14 Beach Boys albums coming to vinyl/SACD

[LeeDempsey]

I was wondering, does the Pet Sounds mono SACD and mono LP sound the same/similar? I have the SACD, but still prefer the CATP/PS Artisan pressing.

Yes, the mono on the AP SACD and the AP mono LP are sonically similar, if not identical.  The LP has great but not overbearing bass, and a neutral, natural midrange and high-end.  No signs of any sibilance.  The only complaint I have is that Side 1 of my AP is ever so slightly off-center -- not enough to bother me sonically, but it bothers me visually to see the tonearm waving back-and-forth even a little bit.  From the discussion on the Hoffman Board I'm not the only one who has observed this issue.  I think I'll call Acoustic Sounds this afternoon and discuss it with them to see if it warrants a replacement.  If it was a $15.00 pressing I probably wouldn't worry about it, but for $30.00 -- and for a version that I may be declaring to be my "Reference Copy," I want it to be perfect.

Tonight I'll try to do a direct comparison between the AP mono and my mint white label promo of the CATP/PS twofer.

Lee

[LeeDempsey]

Just received the Winter 2015 ESQ today. Lee Dempsey has some very informative comments in his review of the second wave of Analogue Productions SACDs, where he compares them to previous issues.

One thing Lee didn't do, and I wish he would have, was to compare the SACD layer of these new reissues to the CD layer. In my personal experience I've found that just about any the difference I've felt I heard between the SACD layer and the CD layer on the same disc disappeared when the layers were played back without me knowing which one I was listening to and I was required to consistently correctly identify which layer was which.

And, as Lee mentions, why does Today have such a recessed sonic signature, almost like it was recorded in a tub? The original Duophonic mix is far too reverberant, but the original mono mix sounds very similar in that respect as well, almost like they folded the Duophonic down to mono. Fortunately the modern stereo remixes, especially of Please Let Me Wonder and Kiss Me Baby, are a huge improvement over the original 1965 mono mix and it's Duophonic counterpart.

Lee mentions he prefers the 2012 stereo release of Today over the stereo on new Kevin Gray SACD, a comparison I'll have to make this weekend.

Thanks Rob!  Actually, I planned to do a comparison of the SACD and CD layers, but I was up against a deadline to get my review turned in so I punted on it.  I'm guessing with my age-limited hearing I won't hear any difference at all.

And actually it was the mono of the 2012 release of Today! that I preferred -- the way it was EQ'ed (with a little bit of upper midrange boost), it may be less representative of how the master tape actually sounds, but it cuts through some of the murkiness that plagues original pressings of what is otherwise my second favorite Beach Boys album.

Lee

[LeeDempsey]

I'd love to have the mono All Summer Long LP too, but they say it's $25 shipping to Germany...

Micha, I hate to say it, but after hearing the All Summer Long SACD I passed on the mono LP.  It's the only one I haven't purchased.  IMO I don't think it's worth $30.00 for the same awful muffled sound on "Drive-In"
 and "Don't Back Down."

Lee

[drbeachboy]

I'd love to have the mono All Summer Long LP too, but they say it's $25 shipping to Germany...

Micha, I hate to say it, but after hearing the All Summer Long SACD I passed on the mono LP.  It's the only one I haven't purchased.  IMO I don't think it's worth $30.00 for the same awful muffled sound on "Drive-In"
 and "Don't Back Down."

Lee

Lee, has it ever been determined what the heck happened with those two cuts? Did Brian submit the master like that or did Capitol screw something up? What did Mark Linett do or find to correct them on CD?

Thanks for your answers on the Pet Sounds comparisons, most appreciated. The Brother/Reprise 2-fer LP really opened that album up and is still the best sounding Wouldn't It Be Nice to ever be released.

[Micha]

I'd love to have the mono All Summer Long LP too, but they say it's $25 shipping to Germany...

Micha, I hate to say it, but after hearing the All Summer Long SACD I passed on the mono LP.  It's the only one I haven't purchased.  IMO I don't think it's worth $30.00 for the same awful muffled sound on "Drive-In"
 and "Don't Back Down."

