I believe there is an outer skin, but I could be wrong. A lot depends on the table itself. A quality belt-drive with a massive platter and powerful motor would have plenty of grip for playing more aggressive music.
This is what l have done to my Techie which is now in the Lounge system, in order; KAB Fluid damper. Isonoe feet. Oyaide turntable sheet and Oyaide weight. SME V tonearm. Hana SL. It all sounds very nice Do not use it that much as l use my Gyrodec in my den, which l prefer... however the Techie is no slouch.....
I hate you man! I've been talking myself out of doing this for years and now I may have to finally go ahead with the mods. Thanks for doing this! I have to say, to my ears, the rewire is the biggest upgrade. I detected a little blacker background and a bit more focus to the instruments with the damper, but I am surprised it didn't improve things that much, especially considering this is the one mod upon which everyone agrees. Maybe it's best appreciated with speakers. I played the files in hi-rez using Sennheiser 598cs with Dragonfly Black dac.
I'm surprised you didn't hear a more substantial difference. Even while listening to the files with my modest Grado SR80i's (modded) straight out of my MacBook's headphone jack, I hear a vast difference between all of the files. Did you download the files before listening as I suggested, or did you listen online to the Dropbox preview?
What color??? Please do report on your findings re: the mat. The platter will ring like a bell without a solid mat to deaden it, which is why the MK2 was supplied with a very thick rubber mat. I personally have no problem with the stock mat and consider it integral to the SL-1200's iconic aesthetics, but I am also open-minded and curious! That's a good point you're making, and I suppose I should speak to that point, having just done it. Let me say up front that I am not an especially skilled DIY-er, but I do enjoy tinkering. A person has to know their limitations or suffer the consequences. To be honest, I was pretty scared to take the arm apart and work with those tiny wires. My soldering skills aren't the greatest either. I studied Dr. Metal MD's pictorial as well as a few YouTube videos before I felt reasonably confident that I understood how the arm was assembled and what steps were required to rewire it. I worked very slowly and carefully, and thought about each step before moving forward, to ensure I didn't mess it up. I checked the continuity with a meter several times before putting everything back together. I think I started at around 8PM and didn't finish until after 1AM, LOL. But, having done it, I will say that it's not really all that hard to do.
Thanks! I had the table refinished to matte black, there's a guy I know who does really good work, he installed the tonearm as well.
Yes, downloaded files and played them through the MacBook using Foobar 2000. I just switched to my open back HD-6xx which are more revealing. I do now appreciate the differences a bit more but would not use the words "vast" or "more substantial". Maybe my ears are no longer golden or we just have different standards. Like I said, the difference between the rewire and non-rewire files sounded the most pronounced, but we're taking less than a 5% improvement overall with the two mods. It's probably not the best analogy, but when I change the pitch 1% I can tell the difference when I press the button back and forth. But if someone played me a record that's playing 1% fast, I probably wouldn't notice. 2% fast, that's a different story. So when I play the files back to back quickly on the fly, I can hear those differences quite well. But if I play the first file and then wait a bit (30 seconds or so) and play the next two, the differences seem to be less pronounced. I guess for something to be substantial in my book, you would have to have someone remove something from the system unbeknownst to you, and when you walked into the room and played a record, you would immediately say, what the hell? What happened? I hope that makes sense. If I didn't have a house full of people who hate when I do this kind of A/B-ing, I would play the files through my stereo. I rarely listen to music with headphones, so that could be part of the problem. Again, I appreciate you taking the time to do this. Maybe someone else can chime in.
If anybody wants to try, please PM me your answer as to which ones use which mod: X.wav Y.wav Z.wav @Dr. J. should try before purchase I think.
I'm using satin black with a matte clear after I put the decals on. It was looking like this when I got it
Id think you would be the most important contender. I will in NO WAY force anyone or reveal answers if one doesnt wish to though, Im mostly interested for myself.
Listening to your files, the differences are not as pronounced as I thought, LOL. I find it curious that the playing times are different from my originals - did you purposely edit them to hide their identities?
Yes, I did 2 things, I cut the ends a little as one could identify the files through their different lengths and sizes, and I changed the file name before exporting them losslessly, no compression added. Im no expert however, so please let me know if there is something I could do to improve.
I know I've posted this image before, but for archival purposes in this thread, here is my 1200G with an Ammonite Audio armboard, Jelco TK-850S, Koetsu Urushi Sky Blue, and Auditorium 23 Hommage Mat:
I do think the fluid damper can make a difference still. Depending on the cart and how the resonance works with the arm the damper could probably help clean up some tracking issues. The effects it has is clearly visible with slower arm movement and warps and such should be less audible I think. With an already good cart and tonearm combo the actual music might not be as affected however.
KAB M5g bought from KAB in 2009 with all the various upgrades (Damper, DC PowerSupply, Isonoes, noisy strobe disabler (haha)). Also has the Mike New Bearing.
Yeah. I think measurements would also bear out the benefit of fluid damping, particularly over a less than perfectly flat record. The sound difference, if any, would be subjective depending on one’s hearing, other equipment, preferences, etc. There’s valid science behind fluid damping, though I admittedly can’t direct you to where that research might be. The arm ringing was also measurable on the old tonearms (not sure about the current ones), hence the various fixes like the resonance cap which screwed on to the back where the auxiliary weights attach to deaden the ringing caused by a spring inside the counterweight.
PM sent to @Leonthepro with my guesses. You can give me the results publicly. If I nailed it, I will be out $250 because I'll do the mods. If I am off, then I save $250 and buy some more MM and Tone Poets jazz albums.
