Bill333's System

A few words about the modified versus unmodified Altmann DAC.  The unmodified Altmann is the DAC as it comes straight from http://www.mother-of-tone.com.  The modified Altmann that I own was modified by Paul Hynes.  There's nothing about it on his web site, but Paul Hynes is a fan of the Altmann DAC and offers a mod for it that beefs up the power supply regulation and upgrades the output coupling caps.  Paul felt that power regulation was the Achilles heel of the Altmann DAC and that better power regulation would improve the sound.  Having heard the effects of the mod directly compared to an unmodified unit, I can only agree.  The modified unit loses nothing in musicality, but has better clarity and detail, and a larger soundstage.

Unmodified unit on the left, Hynes modified on the right:

Greetings Bill333

Looks like you have got to the point where the road ahead for you is clear. If the Altmann has repeatedly given you music over time with different combinations of equipment “the whiff of reality”, then it (the Altmann) should be the fulcrum for the rest of your system.

The thing the audiophile world needs is more of us who have the courage to say “[ABC] device gives me what I am looking for in musick – so that is what I will use”. Truth is just because Sonic or senior Tunee Hiend001 uses the AUNE x1s doesn’t make it right for you or for anyone else. Too often, we audio-fans may say we trust our ears but we actually don’t. Our equipment selection, tuning etc is by following the reported success of someone else.

Altmann -- go for it my friend, ignore the naysayers and you will be a happier man.

A question on the AUNE – when you opened up the transformer box, do the wires from the mains connect to the transformer with any exposed Live contacts? The wording of how you described it gave me the impression the wires went into the transformer so there are no exposed live parts.

I am thinking of tuning the transformer – could you let me know, or post pictures if Sonic may so trouble you?

Sonic

Hi Sonic,

I do think the road ahead is clear.  That doesn't mean I won't be substituting the Aune and the Magnavox from time to time as a reference point.  It also doesn't mean I won't eventually move on to something else.  If my investments do particularly well, I might someday try the TotalDac and the Aqua Hifi La Scala.  But for now I'm going to build on the Altmann as a source with some type of audio PC.  I'd like it to involve Roon if I can get good sound from it.

There are no exposed live contacts on my transformer.  The insulation on the lead wires goes all the way down into the windings.  Pictures:

Hello Bill333

Thanks for the information on the AUNE transformer and the pictures  Sonic may get down to Tuning the transformer assembly somewhat down the road, though right now there are a few things that I want to get to done first.

May your investments prosper and do well!  Good that you are also mapping your own path to musick and striking out in true pioneer spirit.

Sonic

A quick update on listening with the Altmann: Last night I spent the entire length of the Bad Company/Bad Company album in a state of reverie.  It's been a long time since that happened.  

And goosebumps with 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'.   Good times.

Bad Company/Bad Company....Sonic knows what you mean. I have that LP and yes, Paul Rodgers' voice is incredible. And I like the way that drum kit is recorded on this record.

MINI-REVIEW:

SYNERGISTIC RESEARCH ACOUSTIC ART SYSTEM

I have been fascinated with the Acoustic ART system for a long time.  It's one of the few room treatment systems out there that don't involve damping in any way.  And the whole thing is so counterintuitive - how do those little metal bowls affect the sound so much?  They came out almost a decade ago, and I well remember the controversy on the audio forums at the time from people who claimed that they couldn't possibly work.  But I'm always inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to actual users who say they're getting good results, over the uninformed analysis of people who have never tried a product.     So I finally borrowed a set from the Cable Company and tried them out for myself in the loft listening area.  

Placement matters a lot.  My initial attempts were unimpressive, but after some trial and error with Abbey Road's Sun King, I got things to a reasonably good place.  Along the way, I hit a placement that gave me the widest crickets I've ever heard - about 70 feet.  I didn't stay with it because a different placement gave me a richer tonality in the instruments, but it was an impressively wide and well behaved cricket pan.  And so I left them in the tone spot and became accustomed to their effect over the next few weeks.  

When it came time to send them back, I expected that removing them would cause a smaller soundstage and a loss of tone, but that wasn't the case at all.  Instead, what I heard was an 'unsmoothing' of the music.  Things sounded a little louder, a little more coarse, and quite a bit more natural and dynamic.  Soundstage and tone were largely unchanged.  The effect was like removing a power conditioner from the system.  The sound becomes grainier and less refined, but gains in the area of dynamics.  I'm not sure if I would have observed the same effect with different placements of the ART system.  I just didn't spend enough time doing trial and error.

