Musicmann1
HI Albert. I noticed your SP10 MK3 Rosewood Table with STILLPOINTS ULTRA 5;S . Do you screw the ULTRA 5'S all the way so that they actually touch the bottom of the Rosewood PLINTH, or do you leave a little gap. If so, did you try it both ways and if so what was your take away?
I tried both ways and agree with Stillpoints recommendation to back the Ultra 5 away from bottom of turntable (or chassis) for best performance.

I should add, with Vibraplane the effect of the Ultra 5 is not as great. In my situation the Vibraplane is a requirement since my speakers are capable of such deep bass.

albertporter November 11, 2015 18:47

Musicmann1
HI Albert. I noticed your SP10 MK3 Rosewood Table with STILLPOINTS ULTRA 5;S . Do you screw the ULTRA 5'S all the way so that they actually touch the bottom of the Rosewood PLINTH, or do you leave a little gap. If so, did you try it both ways and if so what was your take away?
I tried both ways and agree with Stillpoints recommendation to back the Ultra 5 away from bottom of turntable (or chassis) for best performance.

I should add, with Vibraplane the effect of the Ultra 5 is not as great. In my situation the Vibraplane is a requirement since my speakers are capable of such deep bass.

albertporter November 11, 2015 18:47

HI Albert. I noticed your SP 111 Rosewood Table with STILLPOINTS ULTRA 5;S . Do you screw the ULTRA 5'S all the way so that they actually touch the bottom of the Rosewood PLINTH, or do you leave a little gap. If so, did you try it both ways and if so what was your take away?
CHEERS............T.

musicmann1 November 11, 2015 03:12

System edited: Corrected description to reflect changes over the past few months

albertporter November 10, 2015 05:04

Jwm
I have vacuum hold down for my table and have not found a record yet that I can not play.

I've owned at least three vacuum hold down tables and yes, they can play less than perfect LPs but a short warp record still stresses the cartridge and provides poor sound from the varying VTA.

Having the LP flat is a good thing regardless of how you play the record. I happen to have quite a few LPs that are less than perfect and high value, makes sense for me to correct.

albertporter November 04, 2015 05:23

Jwm
I have vacuum hold down for my table and have not found a record yet that I can not play.
I've owned at least three vacuum hold down tables and yes, they can play less than perfect LPs but a short warp record still stresses the cartridge and provides poor sound from the varying VTA.

Having the LP flat is a good thing regardless of how you play the record. I happen to have quite a few LPs that are less than perfect and high value, makes sense for me to correct.

albertporter November 04, 2015 05:23

Jwm
I have vacuum hold down for my table and have not found a record yet that I can not play.
I've owned at least three vacuum hold down tables and yes, they can play less than perfect LPs but a short warp record still stresses the cartridge and provides poor sound from the varying VTA.

Having the LP flat is a good thing regardless of how you play the record. I happen to have quite a few LPs that are less than perfect and high value, makes sense for me to correct.

albertporter November 04, 2015 05:23

Jwm
I have vacuum hold down for my table and have not found a record yet that I can not play.
I've owned at least three vacuum hold down tables and yes, they can play less than perfect LPs but a short warp record still stresses the cartridge and provides poor sound from the varying VTA.

Having the LP flat is a good thing regardless of how you play the record. I happen to have quite a few LPs that are less than perfect and high value, makes sense for me to correct.

albertporter November 04, 2015 05:23

Jwm
I have vacuum hold down for my table and have not found a record yet that I can not play.
I've owned at least three vacuum hold down tables and yes, they can play less than perfect LPs but a short warp record still stresses the cartridge and provides poor sound from the varying VTA.

Having the LP flat is a good thing regardless of how you play the record. I happen to have quite a few LPs that are less than perfect and high value, makes sense for me to correct.

albertporter November 04, 2015 05:23

Jwm
I have vacuum hold down for my table and have not found a record yet that I can not play.
I've owned at least three vacuum hold down tables and yes, they can play less than perfect LPs but a short warp record still stresses the cartridge and provides poor sound from the varying VTA.

