Leak Truspeed turntable restoration

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Ant
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#1 Leak Truspeed turntable restoration

Post by Ant »

A short and sweet restoration this time, no real mechanical gremlins to get around this time.

ImageLeak truspeed turntable by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

All that was needed was some spit and polish to the metal parts, some soapy water to clean the plastics, a little setup as you would do to an lp12, td150 ect, a check on the motor switch, resistor and cap, and a little fettling of the motor to get it to run

ImageLeak truspeed turntable by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

The motor is the ubiquitous philips ac synchronous motor with the usual cap and resistor psu.
The arm is a connie sau 2 which is in decent nick, although it is missing the platform off the top of the lift/lower device. The headshell on it is completely intact too which is good, no cracks in the sleeve that goes over the end of the arm tube. Interestingly there is no base, and absolutely no evidence of there ever being one fitted....... odd

ImageLeak truspeed turntable by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

The subchassis is cast and machined aluminium, which has the bearing sleeve cast into the structure.

Its really nicely built as a matter of fact, one little detail I really like is that instead of just plain old nuts on the suspension turrets to adjust the suspension, there are proper thumb nuts so you can tweak them by hand without having to perform some sort of contortionist trick with a spanner.

Haven't listened to it yet, wondered if anyone knew wether it was supposed to have a base on it? I presume it must have, but how it was attached I don't know.

anyone had one of these?
cheers ant
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ed
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#2 Re: Leak Truspeed turntable restoration

Post by ed »

here:
leak base.jpg
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DSJR
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#3 Re: Leak Truspeed turntable restoration

Post by DSJR »

I don't really remember ever playing with one and had an idea the suspension was rubber as in squash-balls or similar. Long ago memories though.. Edit - I just checked an old eBay sale and it does indeed appear to have springs in the suspension - how odd, unless they changed it later on in it's life...

One thing with the arm - and the UK design/engineering that made it... The 45 degree bearings should be as balanced and free as possible, otherwise any vertical movement at the headshell may give a lop-sided movement.
Ant
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#4 Re: Leak Truspeed turntable restoration

Post by Ant »

Thats what I expected ed, the strange thing is that there is nothing on the inside edge of the plinth to attach a base to, and no evidence there ever was
Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit ............
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Ant
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#5 Re: Leak Truspeed turntable restoration

Post by Ant »

So I've hooked it up sans base and am having a listen :D surprisingly good.....

ImageLeak truspeed in use by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

deck is pretty nice, its very very similar to a Thorens td160b, and very similar to an ariston rd11 s. Odd that... :) That goldring cart (whatever the hell it is) is bloody awful though.

The arm is original down to the original leadout wiring with plugs with really long signal pins. this arm is worth further investigation, deck/arm combo is surprisingly musical...

got some deep purple on and am enjoying it :D
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shane
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#6 Re: Leak Truspeed turntable restoration

Post by shane »

DSJR wrote: Wed Nov 15, 2017 6:29 pm I don't really remember ever playing with one and had an idea the suspension was rubber as in squash-balls or similar. Long ago memories though.. Edit - I just checked an old eBay sale and it does indeed appear to have springs in the suspension - how odd, unless they changed it later on in it's life...

One thing with the arm - and the UK design/engineering that made it... The 45 degree bearings should be as balanced and free as possible, otherwise any vertical movement at the headshell may give a lop-sided movement.
Leak sold a number of turntables over the years. The one Ant has I think probably dates from pre-Rank days and is a proper bit of good old-fashioned British engineering, although I have my doubts about the SAU2.

After the Rank take-over there were rebadged Lencos followed by rebadged Rotels which were bog-standard Japanese MOR stuff. The one you’re referring to was the 2001 which, although sourced from Japan, was a genuine attempt to advance the art. The chassis sat on four rubber spheres filled with silicone fluid, and it came fitted with an Audio Technica AT1005 arm which was really rather tasty.

Image
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#7 Re: Leak Truspeed turntable restoration

Post by Ant »

She who must be obeyed has just given me a right bollocking. She didnt know Id bought this one, and is not impressed in the slightest by the fact that there is another Tt............
:oops:
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