Official AR Turntable Owners Thread

I replaced the vintage belt on an AR XA with a new belt, which reduced the 300 Hz motor noise significantly. But it's still audible, albeit at a much reduced level. Is there anything else that I can do to eliminate the noise?
Which motor does yours have? Is it the original Haydon motor or is it a Hurst motor?
 
I will let Marc weigh in on that one, it probably needs to be disassembled and cleaned but I dont know of a dyi on that one. Have you oiled the bearing and lt it run for a while? If not using a toothpick or similar drip a little oil under the pulley on top of the bearing and take the belt off and let the motor run for a while without a load on it.
 
A question for everyone - I have my AR-XA and my AR "The Turntable" both sitting on my Barzilay cabinet. My room has wood floors. I have noticed that the "The Turntable" skips very easily if I walk in the room; the XA is not bothered by my footsteps at all.

What can I do to stop the "The Turntable" from transmitting the floor's vibrations to the needle?
 
A question for everyone - I have my AR-XA and my AR "The Turntable" both sitting on my Barzilay cabinet. My room has wood floors. I have noticed that the "The Turntable" skips very easily if I walk in the room; the XA is not bothered by my footsteps at all.

What can I do to stop the "The Turntable" from transmitting the floor's vibrations to the needle?
Depending on your floors there may not be much you can do about it. You can put sorbothane pads under the cabinet but that may not help if you have a lot of movement in your floors. Best bet would be to build a wall shelf for it.
 
Depending on your floors there may not be much you can do about it. You can put sorbothane pads under the cabinet but that may not help if you have a lot of movement in your floors. Best bet would be to build a wall shelf for it.

Thanks - shoot. Aren't they pretty similar underneath though? I'm wondering why it would affect the The Turntable so much, but not the XA at all.
 
A question for everyone - I have my AR-XA and my AR "The Turntable" both sitting on my Barzilay cabinet. My room has wood floors. I have noticed that the "The Turntable" skips very easily if I walk in the room; the XA is not bothered by my footsteps at all.

What can I do to stop the "The Turntable" from transmitting the floor's vibrations to the needle?

Adjust and or fine tune the "Suspension: damped 3-point sprung suspension". :)
 
Like he said it could be the suspension isnt tuned properly. Something to look into before you get crazy with furniture.
 
Thanks - shoot. Aren't they pretty similar underneath though? I'm wondering why it would affect the The Turntable so much, but not the XA at all.
It also could be the cart your using. My grace F9e does not skip on my ARXA you can pretty much dance in my room with it , but with my Denon dL-304 you have to tip toe and hold your breath on the same table . What cart are you using?

Audiofreak71
 
It also could be the cart your using. My grace F9e does not skip on my ARXA you can pretty much dance in my room with it , but with my Denon dL-304 you have to tip toe and hold your breath on the same table . What cart are you using?

Audiofreak71

The The Turntable has a Sumiko Blue Point (the original P-mount version), and the XA has a Shure M75EDtypeII.
 
To recap: My AR XA got much quieter with a new belt. A drop of oil at the base of the motor shaft (Haydon) may have reduced the 300 Hz noise a bit more. There is still a bit of residual 300 Hz noise, faintly audible in lead-in grooves and sometimes between tracks. It is my belief that further reduction is probably not possible with a basically stock turntable such as mine. I strongly suspect that, for many audiophiles, the intrinsic low-level surface noise of vinyl records tends to mask the 300 Hz noise when records are played at a comfortable volume level, and that accounts for the testimonials about how quiet these decks are. My Linn LP12 Valhalla is substantially quieter than this AR XA.

Now, it so happens that I have another AR XA. I don't have enough parts to make two fully functioning turntables (missing a counterweight and an armrest). But when I put the other AR XA together a few days ago, the noise with the existing old belt was essentially identical to what I heard with the current AR XA before it received the new belt. The other deck has an Airpax motor.

Neither of these turntables have been cleaned up and repainted as have been some of the truly beautiful ARs pictured in this forum. Since I have one stock AR XA operating probably about as well as it can be made to run, I may do some real refurbishment of the other one. But I'm terrified by the prospect of soldering turntable wires. I've had my problems soldering fine wires with other projects in the past.

One thing I've been wondering about: screws for the standard AR headshell. The screws I've collected over the years from other turntables and headshells and cartridges use a different thread. With most tonearms, the screws go through the headshell, and all you need are matching nuts for the other end. But with the standard AR headshell, one must use genuine AR screws. I don't know where to get them. The new headshell I received from an eBay vendor has two screws, but I'll need a selection, plus (maybe) standoffs to use the new headshell.
 
To recap: My AR XA got much quieter with a new belt. A drop of oil at the base of the motor shaft (Haydon) may have reduced the 300 Hz noise a bit more. There is still a bit of residual 300 Hz noise, faintly audible in lead-in grooves and sometimes between tracks. It is my belief that further reduction is probably not possible with a basically stock turntable such as mine. I strongly suspect that, for many audiophiles, the intrinsic low-level surface noise of vinyl records tends to mask the 300 Hz noise when records are played at a comfortable volume level, and that accounts for the testimonials about how quiet these decks are. My Linn LP12 Valhalla is substantially quieter than this AR XA.

Now, it so happens that I have another AR XA. I don't have enough parts to make two fully functioning turntables (missing a counterweight and an armrest). But when I put the other AR XA together a few days ago, the noise with the existing old belt was essentially identical to what I heard with the current AR XA before it received the new belt. The other deck has an Airpax motor.

Neither of these turntables have been cleaned up and repainted as have been some of the truly beautiful ARs pictured in this forum. Since I have one stock AR XA operating probably about as well as it can be made to run, I may do some real refurbishment of the other one. But I'm terrified by the prospect of soldering turntable wires. I've had my problems soldering fine wires with other projects in the past.

One thing I've been wondering about: screws for the standard AR headshell. The screws I've collected over the years from other turntables and headshells and cartridges use a different thread. With most tonearms, the screws go through the headshell, and all you need are matching nuts for the other end. But with the standard AR headshell, one must use genuine AR screws. I don't know where to get them. The new headshell I received from an eBay vendor has two screws, but I'll need a selection, plus (maybe) standoffs to use the new headshell.


the screws are #3 X48...................can be found at any hardware store.
 
There's one small issue with the arm lifter I bought. The cover interferes with the actuator wire. A pair of dikes should take care of this.
 
A question for everyone - I have my AR-XA and my AR "The Turntable" both sitting on my Barzilay cabinet. My room has wood floors. I have noticed that the "The Turntable" skips very easily if I walk in the room; the XA is not bothered by my footsteps at all.

What can I do to stop the "The Turntable" from transmitting the floor's vibrations to the needle?
One option is to bolt the cabinet firmly to the wall so it doesn't slosh back and forth so much as the floor joists bounce up and down. If the TheTurntable is placed higher in the cabinet than the XA, the amount of lateral movement will be higher.
 
So you are going to loose the little ball at the top of the wire? Or are you going to shorten and rebend the wire at the lifter?

There's one small issue with the arm lifter I bought. The cover interferes with the actuator wire. A pair of dikes should take care of this.
 
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