Yea, that newspaper machine stand does look cool, I was just talking about the record in my picture in response to Jimi, who just used your picture of the Tull album in your brother's stand as a funny reference. Apologies for the confusion, if there was any, sometimes I do ramble on about music and get a little lost in the oblique tangents, not so much when talking about hardware. Guess in the future I should try to keep the music talk in the music forum But for now, listening to the beautiful Mirage this morning from Chihei Hatakeyama, one of my big favorites from last year. He's a Japanese ambient artist and this one was some 5 years in the making, inspired by his travels in Turkey, and the way sound travels and decays in the busy bazaar markets, it does evoke images of those travels and adventures, but very peaceful too. Fun to get lost in for awhile.
And just to keep it going on the hardware side, this is my Micro Seiki DD-10, still a work in progress right now, need to refinish the aluminum top casting and the wood base, it was a freebie with some minor damage ... in this case, spinning the first Kikagaku Moyo record ...
My first turntable back in 1977 (age 13) was a BIC 960, which I happily used until it went on the fritz sometime in the '80s. I've always had fond memories of my BIC, so when someone local offered me a 1976 BIC 960 that he had already gone through and re-lubed, all for the princely sum of $20, I couldn't resist taking a walk down memory lane. When I got it home, all of the functions worked smoothly and accurately, except the arm would glide horizontally during set-down. After going through the service manual and asking some questions on AudioKarma, I learned that one of the thingummybobs underneath is supposed to have a thin cork pad adhered to it, to which a brake pin is supposed to come in contact with during cueing to prevent the arm from gliding during descent. I did some poking around inside and found the pad, which had come loose and got caught up in the works. I re-affixed the pad, made some adjustments to the interaction of the brake pin and arm lift pin, and added some more cueing fluid as well, and now it works perfectly! I gotta say, the BIC is a surprise. Record changers aren't generally well-regarded, but this BIC is a far better performer than you might expect. Rumble is non-existent, tracking is fine, and it has excellent dynamics and "air." These tables are very much underrated and are still common and very inexpensive on the used market. There's also a great series of comprehensive servicing videos on YouTube. I'm not sure how/where this will fit in my system, mainly because space is at a premium. I might use it with a budget cartridge as a "casual listening" deck; it currently has a Shure M91ED with EVG stylus, but I'm been curious about the newly reintroduced $75 Grado Black2, so I might spring for one of those. [If anyone has a spare single-play BIC spindle, please get in touch!]
Glad to see you're still running this table Slick. That auto shutoff is something I miss with my old P-500.
