The first belt drive turntable was introduced by Acoustic Research (AR) in the early 1960s. This drive system was invented by Ed Villchur, who also invented the acoustic suspension loudspeaker and the dome tweeter.
This West Virginia-born country boy loves your country-spoofin’ twang! Your videos are already very interesting-and I learn so much each time I watch them-but this adds another very welcome dimension.
I bought my B-I-C in 1975 and I'm still using it today. With a Shure V15 V-HE cartridge installed. I had two Garrard turntables before that. This turntable and cartridge combination is so sweet!
Paul. I owned a BIC turntable back in the 70's and I still consider it one of the best I ever had. BIC still makes speakers and they are very good at their price.
I bought my B-I-C in 1975 and I'm still using it today. With a Shure V15 V-HE cartridge installed. I had to Garrard turntables before that. This turntable and cartridge combination is so sweet!
Also, when you switch out your cartridge, don't forget to align it: Baerwald, Lofgren, Stevenson... you choose what works best for your arm and listening preference. As Pauls alluded to, many of us prefer SUTs when running MC carts, but headamps can work great as long as they have adjustable resistive loading levels.
The AR turntabe was a pretty good turntable, it was introduced in 1961. I bought mine at the Seoul Korea PX in 1969 and for it's time it was pretty damn good. Although it's detachable headshell had issues it sure made changing cartridges easier than a lot of today's turntables.
I have an AR The turntable from the mid-eighties. Still running but with a new motor and umpteenth belt. Good for another 30 or so years with regular maintenance and spring changes.
It also bears saying that a turntable that tracks well on MM carts won't have trouble with most MC's because they tend to track heavier. I enjoy your videos very much. Stay safe!
Hi Paul, good video again. Just a correction, i think the Acoustic Research AR turntable was actually the first belt drive in the early sixties. enjoy the music
Even my cheap UTurn with a 2m Red sounds pretty good. I like to support American companies as much as possible with in my limited budget and the custom Orbit fit the bill. My pre amp is capable of switching between MC and MM with the flip of a switch.
Hi there, I currently have a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon with an Audio Technical AT100E cartridge. I'd like to upgrade the cartridge as I feel it is a bit rough around the edges, and the bass is really sloppy for my taste. I'd like tighter bass, better detail retrieval and an overall more balanced and musical presentation. Can you recommend some no-fuss carts I can install on my Debut Carbon? Debut Carbon is feeding a Sansui AU-555A which is powering a pair of Celestion Ditton 551. I'm looking to spend around $600 AUD.
I have the best of both worlds. Two separate tt's. One has the MM and the other has the MC. Both are hooked up to my YAMAHA CR-820 receiver. Correct me if I'm wrong but Yamaha CR series was the only manufacture witha built-in MC preamp. This was only for LOW END MC CARTRIDGES.
My first turntable was Garrard that was taken out of a radio station. Didn't have a box around it (was a console mount) so I build one for it. I was 12 at the time. Had until I was in my 20's and then CD's came out.
I have a BICF12 subwoofer that I still use in my 2.1 desktop listening system. It’s not the greatest sub in the world but pretty good for the price. I wasn’t real happy with it for home theater use since it does not dig much below 30 Hz, but it works great for music!
If someone doesn't know that you can swap out cartridges, I don't know that it's a good idea to tell them they can and stress getting the wires connected correctly without mentioning that the cartridge alignment, overhang, VTA has to be adjusted with gauges and the stylus pressure & anti-skating needs to be re-adjusted as well. Without that info, someone might spend $$$ on a mc cartridge, bolt in on, and destroy the vinyl, stylus or both..and have terrible sound to boot. A little knowledge can be dangerous!
@Larry Niles Have you ever worked with the general public? I witnessed a surgeon bringing in his child's bicycle, explaining that the tire was flat, and how he had "patched" it twice, but now it was flat again. Looking down at the little bike revealed that someone had wrapped several feet of masking tape around the outside of the rim and tire, between spokes. There are people who make assumptions and don't do research, repairing and upgrading all kinds of things. If an expert tells them they can replace a cartridge, but warns that about getting connections right...that's all they "need to know". Cheers
A simpler plan: Denon makes a very good MC cartridge they call a High Output Moving Coil. It supplies enough signal voltage to work well with a MM (moving magnet) amplifier input, if you have one. As I recall, it comes with a quality elliptical stylus. Mine has been in service for 8 years now with entirely good results. Over the years, I've used it with Teac, Pioneer, Yamaha, and now Denon amplifiers. Plenty of gain in all cases. A lot of the contention with cartridges by 'audiophiles' has to do with the preamp/amplifier's phono input impedance. The DL-110 is designed to operate with the same input impedance as common MM cartridges.
