LazySounds
Active Member
Many months ago I decided that my SL1200 was no longer exciting me.
Sure, I could have started down the upgrade path but my 1200 had been worked on by a educationally subnormal clown.
I stupidly paid some simpleton clown to respray my 1200 matte black and to put RCA jacks on the back so I could change cables as I saw fit.
Anyway the "Amazing F#$ktard the Clown" did a shitty job around the pitch slider and the RCA jacks were attached in a less than ideal fashion.
It still worked really well, but every time I saw the shitty paint job and the dodgy RCA jacks it would just piss me off!!!!
So I sold it on eBay, then I saved my pennies to buy a new deck.
I listened to a lot of turntables, mostly Project and Rega units.
Finally I settled on the Rega RP40.
First I thought it sounded pretty good.
After a few days I realised that the Elys 40 cartridge sounded pretty much worse than any other cartridge I had ever owned. Additionally there was a wobble in the platter.
So I got the dealer to replace the shitty Elys with an Ortofon 2M blue.
I noticed the wobble was caused by a little nodule of plastic standing proud on the sub platter, I scrapped it off with my thumbnail.
Now it sounded really good, but, the more I listened to it the more obvious it became that it suffered from pitch instability.
I was not happy at all. The dealer put a strobe on it and listened to it and said it was running at the correct speed and sounded fine to them.
But they also said that some people are just more sensitive to pitch variation than others and that it was possible that there was some variation that they just weren't hearing but I was hearing.
So they sent it to Rega to look at, in the mean time they very kindly lent me a Project 1Xpression Carbon Classic. (I really enjoyed this unit, the speed was dead on and it sounded great).
A short time passed, Rega returned the table and said that it was running correctly and that they had done nothing except replace the belt with a white belt and cleaned the drive train.
I took it home and plugged it in, I almost immediately noticed that it was running very solidly at the correct speed, it just sounded focussed.
I was very happy...................... BUT......
I started to notice that it wasn't dead silent between tracks, I got real close to the speakers and cranked up the volume...........bbbbuuuuuzzzzzzzzzzz!!!
Bastard was humming like an over enthusiastic drunk choir thats forgotten the words.
So I went through all the normal hum hunting procedures.
I moved cables around, I plugged things in I unplugged things and I just couldn't fix it, finally I isolated the cause of the buzzing, it was the TT-PSU, the TT-PSU was the cause of the buzz.
Anyway, I decided to live with the buzz in the short term, so I went to plug the TT-PSU back in and the power supply socket on the back of the unit snapped off inside the box f#$k f#$k f#$kedy f#$k f#$k!!!!
I took the TT-PSU back to the dealer, they have sent it off to Rega for repair and I have an RP3 TT-PSU on lone.
I saw a video on Youtube explaining that the TT-PSU buzzing was a common problem and that it could be fixed by attaching a ground wire to a chassis screw on the TT-PSU and the other end to the grounding post on the amp.
I did exactly this.
So now it is running at exactly the correct speed with no decernable fluctuations.
The 2M blue is a fantastic cartridge.
There is silence between tracks, no buzz and absolutely no hum.
This is the best sounding turntable I have ever owned or for that matter heard.
It's taken three months to get to this point, but I am stupidly happy with this thing. I smile from ear to ear every time I spin a record, they just sound so so GOOD.
Funny, a couple of days ago I was ready to call it quits and just ask for my money back and get another 1200.
I am so glad I didn't, the 1200 was an excellent beast of a turntable, but this Rega produces the exact sound that I was hoping for, not a sound a bit like what I had been dreaming of, but exactly the sound I had been dreaming of.
I am in turntable heaven and I am not sleeping much as sleep is just wasted vinyl time.
HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!!!!!
PS In no way am I criticising the venerable SL1200, I just had a very specific sound in mind which is different from the 1200 and the Rega has finally delivered.
Yippeeee yippppeeee yippeeee
Sure, I could have started down the upgrade path but my 1200 had been worked on by a educationally subnormal clown.
I stupidly paid some simpleton clown to respray my 1200 matte black and to put RCA jacks on the back so I could change cables as I saw fit.
Anyway the "Amazing F#$ktard the Clown" did a shitty job around the pitch slider and the RCA jacks were attached in a less than ideal fashion.
It still worked really well, but every time I saw the shitty paint job and the dodgy RCA jacks it would just piss me off!!!!
So I sold it on eBay, then I saved my pennies to buy a new deck.
I listened to a lot of turntables, mostly Project and Rega units.
Finally I settled on the Rega RP40.
First I thought it sounded pretty good.
After a few days I realised that the Elys 40 cartridge sounded pretty much worse than any other cartridge I had ever owned. Additionally there was a wobble in the platter.
So I got the dealer to replace the shitty Elys with an Ortofon 2M blue.
I noticed the wobble was caused by a little nodule of plastic standing proud on the sub platter, I scrapped it off with my thumbnail.
Now it sounded really good, but, the more I listened to it the more obvious it became that it suffered from pitch instability.
I was not happy at all. The dealer put a strobe on it and listened to it and said it was running at the correct speed and sounded fine to them.
But they also said that some people are just more sensitive to pitch variation than others and that it was possible that there was some variation that they just weren't hearing but I was hearing.
So they sent it to Rega to look at, in the mean time they very kindly lent me a Project 1Xpression Carbon Classic. (I really enjoyed this unit, the speed was dead on and it sounded great).
A short time passed, Rega returned the table and said that it was running correctly and that they had done nothing except replace the belt with a white belt and cleaned the drive train.
I took it home and plugged it in, I almost immediately noticed that it was running very solidly at the correct speed, it just sounded focussed.
I was very happy...................... BUT......
I started to notice that it wasn't dead silent between tracks, I got real close to the speakers and cranked up the volume...........bbbbuuuuuzzzzzzzzzzz!!!
Bastard was humming like an over enthusiastic drunk choir thats forgotten the words.
So I went through all the normal hum hunting procedures.
I moved cables around, I plugged things in I unplugged things and I just couldn't fix it, finally I isolated the cause of the buzzing, it was the TT-PSU, the TT-PSU was the cause of the buzz.
Anyway, I decided to live with the buzz in the short term, so I went to plug the TT-PSU back in and the power supply socket on the back of the unit snapped off inside the box f#$k f#$k f#$kedy f#$k f#$k!!!!
I took the TT-PSU back to the dealer, they have sent it off to Rega for repair and I have an RP3 TT-PSU on lone.
I saw a video on Youtube explaining that the TT-PSU buzzing was a common problem and that it could be fixed by attaching a ground wire to a chassis screw on the TT-PSU and the other end to the grounding post on the amp.
I did exactly this.
So now it is running at exactly the correct speed with no decernable fluctuations.
The 2M blue is a fantastic cartridge.
There is silence between tracks, no buzz and absolutely no hum.
This is the best sounding turntable I have ever owned or for that matter heard.
It's taken three months to get to this point, but I am stupidly happy with this thing. I smile from ear to ear every time I spin a record, they just sound so so GOOD.
Funny, a couple of days ago I was ready to call it quits and just ask for my money back and get another 1200.
I am so glad I didn't, the 1200 was an excellent beast of a turntable, but this Rega produces the exact sound that I was hoping for, not a sound a bit like what I had been dreaming of, but exactly the sound I had been dreaming of.
I am in turntable heaven and I am not sleeping much as sleep is just wasted vinyl time.
HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!!!!!
PS In no way am I criticising the venerable SL1200, I just had a very specific sound in mind which is different from the 1200 and the Rega has finally delivered.
Yippeeee yippppeeee yippeeee
