[tubes]

SSportclay, which upgrades have you made to the 1200 and which mods would you say have given the biggest improvement in SQ. The 160 has some very appealing qualities but is far from being where I want it to be, on the downside I'm hearing a bit of a hardness almost shrillness to the upper mids and highs which may go away with upgrades to the arm and plinth or at least an arm rewire. I just don't know how far I want to go with this table and may just stick with the 1200 and some mods, I have a Jelco SA250-ST arm ready to go on some table, which one I don't know yet. I also have a Systemdek IIX and Rek O Kut B12GH idler drive that I need to finish off with a new plinth and new rubbler on the idler. I have too many tables and need to thin the herd and pay attention to just maybe 2 of them.

 

[ssportclay]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tubes /img/forum/go_quote.gif SSportclay, which upgrades have you made to the 1200 and which mods would you say have given the biggest improvement in SQ. The 160 has some very appealing qualities but is far from being where I want it to be, on the downside I'm hearing a bit of a hardness almost shrillness to the upper mids and highs which may go away with upgrades to the arm and plinth or at least an arm rewire. I just don't know how far I want to go with this table and may just stick with the 1200 and some mods, I have a Jelco SA250-ST arm ready to go on some table, which one I don't know yet. I also have a Systemdek IIX and Rek O Kut B12GH idler drive that I need to finish off with a new plinth and new rubbler on the idler. I have too many tables and need to thin the herd and pay attention to just maybe 2 of them.

I have the power supply, strobe disabler, record clamp, and Origin Live Silver tonearm. This table sounded a bit hard and shrill with the AT120E when it was stock new. The new tonearm completely eliminated the problem. A different cartridge more compatible with the stock tonearm would have also helped. Since you already have a Jelco SA250-ST tonearm, you might as well install it and find out how shrill the stock tonearm actually is. I think the Technics is easily competitive with the rest of your pretty good turntables and its certainly the most user friendly of the lot.

 

[memepool]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tubes /img/forum/go_quote.gif The 160 has some very appealing qualities but is far from being where I want it to be, on the downside I'm hearing a bit of a hardness almost shrillness to the upper mids and highs which may go away with upgrades to the arm and plinth or at least an arm rewire. I just don't know how far I want to go with this table and may just stick with the 1200 and some mods, I have a Jelco SA250-ST arm ready to go on some table, which one I don't know yet. I also have a Systemdek IIX and Rek O Kut B12GH idler drive that I need to finish off with a new plinth and new rubbler on the idler. I have too many tables and need to thin the herd and pay attention to just maybe 2 of them.

An enviable set of problems....

If I were you as a first step I would get hold of some armboards and try out the Jelco on your various different tables to see for yourself how much difference the tonearm makes to the sound. Soundsupports sell good quality aluminium mounting plates pre-cut for the Jelco for both the SL1200 and TD160 for reasonable money.

In the longer term if you wanted to get rid of some of your turntables I would first look at comparing the Systemdek to the Thorens as they are both pretty similar suspended subchassis designs. The Thorens is more iconic but was built down to price whereas the Systemdek is a later more refined version from the same period of Scottish turntable design that gave rise to the Sondek, STD, Ariston etc...

Personally if I had to choose I'd take the Systemdek over the Thorens as it has a much better plinth, rather than going to the trouble of making a new plinth for the Thorens, and it also continues to be fully supported by Audionote so can be upgraded with less recourse to DIY.

If you wanted to keep both I'd opt for an SME 3009 S2 on the Thorens and use it just for classical music as it's a lovely combination.

I would certainly complete the upgrades to the ROK though as again idler drives when well set up have a sound all of their own which is something that any vinyl afficionado should experience. Plus if you have the space for a bigger plinth they can look really beautiful. like these