In my last post on "motor upgrade kit and motor isolation base ", I have explained in theory, the difference between these two concepts and the expected results.

But someone asks me again, " Have you tested them side by side to confirm?"

Well, when I designed my motor isolation base (model IB22, suitable for Rega /Pro-ject turntable ) what I had in mind was just to find a way to isolate my motor vibration completely from the plinth. I was happy and satisfied after I had done it. It didn't occur to me that I should make a comparison with the motor upgrade kit, until the above question popped out .....

I think other enthusiasts are also curious to find out the difference (in terms of final sound effect/quality) in order that they can make a better and wiser choice in upgrading their turntables.

Since I have two sets of Rega Planar 3 turntables, it's easy for me to carry out the following tests:

A) Using Rega Planar 3 TT with Rega motor upgrade kit ( Black Rega)

I got hold of a Rega Planar 3 motor upgrade kit (an upgraded "low-vibration" motor complete with a small printed circuit board-called PCB in short). After desoldering and dismantling the 'old' motor (including the PCB) from the Rega Planar 3 turntable (with a Stanton 680 II cartridge), the new PCB was soldered and new motor was fixed back to the plinth with double-sided tape.

B) Using Rega Planar 3 TT with motor isolation base and metal pulley upgrades ( White Rega)

As for the other set of Rega Planar 3 (white in color) which was identical, I had the "old" original "higher-vibration"Rega motor removed and mounted to my motor isolation base, IB22, which was in turn held in place by a rubber mesh using existing motor compartment cover screws. The shorter Rega rubber feet were replaced with slightly bigger and taller ones. Next, the plastic pulley was replaced with a metal (stainless steel) one.

During the tests, I made sure that these two units of Rega planar 3 TT's were using the same acrylic platter, aluminium sub-platter and underslung counterweight, tonearm as well as cartridge i.e. I switched them over to the other turntable so that all components used were identical...

The result I obtained was : the white Planar 3 TT with the motor isolation base was the clear winner with natural, sweet, warm and clearer sound when I played Roger Williams' "To Amadeus with Love" and Skeeter Davis' ''Love Takes a lot of my Time''.

The black Planar 3 TT sounded fairly good after the motor upgrade but not as good compared with the white unit with the motor isolation base upgrade. The background noise level was higher and it sounded more "muddy".

So one fact we can clearly see here is: as far as this "fussy" turntable is concerned, small vibration still matters (even though it has been lower) as the stylus is capable of picking up!

A simple way for you to figure out what I am trying to convey here - just try touching the plinth surface area immediately above where the motor is mounted and you could feel the low vibration of the motor when the motor is switched on ( with the platter removed of course).

The motor isolation base is a very good vibration sink as well as a heat sink for the motor to run cooler and last longer. It offers far better value for money ( "no vibration") than the motor upgrade ( low vibration) as tested.

So even Rega P1, RP1, P2, P3, P25, P3-24, P5 TT's etc with low vibration motors would also benefit tremendously with this motor isolation base upgrade.

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A Rega Planar 3 user asks, "Is it necessary to upgrade the Rega Planar 3 motor upgrade kit after I have used your motor isolation base?"

Before I answer his question, let's take a look at the difference between the motor upgrade kit and motor isolation base. By motor upgrade, we mean to change the higher vibration motor to a lower vibration one. And motor isolation, as I have posted earlier, is to detach the motor from the plinth without changing the motor itself. In both cases, we try to to minimize the "motor vibration" that reached the tonearm and record surface through the wooden plinth/board (Rega motor is attached to the plinth).

In my design, the motor is not only removed, separated from the plinth, it is placed on a independent heavy vibration isolation base so as to absorb the vibrations produced. The motor now runs steadier and cooler too. As a result there is tremendous sonic improvement.

So do you think you need to fork out another USD 200.00 or more to upgrade the motor ? Bear in mind that the end results of upgrades to the turntable are as follows:

i) Motor upgrade : lower vibration to the plinth

ii) Motor isolation : effectively "no vibration" to the plinth using the motor isolation base.

Do I answer your question?

Read more on "trying on both Rega Planar 3 upgrade kit and motor isolation base" in my next post.

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What about the tonearm?

In my last post (Why the need to upgrade your turntables, Part 1) I mentioned that I personally prefer not to touch the tonearm wire as I consider the replacement of tonearm wire a specialist job unless it's absolutely necessary, i.e. when the wire has become the weaker link between the turntable/tonearm 'combo' and the phonostage/amplifier.

