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In Reply to: RE: AR Turntable posted by BillH on January 06, 2017 at 03:44:10
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A few years ago I restored a two-motor version (first generation) table and arm to sell for elderly friends who no longer used it. I'm sure they were the original owners!
I knew they existed but had never seen a two-motor unit previously, the three I owned over the years were all single motor. As you may know, the prime motor had very little torque so the second motor was to help start up. If I was restoring one for my own use I'd replace both those with a later, recommended motor with more oomph.
Among comments here is a reference to a mod for the arm. Do you know about removing the damping pin? AR in fact recommended that for best performance and offered simple instructions for its removal.
There may be several alternatives for inexpensive belt-drive tables but none look nicer for my taste.
Anyway, good luck with the clean up.
"The piano ain't got no wrong notes." Thelonious Monk
I got my AR XA for Christmas 1965, it came from Allied Radio, it was the older two motor style. Within the two year warranty period one of the motors became noisy (bearing) and AR replaced the motors with the later single motor. So I would say the change was made in in 1966 give or take a year. My recollection is that the more powerful of the two motors had no starter winding and would not start by itself, if the belt connecting the two motors was removed the larger motor shaft would vibrate back and forth but not start on its own. Also if the small belt was removed and the motor shaft was given a nudge the motor would happily run in either direction.
Yes, I still have it.
but I have not done that yet. I definitely should. I have only been lowering the tonearm below the level of the platter before placing the tonearm on the record(also recommended in the AR manual in order to deactivate the damping mechanism).
I also purchased, but not used, a platter bearing moly pad and some non hardening clay for the pulley. All cheap mods in addition to polishing the platter bearing. I procrastinate like crazy.
Oh, free is good! And the cartridge seems to be intact. Landfill? Town dump?
a Dual turntable box in the back of a guy's Subaru. I asked him if he was going to recycle it, and he stated he was going to the dump with it. I asked if I could have it, and he opened the box to show me the contents. Boy, was I surprised but also knew a huge project lay ahead. I gladly accepted the AR dual motor table, and I have gotten as far as cleaning off the platter. The platter is heavily pitted from all the years of being covered by that evil black blob.
I currently use an AR-XA single motor table, so it might be sometime before I continue working on the dual motor disaster. I will certainly keep it for spare parts if nothing else.
Dee Eye,
In 1983 Frank Van AlStine printed in his monthly letter a way to modify an ARXA. It's still on his web site. Not only cleaning and re-lubing but he had you remove certain parts of the tone arm that improve it's performance. I did mine and a friends and it was quite easy. At the time he compared it's performance with the best of the day. I tend to listen to a guy who has won Absolutes Sound product of the year a couple times with other projects at prices way below what Absolute Sound is used to.
On Google under ARXA turntables is a re-build with a zillion helpful pictures by a guy named Weathers if that helps in a search. His end ARXA's look beautiful!. It might change your mind about the table.
I'm slowly rebuilding mine again.
In a military way of comparison its like the Jeep vs. the Hummer. The ARXA being the Jeep and say a VPI top of the line the Hummer. The Hummer might out perform the Jeep, but the Jeep was solid, well built, cheap, and worked well with providing ease of repair and reliability.
My table of choice is the Technics SL-20. A simple belt drive unit in 1975 that cost 99 bucks. I have kept it mint and wonder how much it would cost today. I like the Pioneer-12 belt drive too!
Dee Eye I have to go to work now but when I return I will try to get those sites I mentioned on the forum here. Have a good one....Mark Korda
above is my excellent, single motor, AR-XA that is currently in use.
I printed out that Van Alstine article many years ago as well as an excellent article in the LA Audio Society publication. In addition, I probably have an inch and a half high stack of printed material on the AR-XA from the internet. I love the table as well, and I like to keep vintage equipment alive. In retirement, I cannot afford new audiophile equipment anyway, so vintage is my only choice. Bill.
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