Late 70s Mitsubishi separates ?

I had (still have) a LT-30 linear turntable. It's a conventional horizontal design. It's footprint makes it difficult to accommodate on standard furniture pieces. I kept it on the floor, on a piece of foam, topped by portable drafting board. It would not go into the 16" depth bookcase that it's predecessor occupied.

It has phono cables included, fixed inside the base. They look flimsy by today's standards, and must be obsolete.

It had 2 things to recommend it - 1.) an extremely low tracking error number, and 2.) a rumble threshold rating of -78 (IIRC).


It has one big drawback - the arm drive motor is designed to move inward. That's logical. But feed it an out of center pressing and the thuds at the apexes of the ellipse the needle tracks are pronounced, noticeable in the playback, as it struggles to cope with a problem that challenges one of it's basic design assumptions.

I know the motor has the ability to move the tonearm assembly backwards toward the record's edge - for locating a song's beginning for example. When in the groove however, I don't know if it is prepared to go from moving towards center, triggered by a forward tracking error, through neutral position, to moving outward triggered by a tracking error message in the opposite direction. I wonder if backwards in-the-groove (play mode) is a free-floating thing, or if it actually measures and responds to, a negative/backwards tracking error limit, advancing in reverse, as it does when moving forward.

I don't let this keep me up at night, since my LT-30 has not been set up for play since 1988.

 

Is a DA-C20 the DA-P20 pre-amp plus a tuner, just in the same package ?

 

if you're going to build a Mitsubishi system around that Mitsubishi DA-A10 amp, look for a DA-F20 tuner and DA-P10 or P20 preamp. the performance difference between those components and the preamp/tuner is HUGE!

I love my DA-P 20

 

I found one for just 199 USD
http://www.classicaudio.com/forsale/misc/mitDAP20.html

 

Beautiful build quality, very heavy and nice looking. Unfortunately, brutally cold sounding, aggressive and mechanical highs, and not much going on in the way of music. Typical mass-market solid state sound of the era. I've had this stuff, the fancy separates and heavy duty power amps, before and it always blows my mind that it sells for what it does. It's cult and fetish stuff, basically. If you want to build a nice sounding audio system, the purchase of late '70s and early '80s Mitsubishi solid state gear would be a total waste of time and money, IMO. They should stick to making cars, but then again they're not very good at that either.

 

I will not agree with you.
I have a lot of equipment and Mitsubishi DA-P 20 is my favourite phono stage ,DA-10 Amp is very transparent and with Sonus fabers (old ones) sound beautiful for my taste.
I test DA-10 VS audiolab monoblocks and Mitsubishi kick there ass.
But that is yes my opinion

 

I bought mine in 1980. At the time I listened to just about every system in the high end audio stores. The only amp that sounded better was the Bedini 25/25, but I couldn't swing the extra bucks. Since then I have heard many good systems, but none that were enough better than the Mitsubishi to make me upgrade. I'd have to say that it was the best money I've ever spent.
It is true that it is transparent, with a very high bandwidth and no coloration. People that like their amp to add a warm coloration are not going to like it.

Terry

 

Actually, I have a DA-C20 and a DA-P20. However, those are my only two Mitsubishi components. On the source side is a Technics SL1200mk2 with an Ortofon 2M blue, and a Technics RS-1500. On the other side of the pre-amp is a Kinergetics KBA-75 and Dahlquist DQ-20. I couldn't tell much of a difference between the two Mitsubishi pre-amps, so I thought I'd ask.

 

Beautiful vintage gear after refresh.
I am
The doctor for refresh did a great job .
We were thinking how to make the signal path shorter , we eliminate one pair of interconnects. Doctor put another pair of connectors on the back of the amp which is connected to the direct input while the existing input turned into output for DA-M10

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Finally i have "mitsubishi vintage rack" in my sleeping room. The lighting is so romantic.
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OMG I think those are the same components I owned Salk those years ago. Beautiful!

 

Hello to my Mitsu Brother.

 

I own two LT-30s, one is a pristine daily driver in the main system and the second one in the office system and for insurance for spare parts. These TTs hold up well against much pricier units, when my audio buddies come over they are shocked at how good it sounds. A lot of it has to do with the massive machined stainless tonearm assembly.

In response to the poster above, they do track both forward and backward. If a record is so off-center that you can hear the arm drive running, the record is the problem. I've never heard a peep from mine.

 

@Aerobat

I've always kicked myself for not buying one way back when they were under the radar. I tried a B&O 4002, and it was a nifty piece of engineering and a beautiful table, but the LT-30 may be the best ever made. I could be a bit biased though.

 

Oh, nice picture.

I'm the guy you refer to, posting about my LT-30. You are correct in stating that the record in question concerning out-of-center performance, was to blame. It was an '80s era Pet Sounds reissue, and it had a visibly bad center-hole mis-punch problem.

Another minor problem - it won't play translucent vinyl. Some colored vinyl collectors like to play their finds, and not just admire the visual aspect.

For those who don't own an LT-30, the tone arm decides where to set the needle down based on reflected light from a series of embeds in the table's matt. It chooses between 12, 10, and 7 inch record diameters, based on no longer receiving reflected signal from the matt embeds. The record is covering the remaining reflectors at that point. Any vinyl clear enough to see light through, gets passed all the way over, sending the tone arm assembly back to rest position beyond the outer edge of the matt and record.

 

I've got one of these Mitsubishi racks with the glass doors. I've gotten rid of all of the Mitsubishi equipment that went in it, but I never found anyone local that wanted the rack. So I'm just using it to store records in. Seems a shame to use it for that when any old record storage cabinet would work better. So if anyone ever is around the Colorado Springs area and wants to pick it up, I'd donate it to a good home. Unfortunately, it is probably impractical to ship it anywhere. So until I find some one local that wants it, I'll just keep using it for record storage.

Terry

 

I keep a circular piece of manila folder handy to put underneath translucent records. The sensors under the platter are very particular - they need two separate light beams from the bulbs/prism, then two other prisms in the platter mat. You can shine a flashlight on them and they ignore it.

One minor correction -- the LT-30 doesn't play 10".

 

I currently own a DA-A15DC and a DA-C20 and would like to find both a DA-M10 meter and remote speaker cord. Is there anyone who can direct me to a place that may have one or both of these items for sale? When I was younger I owned the DA-A10DC with the M10 meters however I traded them off for an upgrade at the time. Wish I never had done that. If anyone has any info for me please send me an email at [email protected]