Lee

Too late, already ordered it! I'd rather have the mono LP with the muffled versions than none at all. Better than duophonic anyway!

Lee, has it ever been determined what the heck happened with those two cuts? Did Brian submit the master like that or did Capitol screw something up? What did Mark Linett do or find to correct them on CD?

Very good questions!

[Alan Smith]

I hope anyone living in the US who can afford to get their dirty mitts on this mono pressing of PS is currently going about getting said mitts on said pressing.

I've finally had a chance to sit down and listen to this babee - what a spin out!

FAT Bass but smooth for a picked instrument, beautiful detail on the tracks (nifty drum rolls on the fade out of Wouldn't It Be Nice), beautiful balance between the voices and the music.

There's some interesting "cross talk"(?)/artifact on the "I can speak my mind" line of IJWMFTT that I'd not heard before/picked up on - just mentioned it to show how attention grabbing this presentation is.  Most of us have the LP memorised and beyond, so it's nice to know this isn't just another money grab, but a great aural experience.

I have my LP rig rudimentally summed down to mono at the moment which has enhanced the "quietness" of this pressing.  My pressing is tracking beautifully/no swing, but my sympathies to those experiencing issues (some are claiming a large spindle hole, ironically my Thorens TT is notorious for having the matching fit - at the detriment to many other LPs).

Go get some if you've not already - A

[LeeDempsey]

Alan brings up a trick that many audiophiles know about...

When playing back a mono record (all lateral, or side-to-side movement) on a stereo stylus (expecting both lateral and vertical or up-down movement), any rumble, hum, or surface noise is often centered, or common to both channels.  But unlike the musical information, which is all-lateral and in-phase, some of the common noise may be caused by unwanted vertical movement of the stylus, and is actually out-of-phase between channels.  In this case if you sum the two channels together, the common noise may actually cancel itself out while not affecting the musical information.  Some phono preamps, amps, and receivers have a mono switch that does this internally, but if your rig doesn't have a mono switch you can achieve the same effect this way (assuming your turntable has RCA-style pin connectors that plug into your preamp):
- Purchase from Radio Shack or other electronics shop two stereo-to-mono "y-cables":
   -- One with two female connectors on the stereo end, and a male connector on the mono end
   -- One with two male connectors on the stereo end, and a female connector on the mono end
- Plug the male jacks from the cord coming out of the turntable into the female stereo connectors of the first cord.
- Plug the male mono jack from that cord into the female mono connector in the second cord.
- Plug the male stereo jacks from the second cord into your phono preamp or receiver's phono input.

This sums the two channels to mono, and cancels any unwanted out-of-phase information.  It won't always improve things, but sometimes the effect on the noise floor is significant.

Lee

[Custom Machine]

Yes, the new AP Pet Sounds mono LP is really nice. Compared to the 1966 original it offers a much fuller sound with enhanced bass, although added low end had been the case with just about every re-release of PS since the original on Capitol. In fact, IMO, that's the main reason the 1972 & 74 Bro/Rep re-releases sound so much better than the original. Sonically, I've always found the jacked up upper mids and lower treble on the PS master to be irritating. It's toned down on this new AP release, which I find quite pleasing, but it's possible others may find the reduced presence to be less desirable and thus may prefer another version, for example the Bro/Rep 72 and 74 versions.

Great to hear that Alan has summed his channels to listen in true mono, and excellent tips from Lee as to why this is beneficial when listening to mono LPs with a stereo cartridge, along with info on how to accomplish this. Lee's tips can also be accomplished by inserting a similar set of Y cables into a tape monitor loop, if you have one, thus giving you the ability to switch the summed-to-mono feature in and out. Another way to accomplish this is to insert a Tape Deck Switching Box either into a tape monitor loop or between your pre-amp out and power amp in jacks. My favorites are the discontinued Niles Audio TSB-3, or for a plethora of switching possibilities, the discontinued Niles Component Patching Matrix CPM-31. One important caveat when adding Y cables in this manner is that in some instances, depending on the switching box settings, you may get a mono signal when possibly not expecting one, so some experimentation with the switching boxes is advised to be fully aware of what settings will lead to the two stereo channels being summed to mono.

Another benefit of summing the channels together when listening to mono vinyl, and to me it's the greatest one, is that any clicks and pops which appear mainly or exclusively in one channel will appear in both speakers. This has two advantages - first, the intensity of a single channel click or pop sounds less pronounced when played back in both channels at a lower level than it would have when reproduced mainly in one channel - and secondly, and most importantly IMO, is that the centered mono sound stage is not ruined by clicks and pops zinging at you from the left and right sides. For example, there are tons of needle drops on YouTube where a mono record, in most cases a 45, is played back in stereo, with all the music coming from the center but clicks and pops zinging at you from both sides of the center image, making them far more noticeable and irritating than if the record had been played back in true mono. Of course clicks and pops are not much of an issue with pristine vinyl, especially super quiet stuff like the Analogue Productions BB reissues.

And I would be remiss, for anyone still reading this, not to mention that some vinyl aficionados use a mono cartridge to play back mono vinyl, thus avoiding the issues under discussion. There are a surprising number of mono carts available these days. And to really get into mono, listening thru only one speaker would be the classic audio set-up. Anyone out there using a mono cart? (I've got 'em in some old juke boxes and school record players, but that's another story, as those devices were made exclusively for mono.) How about listening to mono thru just one speaker?

Edit: I should also add that some stereo amps, primarily vintage ones, have a Mono switch allowing the user to easily mix the two channels of a mono or stereo source into the same mono signal emanating from each speaker.

[Alan Smith]

Thanks for the great tips/discussion, Lee and Custom, re mono.

I'd been a little skeptical re the Y-cable arrangement - my previous NAD amp had a mono switch, where as my more modern Arcam did not which I didn't consider an issue - but I'm glad I shelled the $8 bucks on the cables and gotten back to serious business.

I must admit the mono via cables thing is a bit fiddly and I'm going to embark on facilitating my own mono switch based on some schematics I've swiped from other websites - I say facilitating as my hands-on technical skills tend to the "quite useless" side of the scale, but luckily I work with several people who hold degrees in electrical engineering: so I can get the tricky stuff done by them in exchange for a beer or two, or some left over solder.

[Alan Smith]

I last night A/B'd the new AP Summer Days & Today mono vinyl against vintage UK EMI releases of same.  I've always had a penchant for the enchanting je ne sais quoi of the UK Summer Days.  In my opinion, despite some expected age/wear and tear artifacts re both items, the UK originals held up suprisingly well.

I could hear very little to no difference between the new Summer Days & the old Summer Days, while the AP Today had slight improvement (some minor clarity of saxaphones on Do You Wanna Dance) in the mid frequencies - but not much.  Again, according to my specific set of ears.  

As Lee noted in his ace review of the SACDs in ESQ (arrived yesterday), Today has an, err, "unique" sound compared to other BB offerings and the new AP mono doesn't resolve this, in case anyone was wondering.  As Lee speculates in ESQ, this may be due to a tech issue at Western - I've wondered if Brian et al over did the amount of track bounces, thus sacrificing  quality (although my theory is unlikely given the bouncing technique was pretty standard).

The art work is great on the new editions and an improvement on the initial clutch of reissues, with the AP looking pretty much the same as the recentish Capitol vinyl reissue of Summer Days (sans the duophonic cover notations).

If you have clean UK EMI vintage mono pressings you are happy with, you may want to stick with them.  If not, the AP reissues are once again a must have - if you can easily and affordably get your hands on them, just fuckin do it.

Listened to on - Thorens TD 166/Arcam AJ 18/Paradigm monitor atom bookshelf speakers.

[LeeDempsey]

Can someone who owns the 2012 mono/stereo CD of TODAY! check a couple of things for me?
1) Does the 2012 stereo of "Do You Wanna Dance?" have an extended fadeout, or is the fade faithful to the length of the mono version?
2) Does the 2012 stereo of "In the Back of My Mind" have Dennis' vocal single-tracked or double-tracked?

