Schitt Sol Turntable

[Hugo9000]

For EUR 799, an alternative to the Sol would be this:

Kickstarter page:

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...st-3d-printed-modular-record-pl?ref=user_menu

Even has a Bluetooth module.

OMG that one would give me nightmares! Obsolete tech is one thing and has its charm, but in school bus colors?! That brings back far worse memories than pops and clicks in my music. I need a vomit emoji.

 

[garbulky]

I thought he was trolling?

No I wasn't! Lol. I only have experience with garage sale entry level TTs like my Pioneer PL570 that have auto return. I've never even changed the cartridge. It's probably time for that but the process of alighment scares me off. I know there's a paper that one uses to align but I don't know what would happen if my printer prints in the wrong scale or some mistake like that.

 

[garbulky]

OK then. Vinyl records are made with a locked groove. When end of side is reached, the groove spirals in a little further and then reaches a *circular* groove. "Locked" means that the stylus just stays in there until you lift it out. You hear a click or "clunk"once per rev as the stylus crosses the point where the spiral groove meets the circular one. All this means the stylus never reaches the label. You can easily see this on any vinyl record of any size.

Of course, you might find a record where the locked groove has been damaged or was incorrectly pressed and the stylus just sails on into the label, but this is rare and you will quickly learn which records this happens with so you can stand over the TT to lift the arm when you need to!

Thanks! I did not know. So the lock groove click won't damage a stylus right? Like if one was to fall asleep or leave the room without thinking.

 

[watchnerd]

OMG that one would give me nightmares! Obsolete tech is one thing and has its charm, but in school bus colors?! That brings back far worse memories than pops and clicks in my music. I need a vomit emoji.

I know only enough about 3D printing to make guns....but I assume you can pick different colors?

But, yeah, it looks a bit like giant Lego project in those colors.

 

[watchnerd]

No I wasn't! Lol. I only have experience with garage sale entry level TTs like my Pioneer PL570 that have auto return. I've never even changed the cartridge. It's probably time for that but the process of alighment scares me off. I know there's a paper that one uses to align but I don't know what would happen if my printer prints in the wrong scale or some mistake like that.

If you're being sincere, then the Sol is really really not for you.

Start with something like a Rega, Pro-Ject, Audio Technica, or Technics with manual operation and alignment, but fixed bearing tonearm, easy leveling, and and easy alignment, first.

My TT (Michell Gyro SE) is one of the tweakiest you can get, with 3 suspension towers to tune, weighted arm boards that balance on each side, lead weights under the chassis to balance, spring tension and 'bounce' to adjust, two arm potential, and just about any 9" arm, with any alignment you could want......and I'm not sure I'd like to deal with the delicacy of the Sol.

Unless, like the ad says, it was for pure 'hobbyist' reasons, not as a reliable listening device.

 

[Wombat]

Press mute before you do it.

And clean up the shavings.

 

[watchnerd]

And clean up the shavings.

I once ran a Clearaudio Cartridge Break-In disk for something like 8-10 hours straight overnight in the infinite groove of pink noise it featured.

Not only was there a long trail of vinyl hair (clear / white, much to my surprise), the actual sound from the groove had become near silent, requiring like +20 dB to hear anything except low frequencies.

I decided that maybe the cartridge was broken in at that point....

 

[Frank Dernie]

For EUR 799, an alternative to the Sol would be this:

Kickstarter page:

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...st-3d-printed-modular-record-pl?ref=user_menu

Even has a Bluetooth module.

Yuk!

 

[Frank Dernie]

OMG that one would give me nightmares! Obsolete tech is one thing and has its charm, but in school bus colors?! That brings back far worse memories than pops and clicks in my music. I need a vomit emoji.

Scool buses aren't that colour most places

 

[Frank Dernie]

Thanks! I did not know. So the lock groove click won't damage a stylus right? Like if one was to fall asleep or leave the room without thinking.

Yes, the disc and your cartridge would be unnecessarily worn.
I have forgotten in the past and an expensive new stylus was needed. The wear is probably accelerated by the heating I would guess.