Paul gets the first rule of radio right: you are talking to one person. Not the total number of listeners that day at once. Just converse with one person.
Hi, great video. Would a Audio Technica 3600 replace my Sonotone 8T ? I want a to change to magnetic cartridge and remove the ceramic converter from my amp. Thanks
True, and I am pretty sure Thorens had belt drives for many years. I bought a Thorens TD 125 in 1972 and also had an AR-XA turntable which I purchased in 1969.
A late 70s / early 80s Japanese turntable in GWO should leave today's entry-level offerings dead in the water. By then - the high water mark for vinyl - a lot of thought had gone into turntable design. There were quartz-locked direct-drive motors, ultra-quiet belt drive servo motors, linear-tracking tonearms, vibration-damping resin plinths and varying degrees of automation to choose from. Few of these features are available today at the affordable end of the market, because it simply isn't big enough to make their manufacture economical.
But remember if you install a Phono Preamp to step up your MC Cartridge you don’t plug it into the MM input of your Receiver or Intergraded Amplifier, it should plug into any other input. 😎
I have a BIC but the headshell is messed up. I prefer Dual turntables. I have a top of the line Dual from 1980 and its heavily modified and it has a MC cartridge in it and the arm tube has litz wire which goes into a head amp and then my preamp.
Would it be a bad idea to use two different subwoofers together? I have two Yamaha subwoofers here. I have a Yamaha YST SW150 and a NSSW100. The YST SW150 goes down to 19Hz @ 130 watts and the NSSW100 goes down to 25Hz @50 - 100 watts. I know they are low powered but it's not a nightclub I'm running here , I don't listen to anything at high volume because it makes my tinnitus much worse for hours or days and I mainly use my 6.1 system for watching movies anyway. Would mixing the subwoofers mess things up or would the lower powered one mess up the sound from the bigger one?
@behexen250 the only way I could do that is connect the speaker cable for the center channel to the YST SW150 and then connect the YST SW150 speaker out to the center speaker. The lower powered sub only has a single phono input with volume control. My Sony STR DN1020 doesn't have pre amp out ant two subwoofer out. The subwoofer outputs can't be adjusted desperately either. I've been thinking about it but I don't think it will work because of the lack of adjustments with my amp and lower powered subwoofer.
Hi Iam looking to get back into turn tables. Being on a budget are I better off to buy a new one in the 200 dollar range ? or a older model from the 80`s ? What brands should I be looking for in either category Thanks so much.
Hi Rob, if you’re from the US, I would go for a U-turn Orbit Plus, goes for around 280 in your world and I really dont think you can get anything decent for less and I also think its wise to shop local when possible. Be sure to get the optional cue lever to be nice to your records. You can upgrade the om5e stylus with an om10 in the future when it wears out, it will bring a nice improvement in sound. Other than that, if you can stretch it and find a good deal, go for a used technics sl-1200/1210, dont worry if the faceplate looks a bit beat, you can always replace it later on, in all sorts of funky colors even (check ebay), just get a free app to check if it runs at the right speed and see if the tonearm is ok. Hope this helps.
I think unless it was on sale you may not be happy with the less than 299.99.usd models. This seems to be the sweet spot for the comes with a good cartridge models. Just my 2 cents.
Hey Rob, I'm not an expert but after much research I narrowed it down to 3 in this order.... Fluance rt81 or 82, pioneer plx500, or the audio tech 120, I know that's 4 but my my budget was a little more glexible before the questionable crisis. I'm still running a pioneer pl120 from the mid 70's that has a brand new OEM cartridge belt needle etc. I am very picky about my sound. You could ask 100 self proclaimed audiophiles like me and get 200+ honest recommendations. Gone are the days you could go to a store and listen at least where I am. Sorry so long but this is my honest list.