I'm ashamed to say that all I have is a Capitol in-house reference CD-R dated 5/31/2012.  I've always assumed that it matched the released version.  On that disc the fade on the stereo "Do You Wanna Dance?" is approximately the same length as the mono version, and the stereo "In the Back of My Mind" has Dennis' single-tracked vocal.  Listening to both the Analogue Productions SACD and vinyl, they have a significantly longer fade on "Do You Wanna Dance?" (almost 20 seconds longer), and Dennis' vocal is double-tracked.

I'm embarrassed, because I based my ESQ review off of a comparison of the reference CD-R to the AP SACD, and I didn't catch those differences, which IMO are pretty significant. I'm going to have to go back and listen a lot closer and see if there are any other differences -- and I guess I'll have to go buy an official copy of the 2012 release...

Lee

[sockittome]

Can someone who owns the 2012 mono/stereo CD of TODAY! check a couple of things for me?
1) Does the 2012 stereo of "Do You Wanna Dance?" have an extended fadeout, or is the fade faithful to the length of the mono version?
2) Does the 2012 stereo of "In the Back of My Mind" have Dennis' vocal single-tracked or double-tracked?


Lee

Lee, I did have the 2012 mono/stereo TODAY, but sold it promptly after purchasing the SACD, but I clearly remember the stereo track of DYWD having the extended fadeout, just like on the SACD. 

Also, ItBoMM did have Dennis single tracked on the verses.  I believe this was discussed somewhere on this forum back when it was released.  The SACD seems to have a different stereo mix, reverting the vocals back to double-tracked throughout, although it sounds to my ears like they may have processed one of the vocal tracks to blend it a little better.  I actually like the sound of it, even though it is tinkering with the original makeup of the song a bit. 

[drbeachboy]

Can someone who owns the 2012 mono/stereo CD of TODAY! check a couple of things for me?
1) Does the 2012 stereo of "Do You Wanna Dance?" have an extended fadeout, or is the fade faithful to the length of the mono version?
2) Does the 2012 stereo of "In the Back of My Mind" have Dennis' vocal single-tracked or double-tracked?

I'm ashamed to say that all I have is a Capitol in-house reference CD-R dated 5/31/2012.  I've always assumed that it matched the released version.  On that disc the fade on the stereo "Do You Wanna Dance?" is approximately the same length as the mono version, and the stereo "In the Back of My Mind" has Dennis' single-tracked vocal.  Listening to both the Analogue Productions SACD and vinyl, they have a significantly longer fade on "Do You Wanna Dance?" (almost 20 seconds longer), and Dennis' vocal is double-tracked.

I'm embarrassed, because I based my ESQ review off of a comparison of the reference CD-R to the AP SACD, and I didn't catch those differences, which IMO are pretty significant. I'm going to have to go back and listen a lot closer and see if there are any other differences -- and I guess I'll have to go buy an official copy of the 2012 release...

Lee

Stereo DYWD is 19 seconds longer than the mono. Mono 2:21 - Stereo 2:40 The fade is longer by about 10 seconds.

Stereo ITBOMM is single tracked.

[Awesoman]

Still waiting on my Holland SACD.  Guess they're running a little late as it was supposed to come out at the end of last year.

[drbeachboy]

Still waiting on my Holland SACD.  Guess they're running a little late as it was supposed to come out at the end of last year.

It is slated for a February release, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting. It's been delayed numerous times already, so the Feb date could change and string us out longer.

[18thofMay]

Hi all, I have recently purchased a Yamaha Atmos 7.1 channel sound system and a Audio Technica LP-120 Turntable. My question to you all out there. What is the best vinyl editions to buy? and should I set the sound system to mono? etc Or better phrased what is the best way to listen to the LP's with my current equipment?

http://www.radioparts.com.au/product/01933180/yht9920aubg?gclid=Cj0KEQiAlO20BRCcieCSncPlqqMBEiQAOZGMnO1x6oCQSVNC150LU8Waj022X8EsyHKh0SDWOYf5ld0aAk8m8P8HAQ#.Vpwk9ktf270

https://www.storedj.com.au/products/AUD-LP120BL

[Alan Smith]

Hi all, I have recently purchased a Yamaha Atmos 7.1 channel sound system and a Audio Technica LP-120 Turntable. My question to you all out there. What is the best vinyl editions to buy? and should I set the sound system to mono? etc Or better phrased what is the best way to listen to the LP's with my current equipment?

http://www.radioparts.com.au/product/01933180/yht9920aubg?gclid=Cj0KEQiAlO20BRCcieCSncPlqqMBEiQAOZGMnO1x6oCQSVNC150LU8Waj022X8EsyHKh0SDWOYf5ld0aAk8m8P8HAQ#.Vpwk9ktf270

https://www.storedj.com.au/products/AUD-LP120BL

The best vinyl reissues are currently considered to be these one's from Analogue Production:
http://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=results&searchtext=beach%2Cboys%2Cvinyl&LabelID=507

Most opinion here (4 or 5 people) or over at Hoffman board (many, many peeps, some not strictly BB fans) is these reissues are the cat's meow are uniformly better than pretty much anything before.

Most of these items are available in:
- Brian Wilson mono mixes (everything to date, obviously Sunflower, SUP and Holland won't be, as they were never mixed for mono)
- Vintage stereo mix by Chuck Britz (Surfin' USA, Surfer Girl, LDC, SDV2, All Summer Long).  These LPs may contain mono or Duophonic tracks as per what is on the master tape.  No attempt has been made to sub sub-par vintage stereo mixes with modern Stereo mixes where they exist.
- Modern stereo mixes by Mark Linnet (Today, Summer Days, Pet Sounds, Party, the yet to be released Smiley Smile)

People are wetting their pants by the bucket re the Mark L Stereo mix reissue of Pet Sounds - a bit suprised about that myself, but if it floats your boat, then Sail on Sailor, I say.

For these A/P reissues I've just been talking about you can either order directly via the link provided, or you could check in with Red Eye Records in Sydney CBD to see if they can sort you out.  The killer buying directly will be the shipping.

The best Sunflower and Surf's Up are currently considered to be those mastered/cut at Artisan (look back through this thread for some tips from Stephen Desper himself about what to look for).

The best of the remaining Warner and CBS LPs are - and this is my opinion here - usually US pressings, the best then being those from first print runs.  That said the recently reissued items are pretty bitchin'.

The recent Friends and 20/20 reissues were pretty good.  I tend to avoid Australian pressings of any period, which are uniformly average.

As they say, your mileage may vary (god, I love that phrase, surely Churchill came up with that), but see how you and your wallet go.

************
In relation to playing mono LPs, if your receiver has that capability (ie, a soft setting or button) then you should use that when playing mono LPs.

If it doesn't, you could employ the Y (Wye) cable technique Lee mentioned above.

************

In relation to playing any LP on your set-up:

You may already know this, but when you play an LP (whether mono or stereo) you should see if your amp has a "straight" or by-pass setting - this will turn off any stupid presets (Dolby 5.1, DTS, Church Hall, that kind of fcukery) which may affect playback and mess with your mind.  That stuff might be ok for a movie or a TV show, but can get in the way of hearing an LP appropriately.

You might need to toggle your output down to 2.0, unless the amp does that automatically when you choose "Phono" - if it does, no worries, if it doesn't the amp may "fake" the remaining 5 channels, which might not be cool.

I have a 5.1 that I use for movies etc, and I always have it set to straight and trust the audio codecs provided on the relevant medium.

In a nutshell, just double check your amp isn't automatically defaulting any enhancements you don't want to use (it should scroll the info across the LCD screen during playback.

***********
A super easy way to get good sound out of your turntable is to install a quality cartridge and stylus if you're using the OEM (what was in the box) cart/stylus.

