Mike Stehr
Poverty Audio
Two years back or so, there was a CL add for a mahogany entertainment center with "retro" stereo components.
I hooked up with basically the stereo system that this guy Don bought back in the late fifities, early sixties.
A homemade mahogany entertainment center, Altec 415A biflex speakers in homemade cabinets, a Eico HF-85 pre-amp, a Altec 345A power amp, a Webster Electric RTR with tube control pre-amplifier, and the Musicmaster TT.
It's a Japanese idler drive record player, 3 speed, with a eddy brake type pitch control. It either came with, or he picked up a Velvet Touch (Gray bootleg) ball and socket type unipivot type tonearm. He had a Stanton/Pickering 380 cartridge mounted on it.
I guess Don didn't feel like swinging the extra cash for a Thorens or whatever higher offering in the day, and went the budget route.
When Don was showing the stereo to myself upon purchasing, he seemed to flash the turntable the most during the transaction. "It still works....See...."
There were then stories of his wife and himself enjoying records over the years, and noodling with the RTR.
I didn't think much of the TT at the time, I was mostly concerned about the Altec 345A amplifier.....
Don appeared to be at least 90. I asked when he had last listened to the stereo, powered it up, etc. He said 15 years or so. I think it was more like 25-30 years.
He had the fifth wheel and truck out in the front yard. He bought the 20 acre spread 50 years ago or more, and built the house. The wife had died 10 years earlier, and was down to him and the dog.
Too big a place, and too tired and old to keep it up. He said his knees were going. He was cashing out the place, and doing the final retirement on his son's property at Bonnie Lake in the 5th wheel.
I told him I was going to use and listen to the stereo components, at least most of it. That I wasn't some greedy eBay monster......
Thanks to ol' Don, I have a pretty cool vintage piece of Hi-Fi audio history.
I messed with the TT around a year ago or so, and then got into something else, and shelved it for awhile.
I fired it up again a few weeks ago, and have been having fun.
I ordered some 600,000 cst (centistroke?) silicone damping fluid, and used some. That helped quite a bit. I can tweak in the 2 second cue time pretty easy. It can be a touchy to tweak as well.
Don made a mahogany plinth for the TT. It's a hollow type plinth.
I want to make a solid constrained layer plinth for the Musicmaster, but will have to wait until the weather warms up.
So for now I'll use the same hollow mahogany plinth, and thinking of bracing it with hickery hardwood flooring.
Don had the tonearm base mounted too low, and jammed up right against the turntable base.
And he had the spindle to pivot distance at 9 inches. JE labs Joe shows 200 millimeters, measured from a Realistic TT, using a Calrad version of the Velvet Touch tonearm. 200 millimeters follows along with the 9 inch Gray tonearm.
200 millimeters comes out to 8.74XXXXX inches......So I made a little tonearm riser thingie, and made the spindle to pivot distance at eight and three quarter inches.
There was distortion on the last two tracks before, I hope I come out better this time.
I spent the day sanding the finish off the plinth. I liked Don's finish, but it was trashed. I got most the stain I could off, and he used some sort of water base clearcoat or something. Sanding was a chore.....however, the mahogany veneer is good and thick.
I hit the plinth with a couple coats of boiled linseed oil. It looks a lot better in person than in the picture....it glows.....
I need to finish the little tonearm riser, and mount the RCA jacks upon it. That will help shorten the tonearm wire path. Then a polarized power cord.
I need to figure out something for a mat as well.
I have a Shure SC35 cart/stylus to set-up on the tonearm once everything else is squared away.
I'll see how the ol' Musicmaster sounds then.......
Ugh....sorry about the droning post......
I hooked up with basically the stereo system that this guy Don bought back in the late fifities, early sixties.
A homemade mahogany entertainment center, Altec 415A biflex speakers in homemade cabinets, a Eico HF-85 pre-amp, a Altec 345A power amp, a Webster Electric RTR with tube control pre-amplifier, and the Musicmaster TT.
It's a Japanese idler drive record player, 3 speed, with a eddy brake type pitch control. It either came with, or he picked up a Velvet Touch (Gray bootleg) ball and socket type unipivot type tonearm. He had a Stanton/Pickering 380 cartridge mounted on it.
I guess Don didn't feel like swinging the extra cash for a Thorens or whatever higher offering in the day, and went the budget route.
When Don was showing the stereo to myself upon purchasing, he seemed to flash the turntable the most during the transaction. "It still works....See...."
There were then stories of his wife and himself enjoying records over the years, and noodling with the RTR.
I didn't think much of the TT at the time, I was mostly concerned about the Altec 345A amplifier.....
Don appeared to be at least 90. I asked when he had last listened to the stereo, powered it up, etc. He said 15 years or so. I think it was more like 25-30 years.
He had the fifth wheel and truck out in the front yard. He bought the 20 acre spread 50 years ago or more, and built the house. The wife had died 10 years earlier, and was down to him and the dog.
Too big a place, and too tired and old to keep it up. He said his knees were going. He was cashing out the place, and doing the final retirement on his son's property at Bonnie Lake in the 5th wheel.
I told him I was going to use and listen to the stereo components, at least most of it. That I wasn't some greedy eBay monster......
Thanks to ol' Don, I have a pretty cool vintage piece of Hi-Fi audio history.
I messed with the TT around a year ago or so, and then got into something else, and shelved it for awhile.
I fired it up again a few weeks ago, and have been having fun.
I ordered some 600,000 cst (centistroke?) silicone damping fluid, and used some. That helped quite a bit. I can tweak in the 2 second cue time pretty easy. It can be a touchy to tweak as well.
Don made a mahogany plinth for the TT. It's a hollow type plinth.
I want to make a solid constrained layer plinth for the Musicmaster, but will have to wait until the weather warms up.
So for now I'll use the same hollow mahogany plinth, and thinking of bracing it with hickery hardwood flooring.
Don had the tonearm base mounted too low, and jammed up right against the turntable base.
And he had the spindle to pivot distance at 9 inches. JE labs Joe shows 200 millimeters, measured from a Realistic TT, using a Calrad version of the Velvet Touch tonearm. 200 millimeters follows along with the 9 inch Gray tonearm.
200 millimeters comes out to 8.74XXXXX inches......So I made a little tonearm riser thingie, and made the spindle to pivot distance at eight and three quarter inches.
There was distortion on the last two tracks before, I hope I come out better this time.
I spent the day sanding the finish off the plinth. I liked Don's finish, but it was trashed. I got most the stain I could off, and he used some sort of water base clearcoat or something. Sanding was a chore.....however, the mahogany veneer is good and thick.
I hit the plinth with a couple coats of boiled linseed oil. It looks a lot better in person than in the picture....it glows.....
I need to finish the little tonearm riser, and mount the RCA jacks upon it. That will help shorten the tonearm wire path. Then a polarized power cord.
I need to figure out something for a mat as well.
I have a Shure SC35 cart/stylus to set-up on the tonearm once everything else is squared away.
I'll see how the ol' Musicmaster sounds then.......
Ugh....sorry about the droning post......
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