice till I read what happened. I hope they covered the damages? Makes me want to re do mine, again.

 

[Mark B]

I'm glad that you posted your impression. It gives us an understanding of possible pathways an owner might elect to pursue.

Sorry to be inquisitive: Is the YOP or equivalent mandatory in accessing the benefit of the heavier platters?

Mark you stand out by finding at least one alternative to the cruel price gouging on original YGT platters. I know that this is the first crack in the wall. Hole actually. One more fabricator, more so if they bring it in at a somewhat more affordable point, and the tyranny of the second hand supply scarcity is sidestepped.

I'd imagine with the ability to approach Artisan and hopefully others, that this opportunity might even put a YGT aftermarket platter in the hands of Japanese GT 2000 series owners who otherwise couldn't ever obtain the item.

I applaud your efforts Mark.

A YOP-1 isn't required to use & realize the benefits of the heavy platter. Given the affordability of a YOP-1 clone and the improvement it makes it stretches credulity that one would use a heavy platter while forgoing the benefits of a YOP-1.

Would I not be misinterpreting that statement to translate that: The heavy platter provides a sonic platform which is a appreciable with capable ancillaries because it educes a previously unavailable level of performance from them? A system wide upgrade provided by the heavier platter, simply due to the fact that the source has been qualitatively affected?

I consider the heavy platter to be an upgrade of the basic GT-2000 which benefits every possible permutation of isolation, tonearm, cartridge & phono stage that comprise the vinyl system.

 

[Mark B]

Would I not be misinterpreting that statement to translate that: The heavy platter provides a sonic platform which is a appreciable with capable ancillaries because it educes a previously unavailable level of performance from them? A system wide upgrade provided by the heavier platter, simply due to the fact that the source has been qualitatively affected?

You correctly interpret my meaning. The heavy platter, the plinth, the motor and YOP-1 are integral parts of the turntable platform and combine to support ancillary parts of the vinyl system such as the tonearm and cartridge.

 

[chobochobo]

Where's the best place to get a YOP-1 clone then please?

 

[chobochobo]

Cheers. My mistake I thought everything GT2000 was here!

 

[Mark B]

No problem.

This was envisaged by me to never amount to more than that one first post. It's a thread which only ever wanted to be one post long. It was a place to post entries more than 1000 characters long. The now defunct social group for GT 2000 series owners started by and in the name of Arkay was limited to 1000 character posts.

I started this thread to take the links across to Arkays social group. If you look in the first post in this thread you'll find a mention of the YOP thread along with the link I just provided.

This thread has evolved and taken on a larger role as the goto place for GT-2000 owners to share information. I think that's a very good thing.

@chobochobo, if you haven't already done so I recommend signing up with one of the Japanese proxy buying services. They provide access to Yahoo! Japan and packing & shipping services. I use DEJAPAN.

 

[808_state]

Cheers. My mistake I thought everything GT2000 was here!

Not quite but darn close.

 

[chobochobo]

@Mark B, thanks but the last thing I need is easier access to Japanese shopping LOL. One of the best things to happen to me was getting kicked off hifido's record shop, I could have easily spent thousands there.

 

[jblnut]

Curious what one has to do to get 'kicked off hifido's record shop ....

;-)

Jblnut

 

[BilboBaggins]

Curious what one has to do to get 'kicked off hifido's record shop ....

;-)

Jblnut

I was wondering the same thing.

 

[chobochobo]

LOL. I'd already bought a few items with hifido (probably more than 10k USD) as I was getting back into 'hifi', dealing with Azuma - he had the knack of always being on his day off (Wednesday) whenever I saw something I wanted, but all was good or so I thought. They had what I wanted and pack really well as everyone knows, and I actually spent a lot of time browsing their site. Last year (or maybe even 2 years ago), they closed their physical record shop I think, and they had online sales. I put in an order of over 1000usd (made up of 20-50usd lots, so quite a lot of vinyl). Just after that first order, I saw a Callas lot that I really wanted and so that ended up putting in a smaller second order.

The vinyl side is dealt with by someone else. It seems that there's a rule that they won't discuss/ acknowledge a second order unless you pay for the first order. As I really wanted the Callas lot, I asked them for acknowledgement at least that it was being held for me. I think things were super hectic their end, and it took almost a week for them to acknowledge even the first order, but they wouldn't answer my questions about the second order. It came to a head when they basically said they wouldn't discuss other orders and gave me an ultimatum to pay up or else. In the end they cancelled my order and 'blacklisted' me from their record store.

I think it was partly due to a communication problem, partly due to them being really busy and partly because I didn't really understand their 'policy'. Perhaps I was being 'difficult' but I really didn't think so. Perhaps their policy is clear to other hifido customers here, but not to me. I didn't see why they couldn't at least tell me if my second order with the Callas lot would be processed after paying for the first order. In the end, it was actually good to break the habit of always looking on their site for stuff to buy - my last purchase from them was a Technics RS1500 last year but I was actually looking for a decent RTR and wasn't having much luck on the auction site. There's the story.

 

[808_state]

LOL. I'd already bought a few items with hifido (probably more than 10k USD) as I was getting back into 'hifi', dealing with Azuma - he had the knack of always being on his day off (Wednesday) whenever I saw something I wanted, but all was good or so I thought. They had what I wanted and pack really well as everyone knows, and I actually spent a lot of time browsing their site. Last year (or maybe even 2 years ago), they closed their physical record shop I think, and they had online sales. I put in an order of over 1000usd (made up of 20-50usd lots, so quite a lot of vinyl). Just after that first order, I saw a Callas lot that I really wanted and so that ended up putting in a smaller second order.

The vinyl side is dealt with by someone else. It seems that there's a rule that they won't discuss/ acknowledge a second order unless you pay for the first order. As I really wanted the Callas lot, I asked them for acknowledgement at least that it was being held for me. I think things were super hectic their end, and it took almost a week for them to acknowledge even the first order, but they wouldn't answer my questions about the second order. It came to a head when they basically said they wouldn't discuss other orders and gave me an ultimatum to pay up or else. In the end they cancelled my order and 'blacklisted' me from their record store.

I think it was partly due to a communication problem, partly due to them being really busy and partly because I didn't really understand their 'policy'. Perhaps I was being 'difficult' but I really didn't think so. Perhaps their policy is clear to other hifido customers here, but not to me. I didn't see why they couldn't at least tell me if my second order with the Callas lot would be processed after paying for the first order. In the end, it was actually good to break the habit of always looking on their site for stuff to buy - my last purchase from them was a Technics RS1500 last year but I was actually looking for a decent RTR and wasn't having much luck on the auction site. There's the story.

That's what happens when you color outside the lines.

 

[chobochobo]

Very good. Except there were no obvious lines. I didn't know about the 'rule' until Azuma explained it afterwards.