audio-talk

So why (try to) sell a Kenwood DD?
Because I've tried something else.

Having read Jonos article about his 401 and investigated various high mass designs, and hearing Satedecks I decided something similar should be OK.
I researched the price of large pieces of wood and decided there must be a cheaper way.
The Professional Cookware Co. do beech chopping boards, 600 x 450 x40 for £30, so that what I used.
It's all a bit of a lash up at the moment, but I'm pleased with the results.
And if I change my mind the cook gets a new chopping board.

As someone else wrote, the benifit of using a 103 for experimentation is that its not such a disaster if you break it. Another advantage is that they are so tough. I forgot the queueing actio is undamped and effectively dropped the arm for an inch onto the record. The arm bounced back almost to the original height and the cartridge was undamaged, and there is only a slight click on the record.

Regards Richard H

Looks good Richard

sounds good?

Hi Richard,

Looks lovely at a very nice price and from my own experiments I have no doubt it sounds good. Nice to see you drifting towards the dark (idler) side. Those Kenwood DD's do seem to polarise user/believer opinion (in some anyway)......assuming of course all alternatives have actually been compared

Best wishes,

Greg

Richard Higgins wrote:The Professional Cookware Co. do beech chopping boards, 600 x 450 x40 for £30,
Regards Richard H

Richard Any chance of posting a link, Your plinth looks to be just what I am looking for, But I want to make sure I buy the "right" chopping board

Andy

Thanks for positive comments.
I’ve found the deck/arm/cartridge to be very dependant on set-up. I fitted the arm as SME recommend and found that slightly overtightening the arm killed the sound.

The sound, well either my hearing is playing tricks, or the sound has changed as the new arm to phono cable has burnt in. I think that the 103 is being allowed to show its characteristics more clearly. Its very dynamic and quick, but not the last word in detail when the music gets complicate, but great fun. It’s also the best sound I’ve got from a 103.

I briefly tried a Kontra B, but my phono loading is now so wrong (36x into 47K, the best I tried for a 103) for it that it sounded like a £10 cartridge. Next trick is to add some switches to the phono so that I can change between 36/18/9 ratios. It will require several switches so I hope it does not adversely affect the sound. The other motivation to getting the cartridge loading more easily adjusted is to be able to dem and hopefully sell a Linn as well as the “notorious” Kenwood and Transcriptors.

Andy the board I got is shown below, item 509.
http://www.cookware.co.uk/index.html?code=507
Bloody inflation, its gone up 33% in 6 weeks.
What is not shown in my photo is the finger recesses at either end.

Regards Richard H

Thanks Richard

It was the finger recesses and the inflation that was kidding me into thinking I was looking at the wrong board.

Thanks again.

Andy