So did I purchase them?   No.  At $3500, I don't think they bring enough to the table to justify the price.  And the loft setup is temporary; I don't know what, if anything, they would do for the tunable room.  If the price were inexpensive, they would be an easy recommendation as a tool to keep in your tuning toolchest.  They do work, but I'm not really short of room tuning methods and tools.

Hi Bill333

Fascinating!

There is a thought in here that is related to how listeners/tunes assess the changes made by tweaks and tunes.

Too often we read in magazines and websites “I added this [name of device] and a few minutes later after I picked my jaw up off the floor, I can tell you [rhapsodizing follows].”

On the other hand some of us have had the experience that went like so:

a. apply the tweak/add the device under test.

b. hear an improvement

c. later (sometimes much later), reverse the tweak/remove the device under test

d. hear no difference from the reversal/removal

Question: what was the real contribution of the tweak/device under test? Is the change we heard/think we heard when we frist introduced it or is it the Zero Difference or tiny difference when we reversed the tweak/device under test?

Sonic’s experience is that the Exit Impression might be the real difference and contribution. It is the sum of the changes sans any expectation of the new, of wanting something to work and any pre-conditioning we have undergone from the audio reviews or sales talk.

What do you think, particularly in relation to your experience with the Synergistic Research bowls?

Sonic

everything affects everything else

I'm sure it's interesting for the "outside the tune" world to look at the tune and say "too many variables". At the same time the whole of the hobby is really all about the variables and how to get to places and back. It's also fun to experience the "moment" of a listening session vs the thinking behind a one size fits all fixed setting.

On one side of me personally it's fun to explore new entries into the sound, but the bigger (more complete) side of me always brings me back to the place of the reality that each moment is excitingly unique.

There's always a specific moment waiting to be discovered and a specific tweak or tune to get to that moment.



nice read

Hi Sonic,

You raise some good questions, that I don't really have answers for.  I think if I did a lot more back and forth experimenting, I would eventually have a good handle on what any particular change does.  As for the initial impression, I think it's human nature to get excited about something new.  I don't think there's anything wrong with that, you just need to work with something for a while to really understand what it does.

My audition in my own system is not the only time I've ever heard the Acoustic ART system demo'd.  I heard it a couple years back at an audio show and the effects were very different than what I heard at home.  The effect there was to make the sound 'bloom' in much the same way that a tube amp has bloom.  Removing the bowls clearly undid the effect.  I listened to the demo a couple times through, so I feel pretty confident about my assessment.  Why so different than what I heard at home?  I guess details about placement and the system itself make a big difference.

Hello Bill333

Thanks for comment. How are the DACs coming along?

Sonic

Greetings Bill333 -- what's cooking in your corner? You been real quiet....

Sonic

Hi Sonic,

Sorry about the late reply - I've been concentrating on other things for a while.  It would be a little embarrassing to list what those other things are, but suffice it to say that I am not a person with only one hobby.

I still haven't gotten around to soldering the new wires onto the Aune, but I have the parts I need and will get to it at some point.  I have made arrangements to have my second Altmann DAC upgraded by Paul Hynes, so that will happen sometime in the next few months.  On the planning board, I'm very interested in a new DAC strategy I've been reading about which involves using a high powered computer to convert all files to DSD512 (thats 8x normal DSD sampling rate) and then passing it to a very simple discrete (no chip) 1 bit D/A converter.  So I may pick up an inexpensive DSD capable DAC and give that a try.

I had been hoping to spend some time listening to a good vinyl system.  I actually have a distant cousin in Michigan that my father occasionally sees who is a big vinyl guy.  Some years ago, my father came home from a visit with very high praise about this man's stereo system.  My father is not a person giving to raving about stereo systems - mine, or anyone else's, so I sat up and payed attention.  Lately, I've been trying to contact this cousin but haven't had any success.  I would very much like to go hear this for myself.  I've never really had the opportunity to listen to a truly good vinyl based system.

Another thing I'm contemplating is installing a radio antenna on the roof.  I've got the Sherwood receiver which has a perfectly nice tuner in it, but I've never been able to listen to it because connecting a simple antenna to it in the basement has never yielded anything close to decent reception.  But a rooftop antenna will be a game changer.  It would be a very new and exotic experience to hear radio on a good system.

Hi Bill333

Thanks for the update!

Hmmm....DSD512. Please elaborate on the 1-bit DAC with no chip....send a link if you can. Sonic is interested. The problem with digital has been the steep filters involved along with the non-causal ringing that sometimes happens. I understand with DSD, even though noisy, you can use simple filters.

