Schiit Sol- The Next Great Turntable?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by msinderson, Sep 5, 2019.

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  1. Nathan Z

    Nathan Z Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    Maybe check the ground lead on the cartridge pins? Nagaoka cartridges have unusually small pins and so you have to really focus on getting them snug when you first set them up or else the connectors might just fall right off.
     
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  2. Ripblade

    Ripblade Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Six
    Isn't that for 120V motors?
     
  3. Ripblade

    Ripblade Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Six
    I find that, too. Also, more drive in the bass & more seamless integration with the lower mids. I put diluted, liquid rosin on the thread to give it traction.
     
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  4. Ripblade

    Ripblade Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Six
    Nice setup! I like what you did to isolate the motor. Is that sand in the lower base, or what?
     
  5. Davey

    Davey NP: CLARAGUILAR ~ Figura (2024)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    16 or 120VAC, but the distortion is pretty high on both...

    Distortion (16VAC output)..............1.75%
    Distortion (115VAC output).............2.4%

    Music Hall
    [​IMG]


    The other "problem" is that like many of the controllers, they choose to run the motor slow at the 33.3 setting, around 45 Hz, and at 45 it runs at the normal 60Hz, so you can sometimes get more noise at the 33.3 setting since the phase capacitor isn't optimised for that line frequency. Contrast with the Rega NEO which has much lower distortion, runs the motor faster at 45, and also switches the phase capacitor for each speed. I think the Rega has adjustable voltage internally, so may be the one to go with, especially with under 0.1% distortion on the output. Something to look into anyway, I've seen used ones at very good prices. In fact, one of the dealers here has a used one listed on audiogon right now.
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2020
  6. periclimenes

    periclimenes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Miami, FL
    Kitty litter! Sand might have been better, but I had a bag of plain kitty litter on-hand.
     
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  7. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Bend, IN
    Good info @Davey and @Ripblade, thank you! I will still be on the lookout for a reasonably priced Falcon/Roadrunner combo. I used to have one and sold it on here many years ago :(
     
  8. periclimenes

    periclimenes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Miami, FL
    I wonder if Fremer was running it with the belt at 33 on the pulley and 45 RPM on the Music Hall.
     
  9. Davey

    Davey NP: CLARAGUILAR ~ Figura (2024)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    Yea, that's what I've recommended people do in the past, unless they are adamant about not moving the belt. Better performance, for sure.
     
  10. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Bend, IN
    Visually, everything looks tight and pushed back as far as it can go on the pins.

    As I was inspecting things, I touched the positive lead with my finger and the "buzz" turned into a very loud buzzing sound. Same pitch and frequency just much louder. Not sure if that's normal or not, and i don't have another cart to test with unfortunately.

    Also not sure if it matters, but the buzz occurs whether I have the stylus attached or not. I took it off for cautionary purposes while I was fiddling with the arm a bit, and it still makes the same noise.
     
  11. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Bend, IN
    One more data point - I did recall that I have a broken Lyra Argo I hanging around. Now it's a LOMC but I plugged one channel of it into the tonearm leads on the Sol and no buzz or noise. I hear a faint bit of soft noise from that channel, where the Nagaoka channel still has the buzz in it.

    Other observation - when I touch the arm, the buzz increases. When I touch the pivot point or the headshell, the buzz decreases.

    I think it's the cart...
     
  12. Ripblade

    Ripblade Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Six
    Thanks!

    You don't sound convinced...
     
  13. Davey

    Davey NP: CLARAGUILAR ~ Figura (2024)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    Convinced of what? That the Music Hall is a good controller, or that it improves the sound? I'm sure it depends a lot on your AC line quality, most of us have a lot of distortion and resulting DC from unbalanced loading on our lines these days, so regeneration can help, even when the harmonic distortion is high. I've built power supplies in the past for turntables and can attest to that, even a good isolation transformer with some quality filtering can make a big difference, but doesn't allow any speed control. The old PS Audio power regenerators could be used too, though most of them have probably broken down by now.
     
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  14. Ripblade

    Ripblade Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Six
    Both, but I think you answered both points. I know a fellow who uses an autoformer to ramp down the voltage on his Michell Orbe after startup. Says it reduces vibrations. I don't doubt it. The Sol could use some improvement there, too. I've done some to reduce transmission through the can, but more work needs to be done.
     
