[jsnyc]

you're right, kiseki doesn't exist. too bad. i distinctly remember how koetsu rosewoods were the standard of the time, so if you wanted an exotic japanese cartridge, that one would have been it. still, if peter can restore the right channel to its former glory, i'd be psyched. i called but he's out til wednesday. in fact, i'm wondering if i just shouldn't live with it out of balance and rebalance the level manually on the preamp.

 

[fran]

Before you commit $$ you need to just check out that it is indeed your cart where the fault lies.

Best option.... take your cart to someone elses setup and install it there and see do you still have an imbalance. If not, it ain't your cart.

Second: install a cart - any cart you know is ok - on your arm and listen, see if its ok. Again, you will know whether its your cart or not.

A rebuild is still gonna cost some $$ - soundsmith seem to have a very good rep so I'd listen to what they say. They mostly talk about retips because thats what goes wrong mostly - yours is an unusual situation.

Fran

 

[jsnyc]

fran,

yes, i've fantasized about this. unfortunately, none of my friends has a turntable (they think i'm nuts). and i don't know if you know the dealers in ny, but i'm willing to bet no one would particularly love to help me unless, of course, i bought a cartridge from them first and even then i'm not so sure (yeah, i'm talking about you, sound by singer). so i thought about buying a cheap grado as a test cartridge, but having trouble finding a low output mc.

 

[memepool]

Soundsmith with be able to fully test the output of your cart but I thought the main reason to rebuild was because you said the suspension was shot. He will also examine the tip under a powerful microscope to tell if it needs redoing.

If you want a LOMC as a test cart or standby then get a Denon DL103 which can be had for as little as 150USD if you check on ebay. William Thakker in Germany seems to have the cheapest Denon's for some reason, even cheaper than in Japan! I got one recently while my Supex was in for a re-tip and with a bit of judicious loading they can sound pretty damn good, especially with really old records.

I'd say it's less likely to be the arm wiring but obviously SME will service any arm they've ever made. Before you send it off though you can also test the external cables by getting hold of an tonearm interconnect. Most dealers will let you borrow them to test at home.

 

[jsnyc]

memepool,

yeah, i suspected the suspension was shot due to the age and the dessicating steam heat here in brooklyn. since this is gnawing at me, as you can tell, i unmounted the cartridge and examined it more closely. appears that my problem is that the cantilever is off-axis. hard to tell eyeballing the cartridge while it's on the arm. but when it's lying on its back, it's pretty evident. that seems like it would account for the channel imbalance.

so i'll call peter in the morning and talk to him about it. wonder if he'll charge less if he doesn't have to retip.

meantime, thanks so much for the thakker tip. does that dl103 sound warmish? i'm curious. i may go that route. or i may have to sacrifice that nakamichi dragon sitting unused on my shelf to ebay and put the proceeds towards a new cartridge fund which, curiously, seems to require the same care and feeding as my kids' tuition fund.

can't thank you guys enough.

 

[memepool]

If the cantilever is off axis then it's either been knocked, so the coils could have been disturbed, or the suspension is going. Either way it could easily cause the problems you are experiencing and I would send it off to get looked at. Peter isn't expensive for the level of work and skill involved and basically there are only a handful of people in the world who can really do this kind of thing properly. It's very much a dying art and I would personally get the cart retipped and fully serviced, it's well worth the money as it's a rare and highly sought after cart.

The DL-103 is a little bit of a cult item. It's very warm and old fashioned sounding as they havn't really changed the design since the '60s. There are many more modern sounding varients and lots of people who will modify it all over the world including Soundsmith. In stock form it's a little crude and lacking in resolution but very charismatic and musical. For the money it's hard to beat. A vintage Supex / Koetsu or Benz would be the nearest thing in terms of warmth and of course require rebuilding most of the time.
Most modern carts seem to have a treble peak to appeal to the ears of people weaned on digital, and of course cheaper MCs are always pretty harsh in this respect, which is why a lot of people are attracted to the DL-103.

I would hang on the Dragon if you can as well. I have a CR-7 which I bought almost 10 years ago and it's actually gone up in value by almost double. Top Nak's are becoming serious collectors items these days. If it needs a service the best people to talk to in your neck of the woods are Electronics Service labs in Connecticut. I got their idler tyre replacement for my deck a while back and although Nakamichi are thankfully still fully supported by B&W in England, these guys are the only people in the world offering that mod as a DIY option.

 

[jsnyc]

thanks, memepool.

just left a message for peter this morning.

the reason i'd sell the dragon is because, well, i also have a cr7a nak deck which is pretty pristine and, frankly, i prefer. i spoke to esl a few weeks ago about it, but i'm not looking to upgrade it, just make sure it works as it did when new. so i still may sell it.

the dl-103 sounds very compelling. i may pick one up, especially since you found it for me at half price.

best,
js

 

[memepool]

Apart from the fact that selling anything at the moment is going to be less profitable due to the economic climate, the Dragon is probably the easier one to sell as it's more iconic. I agree the CR7 is the better deck though if you had to choose between them.
ES labs are going to charge a fair amount to service either machine though as they will want to do a full service and set-up so I wouldn't bother unless you actually want to use it yourself. The idler tyre mod to the CR-7 is not really an upgrade insofar as it's sonics are concerned, rather it addresses a particular design flaw in the transport of various series of Naks like BR and CR which have this one tyre that wears out too quickly. The other issue with the CR7 I've had is failiure in a control circuit which is definitely a job for a qualified service centre. These are both common problems given how old the machines are now.
The Dragon is likely to have more potential control circuit issues, having more automation even than the CR-7.

 

[jsnyc]

so to update you gentle folks, i received a call from peter at soundsmith in which he delivered the bad news: a short of some kind occurred in the right channel, making the output only 28 ohms vs the left channel's 56 ohms. there was, he said, nothing he could do to fix it.

so, after much reading and second-guessing, i just purchased a zu audio dl-103r and i'm hoping that it's a good match for the sota/sme V. if it is, i'll be happy. if it's not, i'll mourn the loss of my broken purpleheart.

still, thanks for all your good help. appreciate it.

 

[memepool]

Shame. Long shot but I wonder if you could put a 28Ohm resistor accross the left channel to even things out?

 

[jsnyc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by memepool /img/forum/go_quote.gif Shame. Long shot but I wonder if you could put a 28Ohm resistor accross the left channel to even things out?

good question. i wasn't smart enough to ask it of peter. although he did say that the short created "all kinds of phase problems." i admit, i've never understood what phase is. i have a phase button on my meitner preamp and i can't really tell a difference in sound when i engage it.

but i think i'll ask peter your question. thanks, memepool.