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R.I.P.
Joined
Jul 15, 2005
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Barry, Christa, Michael and Shaun - Julle fokkers!!!!!!!

I could say that I now have a Turntable and Phono Stage and I love the vinyl experience, but that is not my nature, I have to tell the whole story LOL!

On Sunday, Christa and her older son disappeared for a while and I was asked to stay in the bedroom upon their return. As it turned out, they went to Shaun(Shonver) to collect a Turn Table she has bought me for Xmas - a beauty of a Yamaha, built like a brick outhouse(fortunately as it would transpire)

On Monday we went to Michael(Mike M) to "borrow" his spare phono stage - a Project II with USB - and that was also a scam as Christa actually bought it from him.

Got back home very excited, but still knowing that I did not have a working TT yet, so would have had to wait to convert the Rotel TT from DIN to RCA, but I thought I was getting there.

BUT, the perfect plan Christa and George(her son) devised backfired as while we were away, he has put up a shelf to accomodate the Yamaha TT - all 13kgs of it - and the bracket was not strong enough to accomodate the TT and we suspect one of the cats, so the screws pulled out the wall, braces bending and TT on the floor - oh horrors of horrors! Imagine my first acquintance with this beautiful TT while its lying on the floor!

Well, still decided to give it a go and promptly connected TT and phonostage to my pre, placing a record on and NOTHING! The platter was turning, but no sound. Obviously I thought the TT's innards was damaged during the fall as I connected the phono stage to my PC via USB and it worked(being powered via USB)

Today(Tuesday) Christa took the TT and phonostage to Shaun to see if he could spot and repair the damage and the TT worked! However when he connected the phono stage, there was the familiar silence. Fortunately the good man still has fair eyesight and he spotted that the power cable of the external power supply was broken and he promptly repaired this. After that everything was working as it should and when Christa phoned me I almost cried, because I was so frustrated by all of this, having my initial excitement dosed by no sound.

Before anyone says, but could we not see that the phono stage was not getting any power, the Project does not have a pilot light, which I feel is a bit of an undersight as how else would you know it is getting power. The extremely solid build of the Yamaha off course resulted in hardly any physical damage and the exceptional damping further contributed to no internal damage.

I could hardly wait for Christa to get home, but once she arrived, I connected everything back up again and still no sound! I then realised that I switched my power amps off! Then even with an LP that has seen better days, the quality was immediately evident.

I will still follow up with more impressions as I go along, but I wish to take Barry, Michael and Shaun for the way they assisted Christa in acquiring these two marvellous units and even then still, I cannot express enough gatitude in these words. Guys, you are what makes this hobby and the friendships built around it, truly magnificent. And my Lovvie, Christa, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, the mould was certainly broken after you were created!

One more thing, when I asked Shaun about the remote for the TT, he asked whether I would like fries with the TT remote! Wonder what he meant by that LOL!
 
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