This is mainly a photo expose of a just finished build of a Metzner Starlite turntable. For a more detailed look at the history of this unique hybrid drive, have a look at this thread:
http://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=1627.0What made this build finally possible (it’s been over four years of a wait) was the machining of platter sleeves that corrected a design defect that caused all these tables to develop serious platter wobble.
Here is the new sleeve after it was fabricated and pressed in:
Prior to beginning the traditional sandwich plinth, the wiring was redone so that the neon strobe light could be killed during the playing of a record. This secondary circuit took over the former power switch and would be down line from a new toggle to be installed on the armboard.
By abandoning the electrical box shield, I was able to take advantage of two additional stock holes toward the front of the topplate to get a total of five, 2 ½” deck screws from the top. (There are 18, 4 ½” deck screws from the bottom.)
A nice piece of Corian served as an armboard and power switch mount. Since was going to be pretty long, I left in a mid-length cross member - two Birch layers deep - to give it more stability and less tympanic properties.
When Gary (AZ) offered up his AT 1009 last year, I was all over it. The pneumatic lever for the armlift was not part of the deal, so a Colton Varilift from the 301/401 era was incorporated.
Trip over cords and cables should not be a problem and for feet (and there are four), I found a gentleman in Hong Kong selling sets of points & cups on the Cheapside. They’re nice and heavy.
Since this Metzner will be performing modified DJ work (old style) at AudioKarma Fest 2010 in two weeks, calibrating quick changes between Stereo, Mono and 78 play was essential. Coupled with the Audio-Technica’s sliding tube weight and Stanton’s DJ headshells with screw-in weights, VTF will not be a problem.
One area that needed a bit of finagling was to increase the anti-skate from the AT’s max of 3 grams to 3 ¾ grams (the minimum I found was needed with a 1 mil tipped G.E. VR II on this arm, while still maintaining minimal compensation for the light-tracking an Astatic moving flux MF-200.) After numerous trials, I landed on 7/8ths of and inch (23mm) of .062 inch solid core solder wrapped around the stock weight.
So with a cheat sheet and feeler gauges for VTA (washers as measuring shims), I’ve been practicing quick format conversions to cover 60 years of records.
Extremely pleased so far. Tapping the plinth is hardly audible. There is less inherent rumble with this drive than non-hybrid idlers. The one wrinkle was some initial speed fluctuation that has disappeared with continuous use of the NOS motor. But I need to live with Mr. Metzner for a while – and see how it goes. One test will be to see how much weight this motor can crank without spindle slippage. A five-pound platter with a new Metzner sleeve pressed in would be very nice.
- Mario