 

[Frank Dernie]

I decided that maybe the cartridge was broken in at that point....

Or maybe just "broken"

 

[anmpr1]

Because I'm implementing a rule that the collection shall not get any bigger (enforced by the size of my now full Ikea Kallax), anything new has to mean something else must go.

Solution? Buy a new Kallax. They are stackable, probably.

 

[AudioSceptic]

Thanks! I did not know. So the lock groove click won't damage a stylus right? Like if one was to fall asleep or leave the room without thinking.

Good to see that your concerns are genuine, but I assumed you didn't already play vinyl or you would know about this. Perhaps auto lift-off meant that you never had reason to find out? Can you adjust the auto lift-off to delay it so that the stylus does reach the locked groove, to see what happens?

No, the click will not cause damage. Can you imagine that being a tolerable situation in a world of purely manual arms and multi-thousand £/$ cartridges? All that happens is a bit more stylus wear until you get up and change the record. The click/clunk is annoying enough that you won't let it do that for long.

 

[AudioSceptic]

If you're being sincere, then the Sol is really really not for you.

Start with something like a Rega, Pro-Ject, Audio Technica, or Technics with manual operation and alignment, but fixed bearing tonearm, easy leveling, and and easy alignment, first.

My TT (Michell Gyro SE) is one of the tweakiest you can get, with 3 suspension towers to tune, weighted arm boards that balance on each side, lead weights under the chassis to balance, spring tension and 'bounce' to adjust, two arm potential, and just about any 9" arm, with any alignment you could want......and I'm not sure I'd like to deal with the delicacy of the Sol.

Unless, like the ad says, it was for pure 'hobbyist' reasons, not as a reliable listening device.

Yes, and I would go with a Rega. They've been making similar TTs since the 70s and know how to make something simple, with simple setup, that really works. For years a Rega P2 or P3 was the thing to buy in the UK if you couldn't afford a Linn LP12/Roksan Xerxes/Pink Triangle. The Pro-Jects look like great value but they seem to have lots of models with different design philosophies, which I find confusing.

Never owned a Gyrodec but my impression is that they are actually quite simple to set up, being designed for easy access to the suspension, and with good, logical, instructions. Can you fit a 10" or 10.5" arm, BTW?

 

[AudioSceptic]

Yes, the disc and your cartridge would be unnecessarily worn.
I have forgotten in the past and an expensive new stylus was needed. The wear is probably accelerated by the heating I would guess.

Wear of the locked groove is of no concern whatsoever. Stylus wear might be, but you'd have to do a lot of falling asleep for that to add up to much, surely?

 

[SIY]

From my likely faulty memory, I believe Linn, Acoustic Research and Rega were pioneers of this minimalist turntable design philosophy in the 70s and Rega popularized it in the 80s and beyond.

Historical note from the old guy: this goes back much further. Back in the '60s, I owned AR and Weathers turntables that worked this way, and they weren't anywhere near the first. For example, the Garrard 201 was in production in the 1950s, as was the Thorens TD124.

 

[AudioSceptic]

I once ran a Clearaudio Cartridge Break-In disk for something like 8-10 hours straight overnight in the infinite groove of pink noise it featured.

Not only was there a long trail of vinyl hair (clear / white, much to my surprise), the actual sound from the groove had become near silent, requiring like +20 dB to hear anything except low frequencies.

I decided that maybe the cartridge was broken in at that point....

Cartridge break-in? Just maybe the suspension will loosen up slightly during the first few plays, so just play music!

 

[AudioSceptic]

Scool buses aren't that colour most places

School bus? Never see one, or do you mean all those 4x4s carrying one or 2 children?

 

[watchnerd]

Can you fit a 10" or 10.5" arm, BTW?

Not with the standard Michell-made available arm boards, but maybe with a custom one. The hole in the chassis is probably big enough, but you'd have to worry about the balance being thrown out of whack.

With the Michell-made arm boards, they're all designed so that arm + arm board = 1 kg.

 

[watchnerd]

Solution? Buy a new Kallax. They are stackable, probably.

Ikea also makes a turntable, the FREKVENS: