Ey up,
Just picked up SP10 from Ed this week. I had to see what the fuss was about with these turntables.
Set it up with a Origin Live Silver mki and a Ortofon Rohmann and I can see what people see in these things. It is very very good.
Which has led me to a couple of dangerous thoughts.
The slate plinth is too big and heavy for my sideboard so that will have to be replaced with something else and I’m thinking ply plinth for a single tonearm. Any thoughts on if layering it with corian or something like that is a good idea or not. Mark will be looking at this for me as his plinths are lovely just wondering what people have had success with and if plinth really makes a big difference with the SP10.
Tonearm? Now I was thinking of fitting an Alphason HR100s mcs. Which I still think is a great option but was just wondering if there was something else out there 9 or 10 inch that might suit better (£1k max budget).
I know asking for advice on here is deadly but here goes.
I use SME 312S and IV on mine with a very heavy resin plinth. I know guy thinks that the SME arms are too stark for a stark SP10, but I find that if you use a warm cart all is fine.
If you ever sell the slate plinth I am interested.
The FR-64S is a good suggestion, the Alphason HR100 is a nice arm and will soften the rather stark SP10. If you go for a new plinth, go for heavy and inert, corian is ideal.
Cheers Guys for your advice.
So my thoughts on Alphason might actually be a good match for SP10, which is good to know.
Also looking at one or two other options.
I don’t like the slate and not keen on the look of corian. I was thinking of good quality hardwood ply plinth.
Will add a Tenuto for sure as it seems well documented that it helps lift the performance.
i used a 100mm thick solid plywood plinth for a while the bass in my felt very fat the slate was much leaner and had apparent much more detail. I found the slate al little stark and ideally would of like a sound between ply and slate. If you can find panzerholtz I think that would be good
The Acoustand plinths are just too big, I want to keep footprint relatively small, just normal sized turntable size.
Had a quick google search for Panzerholtz doesn’t seem to be readily available.
Perhaps Corian in a colour to match room could work. Any advice on suppliers of any of these materials?
Panzar TT blanks are @ £140 delivered, each 25mm. I’ve just had a sheet of MU25, Beech ply manufactured for a 301 plinth, will see how this works out, only 3X’s the price of birch !
I suspect large Corian armboard is the answer over ply. Solid Corian,Panzar and slate plinths (for me and Garrard) are too stark. You get immediate ‘hit’ but the musicality suffers.
I also suggested unipivot, I had a modern Hadcock 242, great until an Aro arrived
As for arms, I originally had a 12" Jelco on mine, but since then I tried SME312 and SME M2-12R. Both sounded better than the Jelco to me. You might have to stretch the budget for either of those though.
Lee at Acoustand can make a completely custom plinth of the size, mass and design that you specify. He’s knowledgeable about materials and his prices are surprisingly reasonable for custom designs. Might be worth having a chat with him.
Anymore advice or suggestions?
Particularly in the Tonearm selection.
I still have Alphason option.
I would try FR64 but none seem available in budget at the moment.
Tri-Planar is a good shout and there may be one available close to cost, however I’m not 100% sure it will fit next to SP10 only seen a 12inch fitted to an Sp10 and the one possibly available is a 9inch or 10inch, I don’t think they did 9inch so it must be 10.
It’s that tower on the Tri-Planar that makes me wonder if it won’t fit. I can’t find info on where measurements are taken from when fitting it to a turntable.
I’d like to get it right with tonearm selection as plinth can then be made to properly and accurately to fit that arm.
Tim, I have two triplanar’s, how quickly are you looking to move on the arm you are interested in? I will be in Loughborough sometime this year to watch my son play, so can drop in and you can measure up. One of them has the factory arm geometry card with it.