Sonic

Hi Sonic,

You can read about the DSD512 on this computer audiophile thread.  The discussion is centered around a DAC called the DAC 8 DSD made by German company T&A.  (I wonder if they realize what that means in
American english?)  But to a large extent the benefits should apply to any DAC capable of DSD512.  I think the magic is mostly in the extremely high DSD rate, and the quality of the HQPlayer software which does the upconversion.  The thread is 41 pages long, but you mostly want to concentrate on posts by Eurodriver, Hifial and Juanitox.  Note that this requires a pretty powerful computer - anything less than a core i7 6700k may not do it.

Thanks Bill333

Sonic thinks the thread you refer to has been found, though I am side tracked by a discussion on the site about jitter.

I'm posting up an email exchange I recently had with MIchael:

Hi Michael,

The rods look great, they came through shipping with no problem.  I haven't had a chance to use any of them yet - the music system has been pretty quiet lately.  Elizabeth really hates it when I'm playing music upstairs so I don't do it very often.  

Mostly I'm turning my efforts toward getting the room built.  I finally finished the scarfing jig, just need to test it out and them I'm a go on cutting the first 2x4s.
 
I've been interested lately in reel to reel tape machines.  Apparently there's a real underground market for high quality master tape dubs on 1/4" 2-track 15ips tape.  Do you know any decks that you could recommend as particularly good sounding and tunable?

Best regards,
Bill

Hi Bill

Thanks for the rods report, I was hoping they would get there without any damage. As you can see they're fairly delicate.

Tape has always been my favorite source so these last couple of years have put a smile on my face. Vinyl is very cool but (practically speaking) a detour that should have never happened in the purist sense. Tape has, as you said, had an underground network that has never gone away even though "high end audio" didn't follow it.

Are you wanting to go vintage or new? If vintage there are a bunch of them if you have a good service center. If new I did Studer-Revox, Teac-Tascam. I'm sure a lot of folks like Technics are going to jump on the band wagon. The cool thing is a lot of the old companies built super good decks in the past and will be a piece of cake for them to get back in. If you see some model numbers fire them off to me and I'll check them out or tell you if I have used them. I know old Pioneer, Akai, Technics, Teac all have better sounding units to their turntable counterparts. An old R2R will blow away a high end TT any day of the week if you know how to use them.

Your going 15? Really? Your talking some serious alignment if your going that fast. I grew up with 30 but that was on 2" tape (studio). 7.5 was the most common for high end if you are going to collect, or even 3.75. Are the latest folks going 15? That's pretty darn fast for domestic.  Interesting, should be fun! I'm getting old LOL.

mg

Hi Michael,

I'm glad you share my interest in this, it's always nice to have your help with a new endeavor.  I've been trying to find out what lies down the analog path by putting together a vinyl system but it just has not turned out well at all.  A few rave reviews have me thinking, why not skip the vinyl and go straight to the analog source?  I have no vinyl music collection anyway.

I would have thought it would be impossible to get much music on reel to reel tape, but eBay makes it easy to find vintage prerecorded open reel tape.  Rock, jazz, classical, all kinds of things.  These are nearly all recorded at 7.5 and 3.75, some of it 4 track.  And then there's the high end underground with the 15 ips 2 track.  There's a few of those available on eBay, but for most of it you'd have to know someone.  What I hear about the private collections is that they are mostly early-generation copies of very high quality and that some of the collections are very large - from hundreds to even thousands.  Copies aren't cheap, enough tape to record an album at 15 ips is about $75.  But it's possible to get some really wonderful things.

I'm not sure what you mean by vintage or new?  As far as I can tell no one makes tape decks any more, although a German company named Horch House is talking about coming out
with one aimed at audiophiles next year.  But it'll be expensive, and who knows when they'll actually get it to market.  I know Studer/Revox and Teac/Tascam aren'tmaking decks any more.  I think the Tascam BR-20 was one of the last ones available, and they shut that down in 2004.

There's a couple directions I'm looking at.  United Home Audio buys up Tascam BR-20s, strips them down and replaces their output boards with higher quality electronics.  They make a few different models, starting at $6500 and going up to $20000.  Not cheap, but these are the units that reviewers have been raving about.  The other way would be to go with The Tape Project's recommendations.  They recommend either the Otari MX5050 or the Technics RS1500, and they sell kits for upgrading the tape path hardware and building your own head preamp.  This sounds appealing because the cost of entry is lower and I can upgrade the deck, take it apart and learn how to tune it.  Between the two, I'm leaning towards the Otari.  It's less expensive on the used market than the Technics and has both IEC and NAB equalization, as well as 3.75, 7.5 and 15 ips speeds.  It also has a good reputation for sound in its stock form.