  15. Nathan Z

    Nathan Z Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    If you're hearing it even with the arm at rest, it's definitely a ground issue. Maybe it's your preamp? I had that issue for the longest time and I couldn't isolate the buzz until I just replaced my whole system except for the speakers LOL
     
  16. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Bend, IN
    So my attempt to make a silk string belt failed. Need to get better at that (and any hints to what string to buy... that'd be awesome).

    But even on the original belt, which has so far given me the best W/F measurements, before the Cruise Control I was getting at best .28% - not great. I am still hearing a little friction and noise from the bearing so I'm sure this number can come down even further but so far, I'm happy:

    [​IMG]

    I saw as low as .12% but forgot to screenshot that, of course. But .14~.15 is about where I was at most of the time. And belt slack plays a huge role here. It's got to be "just right." Motor position is currently directly behind the platter.

    Lastly, I found without CC, that putting the belt at one extreme (top or bottom) of the platter was best. With CC, right in the middle is best. Could just be my testing methodology (spray and pray) but just putting it out there.

    On the old belt when I was getting .28% or whatever, that was at a speed of 33.2 RPM. So the speed is more accurate and more stable now. I am running it at the 45 RPM setting and will move the belt to change speeds. So far in my testing, this yields the most consistent results.

    I also tried the newer, lighter pulley. It was not as consistent as the heavier, "push to start" pulley.

    In every case the CC is producing better numbers than without, so to me, it's money well spent.
     
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  17. periclimenes

    periclimenes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Miami, FL
    Thanks for posting an update. Glad to see it is working out for you!
     
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  18. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Bend, IN
    My pleasure. Haven't been able to listen yet, but now today my Nag MP-500 showed up so now I want to get that on and aligned too. Hopefully I can practice some restraint to get at least one night of listening in with the same cart I'm used to.
     
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  19. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Bend, IN
    [​IMG]

    Sol, upgraded. MP-500 cart, George Merrill PolyWeight, Music Hall Cruise Control, and a big cutting board atop foam insulation.

    It's a bit of a jumble but... I'm amazed at how much this table can offer with some good energy management and a speed controller. It's not for everyone but for one who likes to tweak, it's sublime. Take all this stuff away and it's good but not exceptional. My favorite part is the tonearm. Amazing tracking and very, very lively.

    Only had the MP-500 on for a couple songs to verify setup. I can already tell, this thing is going to do really well on this setup.

    And there are still some other improvements to be had, for sure. But I like that as a platform, Sol can scale.

    Will post more when I'm not on my phone :)
     
  20. periclimenes

    periclimenes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Miami, FL

    How are you setting your azimuth? And the VTA?
     
  21. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Bend, IN
    VTA I'll use the Flying Fish LP. Haven't done that yet, but "slightly tail up" hasn't failed me terribly in the past, so it's my typical starting point. If anything, right now it's a tiny bit bass shy but the bass that is there is so tuneful and seemingly "right," that I don't think it needs much tweaking.

    As for azimuth, for now I'm just doing it by ear/eye. Haven't quite figured out how I want to do it longer term. The elliptical I had before wasn't all that sensitive to Azi, but I'm sure this one will be more so. Worst case, I'll use a double-Y and my test LP mono track, but it's been so long since I've set it that way, I have to revisit exactly what to do for that :)
     
  22. periclimenes

    periclimenes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Miami, FL
    I recently set my azimuth using an oscilloscope and test LP and was surprised at how far away from parallel to the floor the top of the headshell was. I guess the diamond on my cartridge was mounted a bit wonky.
     
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  23. Davey

    Davey NP: CLARAGUILAR ~ Figura (2024)

    Location:
    SF Bay Area, USA
    Did you use the phase difference or crosstalk method?
     
  24. periclimenes

    periclimenes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Miami, FL
    I'm not sure what it would be called. I'm a physics teacher, so the thing that made sense to me was taking a 1,000 Hz in-phase test tone from an LP. I inverted one channel, then made adjustments to the azimuth to minimize artifact I got when I summed the two.
     
  25. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Bend, IN
    So while we're on the subject... I've put a double Y cable in between my table and phono pre to basically send it a mono signal (no mono switch on phono preamp). I am playing track one on the Analogue Productions test LP - 1 khz mono reference track.

    I have one speaker wired out of phase with the other.

    I would expect a very quiet tone being played but it's really not. It's pretty loud (60 dB ish) no matter where I set the azimuth setting. There are some settings where it's a tiny bit more quiet, but I could swear I did this years ago and it was a very quiet tone when set up this way, and it got more or less quiet the closer I was to dialing in azimuth correctly.
     
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