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Jelco arms- where it improves on the Technics SL-1200

thedelihaus

thedelihaus

Nocturnal transmissions
Snapped these photos to show one of the reasons the Jelco has it's leg up on the Technics SL-1200 stock arm.

Now, before the technics fans (and I'm one of them) string me up, the Technics arm can be tweaked to emulate these elements of the Jelco.



First- the solid end stub. One can fill the hollow technics end stub with foam or silicone to mimic the solid, enclosed end stub of the Jelco.


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In this photo, look for the foam "noodle".

This goes inside the tone arm tube. It is the consistency of that squishy, return-to-shape ear plug foam.

It's for damping the tone arm resonance.

One could use foam inside the Technics tube, too.

f340c122.jpg


One could also use
 
Lastly-

While Jelco and Sumiko are only internally damped, the Jelco built Audioquest also "sleeves" the outside of the arm.

Here, I sleeved a Sumiko PT-3 with quality 3M shrink wrap.

You can treat the Technics tube this way, too.



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You can also rewire the arm and bypass the Technics circuit board and adopt better RCA cables (or RCA jacks) for improvement.


Dampening the arm, in my opinion, as well as treating the hollow end tube, and rewiring the arm all improve on the performance of the stock Technics arm.


I find the bearings of the Technics to be of excellent quality and the VTA base to be the cat's pajamas.

A few cost-cutting shortcomings can be addressed by the handy, and raise the arm performance for a pittance.

Once done, the already good arm becomes very competitive.
 
Hey you- behave.


I'm not advocating one replaces the stock arm with the Jelco or Sumiko-.although that is a very viable option.

I'm saying here's the places the Technics arm could use a bit of tweaking- and perhaps why the Jelco/Sumiko arms have a performance benefit.


The Technics bearings are excellent, and that VTA base is a fantastic design.


Learn from the Jelco's strengths. Take Jelco's cues and apply them to the Technics, and retain the Technics strengths.
 
No offense taken.

But these discussions get pretty heated.

My intention is not to get folk fired up but to consider what can be done to improve the stock Technics arm.
 
thedelihaus said:
You can also rewire the arm and bypass the Technics circuit board and adopt better RCA cables (or RCA jacks) for improvement.


Dampening the arm, in my opinion, as well as treating the hollow end tube, and rewiring the arm all improve on the performance of the stock Technics arm.


I find the bearings of the Technics to be of excellent quality and the VTA base to be the cat's pajamas.

A few cost-cutting shortcomings can be addressed by the handy, and raise the arm performance for a pittance.

Once done, the already good arm becomes very competitive.
Click to expand...

I can say from recent experience that adding some heat shrink tubing to the Technics arm makes a substantial and not subtle improvement.

Next on my list is a rewiring!
 
thedelihaus said:
In this photo, look for the foam "noodle".

This goes inside the tone arm tube. It is the consistency of that squishy, return-to-shape ear plug foam.

It's for damping the tone arm resonance.

One could use foam inside the Technics tube, too.

f340c122.jpg


One could also use
Click to expand...

Great! I am wondering how I could fill the arm tube with damping material without having to remove or damaging the internal wiring. And, what stuff would be suitable for this purpose?
 
All very interesting concerning the Jelco construction. I'll be curious as to your thoughts on the sound once you get it mounted up.

Personally, I found it to not perform as well with as wide a variety of cartridges as my Applied Fidelity rewired stock arm with the KAB fluid damper. The Jelco did, however, excel with the Denon DL-103R. If that were the only cartridge I ever wanted to run, it would be a good choice for me, but, it was the only cartridge I ran in my system that actually sounded better with the Jelco. Every other cartridge I prefered with the mod'd stock arm.
 
Dr. Ear said:
Great! I am wondering how I could fill the arm tube with damping material without having to remove or damaging the internal wiring. And, what stuff would be suitable for this purpose?
Click to expand...

You could use that ear-plug foam- it seems it's nearly identical.

Also, if you are smart about it, you might be able to use that expanding insulation foam- you'll need to fabricate a "tunnel" however, for the tone arm wire.

SME had used balsa wood and cotton and/or linen too.



slate1 said:
All very interesting concerning the Jelco construction. I'll be curious as to your thoughts on the sound once you get it mounted up.

Personally, I found it to not perform as well with as wide a variety of cartridges as my Applied Fidelity rewired stock arm with the KAB fluid damper. The Jelco did, however, excel with the Denon DL-103R. If that were the only cartridge I ever wanted to run, it would be a good choice for me, but, it was the only cartridge I ran in my system that actually sounded better with the Jelco. Every other cartridge I prefered with the mod'd stock arm.
Click to expand...

I actually was rebuilding/rewiring the FT-3 for Mark Walters, and prepping the MMT for a new home.

I have a couple Sp-25s with EPA arms that will be doing main duty, and a backup SL-1200 slated for stock running gear.

I think very highly of the Jelco and Sumiko arms, but also love the Technics VTA base.

So, this is for mind exercise only.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts however on your experience with the stock arm.

It is easily modded for improved performance and should not be disregarded.
 
thedelihaus said:
My intention is not to get folk fired up but to consider what can be done to improve the stock Technics arm.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting the photos. Very interesting.

I can attest to the performance of the stock tonearm w/mods. I have both the KAB Cardas rewire and tonearm dampener on mine. I'm able to run a very wide range of cartridges (SMMC2 to Stanton 500) with excellent results.
 
cactuscowboy said:
Thanks for posting the photos. Very interesting.

I can attest to the performance of the stock tonearm w/mods. I have both the KAB Cardas rewire and tonearm dampener on mine. I'm able to run a very wide range of cartridges (SMMC2 to Stanton 500) with excellent results.
Click to expand...


The basic design of the stock arm is very good.

What bothered me was the lack of addressing some damping cues.

Hit a length of hollow pipe on the ground- it rings.

Stuff the pipe with an absorbent material- the ringing is squelched.

While folk attest to tone arm wrapping here as a good solution to quell ringing, the end stub was one element also thought to most likely be the culprit of excess resonance.

So easy to address, too.
 
Hi folks, I'm new here, and saw this thread that is definitely a topical item for me. I just bought a Technics 1200, and was wondering if anyone had actually tried the foam damping inside the armtube and with rewiring done. I'll be running a Zu Denon 103 on it.
 
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