First belt drive in '71? Thorens already has the TD150 in the sixties and I am not sure if that was the first :). Here in Europe belt drives were already widespread in '71. Maybe the US? Colour codes; white red blue green. White red for + left/right Blue green for - (ground) left/right. All cartridges that Don have colour schemes have L/R and +/- market, or L/R and LG/RG. Easy does it! As for the stepup amp, there's obviously also preamps with a built in mc preamp. But then there's also high output MC cartridges that don't need a special preamp. Denon DL-110 for instance. Also rather nice for the money. And then there's the matter of compliance, overhang... First time I have anything to disagree with on this channel, Paul; your answer is far from complete I fear.
Thank you paul !! I haven't used a recorded player since late 80s , but with my budget audio channel trying to learn all i can and find me subscribers a great budget player looks like the fluance PT85 its 499.00 but comes with a 236.00 cartridge 😆 bet it would pair nicely with the PS-Audio sprout 100 for budget front end 😆 ?????
I remember their print ads would point out that the brand name should be said spelled out as Bee-eye-cee, not BIC like the French ball point pen company.
In my opinion, no. A cap in series with a midrange or tweeter will have little or no effect on the impedance. It would have an effect if you put one on the woofer though.
General statement, I know... But many modern, mid-range mm cartridges are lower in price and perform better than entry-level mc cartridges. Plus, they don't need a mc phone stage.
Yes, you can. But would it be worth it? BOTH "principles" (MM and MC) have excellent models. And there is another "principle": the MI, or "Moving Iron" (by SoundSmith)...they are ALL excellent performers. It REALLY is a matter of preference. OK.
I have an older pioneer pl-518 record player and I need a stylus which type would be better, a diamond tip, if I don't play records that much so it doesn't ruin them ,or what is it good average brand of stylus , thank you very much.☺
I'd go for an audio technica AT-VM95E cartridge. Its design is contemporary with the PL-518 so it'll be a good match for the tonearm, and it's still in production so replacement styli are readily available.
@@thisisnev oh sweet, thanks a lot for the info it's been broken for a few years and I've just forgot about it the other one that was on it I can't remember what brand it was but I picked up the player and forgot to lock the arm and it slid sideways across the turntable and it broke so once again thanks👍😁
Google says AR was the first belt drive TT. Also what about a high output MC, no step up transformer etc etc. ''It was called the belt-drive turntable. In the mid 1960’s AR (Acoustic Research, the people who invented the small high-performance “sealed” speakers that revolutionized the entire stereo industry) came out with a simple, inexpensive. belt-drive single-play turntable. It was simply called “The AR Turntable” and it sold in the millions. Millions. Its basic audio performance in terms of quietness and absence of rumble was far superior to the standard record changers of the day.''
1:31 BIC didn't introduce the first belt drive turntable, and the first belt drive turntable was introduced before the 70's. Not sure what Paul is talking about here...
@ terrywho....no idea who made the first belt drive tt.....I'm here without checking Google....but, I certainly recall Michell were making them in the 60s. I'm not old enough to remember that, other than via A Clockwork Orange. Cheers.
How I connect the wires in the back...dumb but works. Too much time on my hands at the house during Coronavirus lockdown 🤔 Watch. White Batman. Blue Robin. Red Go. Green
For anyone who wants to do that here I found a link to download an alignment sheet. The cartridge has to be adjusted. This sheet helps. www.tanker.se/lidstrom/align.pdf Other link: s14.directupload.net/images/130218/9frla3sg.pdf
What I'm saying is, why step down from a highly likely high dollar MM cart to a MC? Save the setup work and find a good phono preamp. Some are not that expensive.
BIC turntables may have been the first CHANGERS with belt drive, but they were Absolute Garbage except for their tonearms, which while rather flimsy were fairly decently designed. I prefer idler-drive Duals (several models).
Hi Paul, please allow me a sideways comment. You are shooting having the bookshelf as a background. Since it has lots of sharp edges, it's fooling the camera auto-focus that constantly hunts for focus causing a constant flicker in the background. It's very annoying and distracting. Please have a look yourself. I'm sure you can find a more favorable setting. Or perhaps set the camera to manual focus.
I had a BIC 980 turntable, in the day, I thought is was a nice table, I had it until 2000. Actually is was not called, "bic" like the pen, it was called "B" "I" "C"
@@franimal007 Sorry, I couldn't find the ad online, but from that time on, I respected their wishes. I seriously considered one of the Venturi speakers at the time, but went with ESS and later, Advance (became Reynolds Advance).
@Mike Unsworth Yeah. I'll give the guy a break. Everybody screws up every once in awhile. His biggest screwup is that he's dealing with mainly digital sources. But he seems like an okay kind of guy