When it comes to stylus preference, as per Churchill, your mileage may vary, but a good starting point can be the Ortofon Blue; or the Ortofon Brown or Black if you have some ready cash.  I would purchase from a local Hi-Fi store, and ask them to install it for you - it might cost an extra $50 but it's worth it unless you have some additional tools, inclination and know-how.

Feel free to read up on the Hoffman board or other hifi audio boards (AudioKarma etc).  You could even google best setting for phono playback on your amp - someone using one may have some good tips!

[LeeDempsey]

Well said Alan!

Michael Fremer, audiophile and analog audio expert, gave the AT-LP120 turntable a nice review.  He said that it was definitely a step above the plastic turntables from Crosley, Ion, and other manufacturers that can be found for sale in large department stores.  And Alan is right -- your Yamaha A/V receiver has a lot of neat digital signal processing technology, but you should select the Pure Direct mode and get as close to a pure analogue audio chain as you can.

I believe some Yamaha receivers have a phono stage; the AT-LP120 turntable also has a built-in phono stage.  If your receiver has phono inputs, play around with the sound using the turntable's phono stage (with the cord plugged into a line input on your receiver), and with the the receiver's phono stage (set the table's phono stage switch on the back to OFF, and plug it into the phono input).  You may prefer one or the other.

Fremer likes the AT95e phono cartridge that comes with your turntable, but if you invest in a more expensive cartridge you should notice more bass and top-end detail based on the amount you spend.  If you do upgrade at some point I would recommend staying with a moving magnet cartridge, as moving coil cartridges require a step-up transformer.  Audio Technica makes a full range of moving magnet cartridges from $20 US to over $1,000 US; the AT120 series would be the next logical step up.  The AT120E was recently discontinued and replaced with an AT120Eb, but the AT120E can still be found discounted (in the U.S. Home Depot was carrying them for a brief while).

Lee

[Micha]

The killer buying directly will be the shipping.

And the customs duties!

[LeeDempsey]

To anyone who is finding that their Analogue Productions albums seem to be pressed slightly off-center, a member on the Steve Hoffman Board just observed that the center holes on some copies of the latest batch (All Summer Long through Pet Sounds) are punched slightly larger than standard -- just a millimeter or so.  So the record may be pressed correctly, but depending on how you place the record on the spindle (or the diameter of your spindle), it could end up off-center.  The solution if this happens is to play the disc and observe where the grooves are nearest you (referencing where it matches on the label's colorband), shut off the turntable, rotate the record manually to that point, and gently nudge it toward the spindle.  It may take a couple of tries to get it just right.  I thought my mono Pet Sounds was pressed off-center, but I went back and checked, and sure enough, there was some play in the center hole. I rotated the disc manually to the point where the grooves were closest to me, and I pushed it toward the spindle, and there was just enough "give" to perfectly center the LP.

You could argue that you shouldn't have to do this for a $30 record, but it does solve the problem.

Lee

[18thofMay]

Thanks so much guys, this is why I truly love this place! I will buy you all a beer when I see you at the Opera House!

[Alan Smith]

The killer buying directly will be the shipping.

And the customs duties!

Doh!!! Poor Micha  - fortunately, we Aussies are (for now) spared such additional taxes.

As a suggestion, why don't you order them, send them to me, then pick them up on your next down-under visit.  I'll be sure to give them a spin on your behalf (to make sure they are all in good order).

[Stephen W. Desper]

To anyone who is finding that their Analogue Productions albums seem to be pressed slightly off-center, a member on the Steve Hoffman Board just observed that the center holes on some copies of the latest batch (All Summer Long through Pet Sounds) are punched slightly larger than standard -- just a millimeter or so.  So the record may be pressed correctly, but depending on how you place the record on the spindle (or the diameter of your spindle), it could end up off-center.  The solution if this happens is to play the disc and observe where the grooves are nearest you (referencing where it matches on the label's colorband), shut off the turntable, rotate the record manually to that point, and gently nudge it toward the spindle.  It may take a couple of tries to get it just right.  I thought my mono Pet Sounds was pressed off-center, but I went back and checked, and sure enough, there was some play in the center hole. I rotated the disc manually to the point where the grooves were closest to me, and I pushed it toward the spindle, and there was just enough "give" to perfectly center the LP.

