Hi there!
Thanks for responding to my thread. I was just wondering, you seem convinced that trying to turn the sow's ear that is an SL-1200 into a silk purse is a non-starter. Is that based on actual experience or is just your considered opinion?
I happen to think it can. To your points:
The platter is not especially light (3kg, okay much lighter than the 9kg of the AF3P) but consists of a three-layer sandwich of brass, cast aluminium with a deadening layer of styrene-butadiene rubber which gives it a very high ratio of rotational inertia to mass. The fused unit is then balanced on an high precision machine to extreme tolerances. This is way more advanced than the simple machined aluminum platter of the AF3P. It definitely doesn't ring. Have you tapped one?
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The plinth construction is actually deceptively refined. The aluminium sub-chassis is screwed to the rubber "tub" (23 screws!) with a sandwiched layer of Bulk Moulding Compound in between. So the whole thing is extremely inert. I am really unsure how easy it will be to improve on this but it is something I will be looking into.
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Yes, given the care they have put into other areas like the motor it seems surprising that the arm and armboard are so weak, but I will definitely be replacing both.
The suspension effectively relies on the feet and quite a lot of improvement can be made simply by swapping them out according to people I have spoken to who have tested different options. I have two sets of aftermarket feet inbound for testing so let's see how that bit goes. Afaik the AFP3 has no suspension at all.
Was just curious what you mean by small format/large format? As in full range? My -3dB point is somewhere below 20Hz so if it is bad I expect I will be able to hear it.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts. Appreciate all the input I can get!