Having the LP flat is a good thing regardless of how you play the record. I happen to have quite a few LPs that are less than perfect and high value, makes sense for me to correct.

albertporter November 04, 2015 05:23

I have vacuum hold down for my table and have not found a record yet that I can not play.

jwm November 04, 2015 03:53

Jwm,

It is expensive and if it does not please a large portion of the general public it will be short lived. Still, the technology is fascinating and worth sharing.

I have Sony as my fun camera unless it’s for work, then the Nikon D800 SLR.

Buy the cheaper camera and spend the rest on the record flattener :-)

albertporter November 02, 2015 05:32

Albert that camera looks great but I'm not going to give up any of my money for a year. That really is crazy. I may buy the new Sony Alpha 7RII.

jwm November 02, 2015 02:02

I’ve received a couple of email messages from Audiogon members about the ORB record flattener.

It works very well, instructions are in English and yes, it SPEAKS to you as you process LPs that are warped.

As I posted before, it repaired a badly warped French 12” single that would not play and a new ECM Jazz LP I purchased at Amazon.

Both corrected in one try with new ORB flattener and it is USA model, 120V with no need for transformer or tech shop intervention.

albertporter November 01, 2015 23:32

You are very welcome....best of luck with all changes, let me know if you need any other info or help of any kind!

zephyr24069 October 28, 2015 14:36

System edited: Added description and image of ORB DF-03 Record Flattener

albertporter October 28, 2015 04:07

I ordered and received a new top tier LP record flattener from Japan. The manufacturer is Orb and I bought the USA version of model DF-03.

This has a complete touch activated menu in English language and walks you though each step with voice prompts (again in English) and has ability to program based on type of LP.

It’s a true 120V version, no transformers, just plug in and save an LP. So far I’ve salvaged two LPs, one as warped as potato chip (would not play) and the other had a violent “short” warp that audibly distorted due to tracking and VTA errors.

I’ll put an image of the Orb DF-03 in my system equipment lineup within the hour.

albertporter October 28, 2015 04:02

Zephyr24069, Thank you for the exchange and sharing info. This helps and I’ve gotten a couple of email messages about the OLED which will aid when the time comes to upgrade.

albertporter October 28, 2015 03:44

Albert: The small USB-based wireless antennae on the Oppo 105D has been surprisingly good since day 1. The problem that necessitated the return of the unit to Oppo was video and audio drop-outs on HDMI Out 1 (and 2 I believe as well) at first when playing any BluRay disc and Netflix or VUDU high-def content. I went through alot of problem reproduction and ruling out of components and pathways (including 2 brand new amp'ed UHD4K compliant HDMI long-run cables that I had an installer put in after we got into the house and picked up the Samsung LED 4K panel and the 105D. Oppo impressed me as even though they could not reproduce the errors 100% of the time in their labs (I could here), they decided not to repair the unit but to replace it totally with a brand new unit. They told me it was potentially related to the HDMI transmitter/receiver modules they utilized so the best overall course was to ship a brand new unit to preclude the possibility of any further HDMI-related issues with audio or video with the primary or other ports on the box. I think it was attributable to the fact I grabbed one that was one of the 1st production run and it happened to have one or more problematic HDMI-related parts as the new unit has been flawless since I unpacked it almost a year ago....

Your journey with those two providers brings back memories; it is a shame that these companies don't think of the overall impact of not doing something correctly or remedying things before they become issues. I'm sure it costs them much more down the line than they believe...

Have a great day!

zephyr24069 October 27, 2015 10:53

Zephyr24069
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.

I had similar issue with Time Warner and why I switched over to AT&T Uverse. In my case the amplifier in the alley would test OK but intermittent so my service dropped and I would call again.

