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- Jul 21, 2019
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During the pandemic, I built up a audiophile-ish Numark PT01 Scratch with the following upgrades:
Jesse Dean Designs JDDPA tonearm + MM phono preamp
Audio Technica AT95E cartridge
Vistaton replacement speaker
As a portable record player suitable for even the best vinyls, I felt the project was a success. But what I wasn't so comfy about was that I had around $300 sunk into what was pretty much a toy for me, and there was still the battery issue to be dealt with: I've experienced leakage problems even with brand-new alkaline D cells.
Then I checked out this video, and was impressed by how XjunkieNL had managed to accomplish pretty much the same thing, but with a cheaper PT01, and the stock tonearm. So I recovered most of my misspent money by reselling the newly-built PT01 Scratch, and just recently, scored a secondhand PT01 USB (same thing as the Scratch, minus black/red accents and mix switch, which I never used) for $40, shipped, and thus began my latest, lower-cost turntable build.
XjunkieNL offers his tonearm modification CAD files for non-commercial uses, but figured I'd try my hand at creating my own, and ended up going a bit further:
Left to right:
Jesse Dean Designs JDDPA tonearm + MM phono preamp
Audio Technica AT95E cartridge
Vistaton replacement speaker
As a portable record player suitable for even the best vinyls, I felt the project was a success. But what I wasn't so comfy about was that I had around $300 sunk into what was pretty much a toy for me, and there was still the battery issue to be dealt with: I've experienced leakage problems even with brand-new alkaline D cells.
Then I checked out this video, and was impressed by how XjunkieNL had managed to accomplish pretty much the same thing, but with a cheaper PT01, and the stock tonearm. So I recovered most of my misspent money by reselling the newly-built PT01 Scratch, and just recently, scored a secondhand PT01 USB (same thing as the Scratch, minus black/red accents and mix switch, which I never used) for $40, shipped, and thus began my latest, lower-cost turntable build.
XjunkieNL offers his tonearm modification CAD files for non-commercial uses, but figured I'd try my hand at creating my own, and ended up going a bit further:
Left to right:
- Cover plate for stock counterweight cavity which formerly housed a pot-metal part, but which I've now stuffed with tungsten putty, which packs more mass.
- Expanded counterweight outer shell, which gives me a lot more room for said putty, but without interfering with the turntable cover or movement of the tonearm.
- Tonearm vertical stop, because I don't need to have the stylus crashing onto the top of the plinth
- Adapter block for Audio Technica AT3600 cartridge. Unlike XjunkieNL, I opted to trim away the mounting points for the original ceramic cartridge, and simply cement the body of the cartridge into place. Figured it was unlikely that I'd care to revert to original ceramic cartridge, while market value of an AT3600 body is minimal, as most of the $$ is in the stylus.