philodox

Yeah, I downloaded the manuals from there. The mounting template should come in handy for the work I want to do on the suspension. There are even a couple guys in the forum who have the Lab 80 and like it. Most other 'audiophile' forums I've come across seem to discount it, favoring the more popular and higher end 301 model, but I have found a couple threads here and there where people who have actually heard the thing say some pretty positive things. Either way, it sounds good to me at the moment and that's better than having a big audio penis. At least I think it is. Hmmm. lol @ the Warhol. Actually, we were thinking about wall mounting my plasma at the new place and putting the Marantz and the Garrard on top of the table/cabinet underneath for a little bit of an old meets new aesthetic. If it goes in the office instead though, I think you've got an excellent idea there. EDIT: I nearly got an older Dual, which probably would have been a safer bet, but now that I've heard it I am really glad I went with the Garrard instead. I love the solid walnut cabinet as well. The Dual I was looking at was just veneered.

Yeah, the tonearm made me swoon in the store. It's not solid wood though, being mostly steel I think. I was so surprised by the Marantz at Christmas. I mentioned how I love them off hand to Rachel over 6 months ago. She consulted Renato on the deal though to make sure she wasn't being ripped off though, so I knew it was an audio or computer related gift. In response to the other post: The only thing I was thinking of changing was to possibly remove and completely disable the automatic function, improve the support for the suspension [its warped on one side underneath] and to give the mechanics a clean and lube. I'm not planning on recasing it or bothering with other arms or anything. I actually ran into a lot of good press regarding the 103 on my travels, and it was on my short list. Now its at the top. I'm loving it too, can't listen at the moment though as its at Rachels... I think I'm gonna jet over there in a bit. Got a two albums from a shop at lunch that I haven't heard yet.

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Thanks buddy. I still need to give it a good clean, but I brought my isoprop and goo-gone from work and will get to it soon. The guys at the shop lubed some of the mechanical workings, but I'm going to give it a more thorough once over after I've digested the service manual. Anyone have any tips on the type of grease I should use? If there are bearings and they look dry, do I use oil? The cartridge that came with it is a Stanton 600. Can't find anything about it online except one offhand reference that seems to say it is the precursor to their audiophile line. There are some '600 series' cartridges I found that are labeled 680 and whatnot, but those seem to be 'club cartridges'. Mine just says Stanton 600 on it. Very confusing.

I have an anti static brush and will hold off on the gauge until I get a new cartridge. Comes with a mat, but I'll probably get a new one at some point, so I'm interested to see if there are any recommendations on those. Is there something wrong with the sleeves that come with the record? Should I clean records that aren't dirty? Is there a 'in the sink' cleaning method that doesn't require any other hardware? WTF is a spirit level?

Made a new thread for my vinyl questions so that I don't clog this one up: http://www.head-case.org/forums/home-source-components/5283-my-new-vinyl-setup.html#post192017

Thought I would start a new thread to ask all my newbie questions and host the pictures.

Ojhins - Ok, sounds like a plan. It's sounding great at the moment, so I'll probably hold off on a new cartridge for a while. Al - That's the way I usually do it, was just worried that they would be blocked by the forum. Good to know about the sizing in flickr though. I resized these all to 800x600 before uploading, but in the future when I take some better pics [had crappy lighting] I'll just upload them and then change the size when posting. Checking out all the little vinyl shops in Toronto has been a blast so far. I've managed to get some pretty good deals too... will take a pic of my meager collection the next time I have the camera out at Rachels place.

The guys at the vintage shop that set it up for me calibrated everything. I don't have anything to measure the force... it does have a cueing function that lowers the arm though, so I assume it stops once it makes contact. Not sure though. Should I be worried? Any way I can tell without a gauge?

Grawk - Cool, I love it. Not sure what Rachel paid for it, but it was completely serviced and cared for inside and out. Works like a charm. I love the wood cabinet as well. Unfortunately my speaker cables are too big, so I can't try it powering the speakers directly yet. It sounds great as a phono and a pre though. ojnihs - Thanks. Haven't been able to find out a heck of a lot about the Garrard Lab 80 yet, but I love the look and it has a pretty unique design. The automatic functions don't work as that requires a longer spindle, but I doubt I would use them anyways. I printed up the manual and all the service info I came across. Comes with a mounting template, so I expect this was used in a lot of the older cabinet systems.

Ok, it looks like all the computer problems I was having were related to my mouse finally biting the dust. Luckily, my wireless keyboard came with a companion mouse, so I'm good to go. Just uploaded everything to Flickr. Lets see how this works out... Vinyl - a set on Flickr ...well, that was pretty easy. Will just link the set for now, but is quoting the actual images possible/easy on most forums? EDIT: Nothing earth shattering compared to the vinyl rigs people have on here, but it sounds way better than it has a right to. I really like the old table and have some mods/maintenance that I am planning on doing. It was last sold in 1964 and was around $100 USD at the time. $7 extra if you want the solid walnut case. [which mine has] EDIT 2: Not sure about the cartridge, a Stanton 600, but perhaps someone on here could recommend something down the line? From what I understand the metal/wood tonearm on it is pretty high mass.

I'm sure that's what the cannibals said and they stopped. Don't get me wrong, I don't think eating a dog is any worse than eating a cow, but I do understand why people find it socially unacceptable.

lol, my ego has always been big. If my head gets any bigger I'll be a circus freak.

Why is flickr the best? Not that it really matters though as it needs a yahoo ID, but wont accept any of the ones that I create. Imageshack sounds like the way to go for now. Will give it a shot in a couple hours.

I've got a pair of signal cable silver resolution XLR's that are yours if you want them for $100USD + whatever shipping costs me through whatever method you prefer. Let me know if you want them.

My head might be bigger... we should have faced off in florida.

Ok, will give imageshack and photobucket a try tonight. Thanks.

And ruin the surprise!? [it's nothing to what most have on here, but I like it]

fucking hell... does anyone know a free image site that doesn't suck balls? My ftp is screwed... flickr doesn't seem to recognize the yahoo id it asked me to create... and I can't figure out how to upload to deviantart. Maybe quitting smoking was a bad idea? It seems to have made me retarded. As a side note, my computer seems to be double clicking everything all the time. You'd think that a 'systems administrator' could fix such a problem. You'd be wrong.

I'd vote for aerius, but reks would probably ban me.

Thanks Mike. I've been trying to upload pics of mine, but my computer has decided to gimp out and I've been having a hard time of it.

Has there been any pics yet? I'm sure its a beauty. Wait until you see the beast I just bought.

My first turntable. My girlfriend got me a vintage marantz receiver for xmas, so I figured what the hell. I think I might have made a mistake as it sounds unreasonably good for what I paid. Time to go buy some vinyl. Pics tomorrow at the latest. I'm sort of surprised at how good it sounds given the table is 15 years older than I am...

An iPod Classic 120GB, black. Loving it so far with apple lossless and Jays dJay canalphones. Genius is cool and Coverflow is neat. Sounds quite a bit better than my old Archos and doesn't have a faulty headphone jack, which is a bonus.

Ah, that makes sense. Would be funny if it was the other Mike.