Dual EDS 1000 and airprodigy linear arm build

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ed
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#46 Re: Dual EDS 1000 and airprodigy linear arm build

Post by ed »

When I first heard about the resovoir thing when Vic's arms were getting popular the first silly idea that popped into my head was......

why not use an artist's compressor to store up the day's air requirement all in one go. say run it for 15 mins at 7 o'clock and it should have enough air for the rest of the day....voila, no noise.

I'm not sure how much they cost these days though.
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#47 Re: Dual EDS 1000 and airprodigy linear arm build

Post by pre65 »

ed wrote: Wed Jun 17, 2020 5:20 pm When I first heard about the resovoir thing when Vic's arms were getting popular the first silly idea that popped into my head was......

why not use an artist's compressor to store up the day's air requirement all in one go. say run it for 15 mins at 7 o'clock and it should have enough air for the rest of the day....voila, no noise.

I'm not sure how much they cost these days though.
Or, if you have a 12V air pump in the car boot, use that.

If you don't have such a thing it's well worth getting one, could save getting stranded miles from nowhere, plus, makes checking tyre pressures at home easy peazy.

PS you'd need some sort of pressure regulator on the tank output.
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#48 Re: Dual EDS 1000 and airprodigy linear arm build

Post by Ant »

Done a little tweaking to the arm setup today, mostly tweaking the vta and levelling the air beam. Tweaking the height can affect how level the air beam is so its an idea to check one when altering the other.
I've settled on a very slight nose down to the vta, maybe half a degree.
It's a boon being able to adjust the vta while the stylus is in the record. I was using an azimuth gauge so the lines on it ran parallel to the arm wand and eyeing it in. which is very easy to do with this arm, being black and square it contrasts very well with the yellow lines on the gauge.
Pulled a couple more degrees of performance out of it. Good job everyone else in the house was otherwise engaged so I could concentrate, ham fists are not recommended.
I think there's more to come from it too with more subtle adjustments
Just need to play around a little more
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#49 Re: Dual EDS 1000 and airprodigy linear arm build

Post by Ant »

done some heath robinson bodgery

ImageHeath robinson by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

this is a plenum/surge tank to smooth out the pulses from the air pump.

one air line goes to the bottom into some polyester wadding nicked off the wife (bought to make some new beds for the dogs) which further randomises the airflow into the bottle, the air comes out of the top so its had time to swirl around and equalise.

a 2l bottle, some hot melt glue and ten minutes, its removed a slight rumbly noise from the air bearing. did the same with the terminator arm.

and it was free

wonder if i could get a spun metal bottle to replace it.....

mind you, why bother, it wont be seen
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#50 Re: Dual EDS 1000 and airprodigy linear arm build

Post by Ray P »

Thats an old edit lemonade bottle!
Sorry, I couldn't resist!
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#51 Re: Dual EDS 1000 and airprodigy linear arm build

Post by Ant »

T'isnt, it's a super duper high tech solution wot took ages to devise

I'm going to slap a fancy logo on it and charge 500 quid each

:mrgreen:
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#52 Re: Dual EDS 1000 and airprodigy linear arm build

Post by Ant »

Hmmm. Just tallied up what it's cost me to build this thing, bear in mind that this wasn't all spent at the same time, and includes the cart, but it's cost me just over 900 quid :shock:

Quite frankly that's abit daft, I'm very aware of the costs involved when I do something for someone else, but it never occurs to me what I've spent when I build something for myself..... Its something of a shock to be honest, I shall have to start looking at costs more closely when I do build stuff for myself.

I wonder if it's worth it.
Also wonder what alternative I could have bought for that money, I haven't a clue what's on the market these days.
Having said that, I am really happy with how it's turned out
I haven't included the pop bottle in the costing though :lol:
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#53 Re: Dual EDS 1000 and airprodigy linear arm build

Post by IslandPink »

I think that's a world-class analogue set-up, seems very good value really when you consider what overpriced nonsense there is out there at the shows.
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#54 Re: Dual EDS 1000 and airprodigy linear arm build

Post by Ray P »

I agree with Mark, whilst its not a trivial sum of money it's an amazing set up and a real bargain compared with the commercial marketplace. I have a similar rationale about the 13E1 amp project I'm just polishing off.
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#55 Re: Dual EDS 1000 and airprodigy linear arm build

Post by Dave the bass »

Ray P wrote: Fri Jun 19, 2020 6:42 pm Thats an old edit lemonade bottle!
:lol: Top pun Ray!
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#56 Re: Dual EDS 1000 and airprodigy linear arm build

Post by Ant »

Well after a week or so using this tt, I have to say that I'm more and more impressed with it every time I play something.
It just seems to present everything in such a coherent way. even when everything gets all complicated, what would usually start to become difficult to follow just doesn't.
I'm going to order another wand for it so I can mess about with cartridges.
I've thrown everything at it to try and trip it up. Haven't managed to yet.
Still haven't had to faff with the speed either
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#57 Re: Dual EDS 1000 and airprodigy linear arm build

Post by Ant »

Couldn't help it, I've swapped the dv out for the soundsmith cart.
Really enjoyable, not technically as good as the dv which also tracks better, but it's got something really likeable that I can't put my finger on
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#58 Re: Dual EDS 1000 and airprodigy linear arm build

Post by Ant »

OK I get why soundsmith have a following now.
Using it on the lenco wasn't entirely successful as it committed the cardinal sin of being spitty, and it
"Thhhaw the ghotthhhht of elvitthhhh" when I played Marc cohn. much better on the airprodigy, not perfect because the disc is abit shagged out and the cart has got a shanked elliptical on it, but certainly much more listenable. I couldn't do with it on a pivot arm though, the spitty sibilants would be a deal breaker, despite the 'something' that it has.
That's why everything else I've got has some form of microline, shibata fritz gyger ect on it. for that reason, I cannot do with sibilance or spit of any kind, I just can't.

For me the airprodigy arm has levelled that playing field somewhat

I find myself wondering what the 'better' soundsmith carts are like, the ones with better profile stylii.
But they are lots of money, the newest Othello is 469 quid, and I can think of a fair number of carts that track better at that price.
Audio technica vm 540ml is half the price and tracks a whole lot better.

One thing that always confuses me is how people don't seem to hear what I hear, and accept screechy and sibilants sound as just how vinyl sounds. I've heard loads and loads of carts that are obviously (to me) mistracking, either through setup or something else that others seem oblivious to.
I don't get it
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#59 Re: Dual EDS 1000 and airprodigy linear arm build

Post by Cressy Snr »

Easy they’re either deaf, daft or both.
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#60 Re: Dual EDS 1000 and airprodigy linear arm build

Post by izzy wizzy »

I'll go out on a limb on the spitty sibilance thing. I hate the whole spitty thing as it reminds me of the mechanical system and so breaks the illusion. Don't think it's part of the vinyl experience either. But much sibilance can be in the electronics if the arm TT combo passes on the extreme HF energy that comes off a record. Slewing, headroom and overload can add to the sibilance. Even mistracking can be an effect. And I reckon this can be all the way through the system including power amps.

I think cart arm mismatches can be part of it but that might be obvious and possibly traceable if you have many arms which I don't so that part is a guess.

Anyhoo, just a pet theory.
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