At one point I had over 35 complaints in for loss of service. Finally a high level tech gave me his personal cell phone number and came out before the problem “fixed” itself. As a reward for all the lost time he removed the limiter and allowed me to operate at available speed, typically 95 MB down most of the time.

I wish these companies would compare cost of lost customers, down time and expense of sending trucks and service personnel against fiber. Fiber might wind up costing less and certainly most of us would pay more for perfect service.

albertporter October 27, 2015 04:53

Zephyr24069
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
I had similar issue with Time Warner and why I switched over to AT&T Uverse. In my case the amplifier in the alley would test OK but intermittent so my service dropped and I would call again.

At one point I had over 35 complaints in for loss of service. Finally a high level tech gave me his personal cell phone number and came out before the problem “fixed” itself. As a reward for all the lost time he removed the limiter and allowed me to operate at available speed, typically 95 MB down most of the time.

I wish these companies would compare cost of lost customers, down time and expense of sending trucks and service personnel against fiber. Fiber might wind up costing less and certainly most of us would pay more for perfect service.

albertporter October 27, 2015 04:53

Zephyr24069
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
I had similar issue with Time Warner and why I switched over to AT&T Uverse. In my case the amplifier in the alley would test OK but intermittent so my service dropped and I would call again.

At one point I had over 35 complaints in for loss of service. Finally a high level tech gave me his personal cell phone number and came out before the problem “fixed” itself. As a reward for all the lost time he removed the limiter and allowed me to operate at available speed, typically 95 MB down most of the time.

I wish these companies would compare cost of lost customers, down time and expense of sending trucks and service personnel against fiber. Fiber might wind up costing less and certainly most of us would pay more for perfect service.

albertporter October 27, 2015 04:53

Zephyr24069
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
I had similar issue with Time Warner and why I switched over to AT&T Uverse. In my case the amplifier in the alley would test OK but intermittent so my service dropped and I would call again.

At one point I had over 35 complaints in for loss of service. Finally a high level tech gave me his personal cell phone number and came out before the problem “fixed” itself. As a reward for all the lost time he removed the limiter and allowed me to operate at available speed, typically 95 MB down most of the time.

I wish these companies would compare cost of lost customers, down time and expense of sending trucks and service personnel against fiber. Fiber might wind up costing less and certainly most of us would pay more for perfect service.

albertporter October 27, 2015 04:53

Zephyr24069
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
I had similar issue with Time Warner and why I switched over to AT&T Uverse. In my case the amplifier in the alley would test OK but intermittent so my service dropped and I would call again.

At one point I had over 35 complaints in for loss of service. Finally a high level tech gave me his personal cell phone number and came out before the problem “fixed” itself. As a reward for all the lost time he removed the limiter and allowed me to operate at available speed, typically 95 MB down most of the time.

I wish these companies would compare cost of lost customers, down time and expense of sending trucks and service personnel against fiber. Fiber might wind up costing less and certainly most of us would pay more for perfect service.

albertporter October 27, 2015 04:53

Zephyr24069
Definitely agree that the games the providers play is maddening. At one point a few years ago, I actually had to get an attorney lined up and make my ISP (who is now serving us well in our new neighborhood) aware of the potential arrangement to get them to stop sending Level1 techs and subcontractors to the house who knew nothing and who only sought to test, re-test and test again the lines in my house and blame 'my equipment' or 'changes I had made" for issues in their lines that were exacerbated by heavy periods of rainfall.
I had similar issue with Time Warner and why I switched over to AT&T Uverse. In my case the amplifier in the alley would test OK but intermittent so my service dropped and I would call again.

At one point I had over 35 complaints in for loss of service. Finally a high level tech gave me his personal cell phone number and came out before the problem “fixed” itself. As a reward for all the lost time he removed the limiter and allowed me to operate at available speed, typically 95 MB down most of the time.

I wish these companies would compare cost of lost customers, down time and expense of sending trucks and service personnel against fiber. Fiber might wind up costing less and certainly most of us would pay more for perfect service.

albertporter October 27, 2015 04:53