You could argue that you shouldn't have to do this for a $30 record, but it does solve the problem.

Lee

COMMENT:  Here is a solution to your problem of playing an LP with an off-center hole. In 1987 the solution would cost you around $8,000. But today the same equipment is about double that price --- if you can find one.

Self-centering turntable (overview) >>> http://www.regonaudio.com/NakamichiTX1000.html

Nakamichi TX 1000 turntable (video in action) >>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5O7ssQB4Y8

TX 1000 turntable (For Sale) >>> http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nakamichi-TX-1000-Computing-Turntable-NEW-OLD-STOCK-no-tonearm-/321982982475?hash=item4af7ae694b:g:pl0AAOSwCypWnCAE

More Data on off-centered LPs (ad nauseam) >>> http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue33/tx1000.htm

OR YOU CAN DO THIS (from an article on the subject of righting an off-center LP)...

"If the hole is off-center, you can carefully enlarge it with a knife. You'll have to center the record manually, which is pretty annoying, but it works. This may sound sketchy to some people, but I recently did the "carve with a knife" tactic to my off-centered pressing record. All it took was a kitchen knife and 10 minutes of my time. I put the needle on the record and manually spun it slowly to figure out the direction of where I needed to start carving. The stylus wobbles left and right with the pressing so I figured out when the stylus is closest to the outside of the record, that is where I needed to carve. Instead of carving a giant circle, I instead carved toward the direction of the stylus. Doing so, I have sort of an elongated oval for my center hole. one side is where the original hole was and the opposite side is where the spindle needs to be to be aligned. My record sounds fantastic now with no trace of wobble."

~swd

[LeeDempsey]

Stephen, that Nakamichi turntable is a classic!  I would love to just see one in person, much less own one.

I love it when I see a vintage turntable -- Garrard, Thorens, etc.  They look so beautiful -- and usually sound great.  A few years ago one of the local high-end audio stores had a top-of-the-line 1980's Denon direct drive table that they took on trade-in.  That thing was built like a tank!  A tribute to Japanese engineering and craftsmanship.

Forgive me if I've already posted this, but a few months ago I walked into a used record store in the small town of Boone, NC.  They also sell vintage electronics equipment, and they have a repair guy there who checks and maintains their stuff.  The owner had bought the stock of an old warehouse, and in it was a Technics SL-10 quartz-locked, direct drive, linear tracking turntable, complete with the original box and all accessories, including the rare EPS-310MC low output moving coil cartridge which is considered one of Technics' best ever.  It had been thoroughly checked and serviced by their in-house tech. Unlike the cheap plastic linear tracking tables that were around in the late '80s, the SL-10 was very well-made, and garnered stellar reviews in the trade publications of the day.   I ended up picking the whole kit for less than the cartridge goes for by itself on eBay.  It sounds fantastic!  I picked it up to be the table in my second system, and it quickly was promoted to the main system.

Lee

[Custom Machine]

I'd totally forgotten about the Nak TX 1000. I don't ever recall actually seeing one, but enjoyed the video Stephen linked to at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5O7ssQB4Y8.

For those with more modest budgets, wanting to spend only 3-4K on a used turntable, there's the more rudimentary Nak Dragon CT table http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nakamichi-Dragon-CT-Turntable-/161884336482?hash=item25b10ef162%3Ag%3ACiYAAOSwT5tWI1-R&nma=true&si=cEaCUAe%252Bdp84Lbex62e8Bn28tOc%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557.  Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUgOUftRSjk.

That Technics SL-10 is a very cool table, Lee. While TTs with traditional pivoting arms are only perfectly tangent to the record groove at two points (if I'm recalling correctly) on the arc they travel when playing record, the stylus on your liner tracker is always perfectly tangent to the groove.