As far as 15ips goes, I'm not really worried about alignment, the decks I'm considering all have 15 as a built in speed.  For whatever reasons, 1/4 inch 2 track at 15 ips has become the audiophile standard now.  All of the new tapes being currently produced use the format and it's what the private libraries are standardized on as well.  You can see a list of above board 'Master Tape' sellers on this page at the UHA web site.  They're all 1/4" 2 track 15 ips with IEC equalization.  At this point, the format seems like a done deal, but I also see various posts on the forums in support of it, like this one and this one.

These deck tend to be really heavy and stuffed full of parts.  How do you tune them up?  Does the outboard head preamp sound like a good idea?

Best regards,
Bill

Hi Bill

We should probably take this to TuneLand so I don't get lost in email land, but to answer the question. Vintage is anything pre 80's, when the cassette and CD took over, causing most decks to lean toward pro designing and away from home recording and duplication. When you look back through the models you'll notice the change in looks. Nice thing about the 70's and back was most of the hobbyists were into recording and copying as much as playback. You could get your hands on quality slaves and make higher quality copies for your friends as opposed to store bought stock.

I would highly recommend reading up in the pro or semi pro forums and not only the high end audiophile ones. One thing you will find is a hobby that is a lot cheaper, and guys who know what they are doing through many years of experience. The high end audiophile crowd I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw their over built speakers LOL. It's not that bad, but the home recording guys you'll find to have more knowledge about some of the flavors and maturity involved in the R2R audiophile sport.

Keep in mind when you get into this there are going to be a ton of variables, maybe more than vinyl or CD's. Or maybe I should say, your going to hear big differences between recordings and machines, types of tape, settings and as you said speed. And let me say, speed is not a cure all, and if someone says do all 15ips they don't have much experience. 15 is great, but for example, if you take a certain tape brand that leans up and put it on a machine that leans up at 15ips it could sound like fingernails on a chalkboard. The reason why 15 was used for recording was for the clean performance, but sometimes if you copy this or play this back on a different machine 15 may or may not sound in pitch. The whole reason for stepping things down and equalizing is to make recordings forgiving enough to play on many different playback models. 15ips is good for recording, but I have a feeling some of the same problems will show up as with these guys trying to do clean at the expense of variety. 15 and 30 in the studio is one thing, 15 a couple of generations down the road and on a different machine? Maybe on simple jazz but I would have to wonder about complicated rock with serious effects and over dubbing. Of course I'm up for learning new things.

However as critical as I might be, this is going to blow away vinyl done right.

mg

It's like in Star Wars when Yoda says "there is another".

Greetings Bill333  

This is one fascinating direction you are taking! Wow        Sonic will be rushing to read your every post on this topic of playing Tape.

As you know I researched into and have dabbled a little into tape myself. As a result, Sonic got some observations and questions about things which kept me from going full-tilt into analog tape. Happily my experience with vinyl LPs, EPs and SPs has been successful and rewarding -  so vinyl playback became a permanent fixture in Sonic's system.

There are many great vintage tape decks out there – Ampex, Tandberg, Pioneer, Akai, Sony-Superscope and of course Revox. Sonic read this is one of the best sounding of them all:



Its tubed too!

While the Revox A77 was a great machine, its transistor audio circuitry was much bettered by later models like the B77 which sounded better.  There are the Studer professional versions like the A80 to think about too.

A question you must have already resolved before taking this path: how are you going to deal with tape oxide shedding as well as the drying up of the lubricants in the tape that makes for uneven winding and eventual breaking of the tape?

Sonic tested a tape system and while the first few minutes of playback in my system was excellent, the TDK tape that was used shed so badly that the heads clogged up and I had to stop and clean the heads in 10 minutes. And the next 10 minutes and so on. The next day the spool of tape still kept shedding and the vertical chattering on fast wind made bits of tape stand proud of the stack. Short of cooking tapes in my oven, the unknowns of generations of tape copies, cost per programme (Handel's Wassermusick will be two reels of tape at 7.5 ips, 2 track 1/4 inch.

How did you resolve this in your mind?  Sonic's brain seized up and so I did not advance.