Care must be taken to choose the right tonearm wires for replacement. If the wire is too thin with high impedance it would cause signal attenuation whereas a thick or stiff wire would retard the movement of tonearm. Either way the end result will be poor sound quality.

When do we upgrade the cartridge?

I would upgrade the stylus/cartridge only after I have exhausted all possible upgrades on the 'turntable proper' and tonearm.

Why? You may ask. This is because to me the stylus/cartridge is one of the most 'expensive' upgrade for a turntable. Moreover, it is a recurring cost for every 800 hours. So find out first whether the turntable deserves a better cartridge. The cost of replacing stylus/cartridge often could be much more than the humble turntable itself.

Go for a cartridge just as 'capable' as the turntable is the logical answer. That's what I usually do as there is no point spending money to buy a cartridge more capable (also more expensive) as it could not out-perform the capability of the turntable.

I would normally test first before deciding on the 'right cartridge' to 'match' the turntable. For example, if my turntable comes with an Ortofon OM5e cartridge, I would first test it with OM10e. Then do likewise for OM20e, OM30e and OM40e until no significant improvement is shown. So the 'right' stylus/cartridge combo is : the one preceding the last one. You may try the newer Ortofon series from 2M Red to 2M Black.

As for Grado cartridges, I would try Grado Black first, followed by Grado Red and the Grado Silver or Gold etc.

What about the Phono-stage or Phono-preamp?

The signal level produced by the cartridge is very low, in the region of several mili-volts(~5mV) for moving magnet(MM) cartridge and even much less (~0.2mV) for moving coil(MC) cartridge. Therefore phono-stage or phono-preamp (a preamplifier) is specifically designed for the record players or turntables to boost the signal produced by the cartridge to the required level. Another important function of the phono-stage is to provide RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) equalization which is essential for proper reproduction of sound/music by the amplifiers and speakers system.

Some amplifiers come with built-in phono-stages and thus external units are not required.

A phono-stage should be as capable as the turntable/cartridge combo. Anything more would be a waste of money. You only need to upgrade when it becomes the weak link.

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"Why the need to try upgrading our existing turntables? Just upgrade to a higher or better model, isn't it easier ? " In the course of my work in tweaking turntables, many people ask me this interesting question.

Yes, I fully agree. It's much much simpler to just buy a better model which meets your need and be done with. And that's what I had been doing in the past. But the problem is what we need today might change in six months or a year and it would be difficult to keep on looking for newer or better models.

Down the analogue journey, I have actually acquired and tried out numerous turntables. Besides enjoying the warm music from the turntables, I become very interested in the "anatomy" of turntables, perhaps due to my engineering training. Tweaking turntables is indeed great fun to me! So instead of junking what I have already owned and get new higher models in pursuit of better quality or more hi-fi sound/music, I've designed components to improve the performance of my turntables.

This is an interesting ongoing project for me, very challenging and enriching experience too as I learn a lot through experimenting it myself.

"What to upgrade and how to upgrade?" you may ask.

Well, we can either upgrade or tweak what we have in hand (provided it is upgradeable, e.g. idler wheel-drive turntable Lenco L75); get a good pre-owned unit(e.g. belt-drive sprung turntables Thorens TD160/TD145 or belt-drive unsprung turntables Rega Planar 2 or Planar 3 or direct-drive turntable Technics SL1200MK II) or even buy a new budget turntable (e.g. Rega P2/P3/P5) to upgrade.

Next, what shall we focus in the upgrade?

Personally I prefer to focus on the "turntable proper"(armless) and before doing anything else...

Why? This because I consider "turntable proper"(armless) the most important contributor to good sound.

"Turntable proper" consists of sub-platter/platter, plinth/sub-plinth, main bearing in which the sub-platter/platter spins, a motor drive system with pulley and belt, spring/ rubber isolation and suspension system. Each of all these components has its effect on the sound quality depending on design of the system(mechanical/electrical ), the shape/mass, degree of isolation (mechanical and electrical) and also the nature of material used for the parts( e.g plastic/metal pulley, resin/aluminium subplatter).

Another fact: a turntable is more of a precision mechanical device even though it has an electric motor. So it's possible for us to improve the components on board.