Is setting head azimuth and bias anything to worry about? I guess if you set the head azimuth with the right test tapes you will be able to play the tapes with all proper frequency response unless their recording machines azimuth settings were off. Do pre-recorded tapes have azimuth issues?

Sonic was told that professional tapes have test tone in the lead in tape to check against. That is how tapes could be shipped between studios and overdubbing could be done and then everything mixed down in proper balance.

Michael made some good points on 15 ips and 7.5 ips. I particularly took notice of "Keep in mind when you get into this there are going to be a ton of variables, maybe more than vinyl or CD's. Or maybe I should say, your going to hear big differences between recordings and machines, types of tape, settings and as you said speed. And let me say, speed is not a cure all, and if someone says do all 15ips they don't have much experience. 15 is great, but for example, if you take a certain tape brand that leans up and put it on a machine that leans up at 15ips it could sound like fingernails on a chalkboard. The reason why 15 was used for recording was for the clean performance, but sometimes if you copy this or play this back on a different machine 15 may or may not sound in pitch."

Michael, what do you mean "...a certain tape brand that leans up and put it on a machine that leans up..." -- is "lean up" a thinning of the sound, rolling off the bass?  

Congratulations on this new direction, Bill333!

Sonic

Hi Sonic,

I'm glad to hear from you.  I didn't know you had so much experience with tape, I'm hoping we can help each other solve the problems and get great sound.  It's a little unclear from your post - is the deck you are saying sounds the best of them all the Revox, or something else?

I should say that my plan is to use an outboard head preamp, so what the deck sounds like in stock form is not necessarily the first consideration.  If it doesn't have tubes, I can always add them.  At the moment, I have a bid in on this Technics RS1500 on ebay.  The seller is local, so I wouldn't even have to have it shipped.  Another one that I have my eye on that I just heard about very recently is the Lyrec RB-02.  Lyrec was a Danish company which sold mainly in Europe and Canada, so almost nobody here has ever heard of it.  The Lyrec decks seem to have been aimed at the studio market as a replacement for the likes of Nagra, Ampex and Studer.  There are several units for sale on European ebay, but you can see some nice pictures at this link.  What really got my attention about this one is that it weighs 7.5kg.  That's 16.5 pounds!  Most of these decks weigh 50 pounds and up.  I'm drooling out of both sides of my mouth.  

In answer to your question about tape degradation, I was planning to use new tapes except for the vintage pre-recorded material.  For the vintage tapes, I guess it's luck of the draw.  Did you every use any of the new 15 ips audiophile tapes?  I'm assuming these are recorded on newly manufactured tape of high quality so shedding shouldn't be a problem.  Where did you get this TDK tape, and how old was it?  In the best of all possible worlds, I find a source for inexpensive master tape dubs recorded on brand new high quality tape.  With all my favorite artists.  Copied straight from the masters on tuned recording equipment.  Ok, that's probably not how it's going to go, but we'll see.

I'm pretty sure Michael meant forwardness in the treble, but I should probably let him answer that himself.

Regards,
Bill

Hi Guys

Sonic said

Michael, what do you mean "...a certain tape brand that leans up and put it on a machine that leans up..." -- is "lean up" a thinning of the sound, rolling off the bass?

mg

Bill describes it well "forwardness in the treble". And I could add, many times by the reduction of low end harmonics.
____________________________________________________________

My responses hopefully will be of some benefit, but unfortunately are limited to the time I used tape. I'm sure the development of tape has changed since I was a Tapehead. I may not be of much use when it comes to things as shelf life, but might have a little to offer in the steps I took going from the original, to masters, to slaves, to the different types of dups (duplication), both with R2R and cassette. I did the start to finish and was QC on runs. Back then we were called tape runners among other new and developing names as recording evolved. As well as engineering I was used to check the quality of sound from station to station (steps of the process) in the studios. If one studio's sound was off (even if the meters said differently), I would find out why and either fix it or tell them what was going on. I did the same when shipments of tape came in from venders.

We've made note before that my work was instrumental in the designing of mastering studios, along with many other guys and ideas, however as important is for us to understand some of the historic timing of mastering and duplication.

click on the preview to see the timeline of where I fit in
https://www.lynda.com/iTunes-tutorials/history-audio-mastering/109358/120959-4.html

As you have seen in this short clip mastering and transfer has been in the works for some time now, but in many ways, is still very young. You have the development of recording, recording studios, duplication and all the levels of quality and the matching of codes way before it gets to the customer. The mechanics of this technology has been mostly lost by the high end audio hobby and magazines, but I believe the re-up of R2R's is going to bring us full circle and back to the variables. Or at least I can pretend that high end will look deeper than they did with "discrete componentry".

If there is one thing to learn on TuneLand more than anything else, it is the understanding that every recording is unique and that variable tuning is the only way to deeply explore recordings.

As far as collections...

I find both vinyl and tape are flawed as far as long term collections. My focus is more on the qualities of sound each of these produce and how each particular recorded source is played back. On their best day I would take tape over vinyl. The question is, what is a best case scenario? And how much attention are we willing to spend on the physical part of this hobby?

With Tapeheads, do we start from here and move forward or do we attempt to dig back and restore, the best we can, the originals and rotate our collections based on shelf life? I think there may be two answers here. One is the high end audio way and the other a more practical approach.

the sound

The other topic I hope we explore is the sound of vinyl vs the sound of tape as more of a generic topic. Let's say the tape market is reborn with the two basic (or even 3) speeds 7.5 and 15. Let's also say newer tape is more forgiving over the old in regards to storage. Let's also assume one more thing, the adjustments are made simple and fast. This being the case and assuming folks never understand the CD, tape could become the new analog reference sound. Personally I hope 7.5 is not forgotten cause I wouldn't want to limit myself and would miss that fat lushes harmonic involvement. I also think if we add back in tape, the talks about recorded purity can resurface as more of a matter of taste.

sigh, more rooms, I need more rooms I could so see me doing at least the 7.5 thing

An older Akai or Pioneer or Teac. Oh why do you guys do this to me I love it

Greetings Bill333

Sonic might know some things but I am not all that knowledgeable about tape.  Of course I will share what I know with you, a fellow-Tunee. Though I might make mistakes along the way.

Here are three thoughts to build on our conversation of yesterday:

1. the use of a head preamp pre-supposes that the tape deck has a tape head output that gives you a signal before the internal audio circuitry -- the machines I have encountered (Revox A77, Sony, Philips and Tandberg) do not have such an output.  Don't know if the Technics has such an output in its stock form.

The alternative is to go into the machine, mod it so you take the signal from the playback head out before all the equalisation. How easy this is will vary from make to make.  I read somewhere that some have encountered unexpected things like coupling transformers in there and stuff like that -- so whosoever attempts this must have circuit diagrams, mapped out the modification plan with very good skills and grasp of what needs to be done. A kaput vintage machine whose manufacturer has been long gone is not a nice thing to contemplate.  

Of course if the Technics you have bidded for on eBay has this output then  and then it is a matter of selecting your head preamp. I know of the existence of the Bottlehead models and Eveanna Manley also makes one.

2. tape stock is the other thing.  The only source of new/fresh blank tape for studio application is ATR as far as I know. The others like Maxell, BASF, Ampex are no longer in production and you are left with NOS.  How good these NOS tapes are depends on how the tape has been stored. A good one and problem-free you will be but tape that has been stored in damp, salty environments present nightmares.

So the tape that comes with musick on will be as good as the tape it was recorded on plus storage.  Of course the Tape Project is issuing musick on good tape stock though the cost is very high, something like several hundreds of $ per musical programme.

3. for serious tape-fans some means of ensuring the head azimuth is set correctly is essential just like if you are into vinyl one must have a protractor (or know someone who has) to set your Baerwald alignments.  Sonic has one TT in Baerwald alignment for LPs and the other with Stevenson for EPs and SPs. Just turntables, a deck is only as good as its alignment.

Also some means of inspecting the heads to ensure they are in good shape as well as the capstan and pinch roller (drag your fingernail up and down the capstan, if you feel a ridge beware, also the pinch roller plus the rubber might have hardened -- a new pinch roller is essential for restoring Ampexes).

None of these are insuperable barriers.  Many audio-fans have gone the tape route and found wonderful musick.  

Sonic

Hi Bill

I saw that the bidding has ended on the unit, did you get it? Or is the search still on?

Hi Michael,

I got it.  Here it is, safe and sound at home, sitting on the kitchen counter:



The seller was in a northern suburb so arranging the pick up took some resourcefulness, but I was able to pick it up Sunday evening just hours after the auction ended.  Definitely beats having it shipped.  The seller demoed it for me and it sounded fine over the internal headphone amp.  Cosmetically, the condition was nicer than I expected.  I almost feel bad about taking the thing apart like I know I'm going to do.  

I should mention that I'm about to put a bid in on a second one - the Lyrec RB-02.  Parts and knowledgeable repair techs will probably be difficult to come by, but it's sooooo  lightweight...