In my earlier example of tweaking the Rega Planar 2 or P2, you would have noticed I've taken steps in the following different areas:

1. Change the resin sub-platter to aluminium sub-platter to reduce resonance.

2. Replace the glass or fiber board platter with acrylic platter to lower the centre of gravity and better moment of inertia effect.

3. Isolate the motor vibrations using the isolation base which acts a a vibration-sink as well as heat-sink.

4. Change the plastic pulley to metal pulley to steady the rubber belt rotation.

Each of the above tweaks gives some improvement and the cumulative improvement would be very substantial.

Tonearm is the second most important contributor to the overall sound effect of the turntable. By changing the stock end-stub/counterweight( of Rega Planar 2 or P2) to an all stainless steel one with under-slung counterweight has a profound effect on the sound produced.

This is a simpler task for a layman compared to meddling with the tonearm wires which is often suggested. I consider changing the tonearm wires as a specialist job and it must be handled with care or the bearing might be damaged, in turn adds more resistance to both vertical and horizontal movements of the tonearm. As a result, there would be undesirable sound degradation.

Therefore, to start with, we should focus the tweaks on the mechanical design, material used and selective isolation. By doing so, we can achieve a very big and significant improvement in the sound of a humble budget turntable without having to rob the bank.

>> Read more on why the need to upgrade your turntables, Part 2 ......

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Turntables like Planar 2,Planar 3, P1, RP1, P2, P3, P25 come with pulleys made of some kind of plastic material whereas for higher models ( e.g P3- 24, RP3, P5, P7 & P9 TT's ) are equipped  with metal (e.g. aluminium) pulleys.

So I got my Planar 3 TT a stainless steel motor pulley. It is definitely an important upgrade which brings sonic improvement to the TT:

Standard (33.3/45 rpm) stainless steel pulley

50Hz (model MP1) - USD38.00

60Hz (model MP2) - USD38.00

Pulley puller , PR1 : USD12.80

To install is easy; just pull out the pulley which is glued to the motor spindle and then drop this stainless steel pulley into the spindle, adjusting it to suitable height and finally lock the pulley by tightening the set-screw with allen key. No messy super-glue to deal with anymore.

Stainless steel metal pulley, with more efficient energy transfer, offers speed & pitch stability unmatched by the plastic or aluminium ones. You will enjoy the wonderful sonic improvement from this simple motor upgrade.

* Note: For P3, P5 and P25 TT's, shorter version stainless steel pulley would be more suitable (available for 60Hz only). However this standard pulley could also be used by just lowering the motor (2mm) with sticky pad (for P3) or rubber washers (for P5/P25 TT). This additional insulation may help to reduce motor vibration to the plinth too.

Feedback from David of Essex, England :

"The PRAT had improved significantly. Instruments were starting and stopping with a greater precision. Bass notes were noticeably tighter and maybe a touch deeper. The increase in noise I thought I was hearing was in fact improved detail retrieval. The soundstage was improved and imaging more precise. Some warmth that went missing with the new pulley now turns out to be a removal of another layer of colouration and veil and it's now showing up the fitted Ortofon OM5E for the budget cartridge it is. The perceived sound level is louder for the same volume and dynamics are improved. All this without the famed magic white belt upgrade or your dual pulley design. So there you have it a very good value for money upgrade........

Feedback from Al Sands of New Zealand on standard stainless steel pulley and thrust bearing :

All good here now. They sound awesome.

Feedback from Subra of Georgetown, Malaysia on standard stainless steel pulley and silicone belt :

I can see more details now.... I don't understand how a simple upgrade like this makes world of difference. Now the details are thrown out.  I just played Glenn Miller's in the mood. A different dimension.

Feedback from René Christensen of Denmark on  stainless steel pulley upgrade :

Hi Michael, I have now got the old standard plastic pulley off and put the new stainless steel on. Oh Yes, THE TIMING is now very close to perfect and the overall sound has improved with it. I´m very satified with the result....

Feedback from Jalu of Indonesia on stainless steel pulley upgrade :

Just installed all parts on my NAD 533/RB250 two weeks ago, have tested and found ok. very easy to install and excellent for my entry level system (NAD 533 TT/Nagaoka MP110, DIY phono pre-amp & intr amplifier, Quad L11 speaker) more open and solid bass, balance of stereo sound.

Feedback from Kimata Kenichi of Chicago on stainless steel pulley upgrade :

Hello Michael, I just received the pully. It works great !

Feedback from David of Canada on stainless steel pulley upgrade :

Your upgrade works very well and I've been having a great time getting the vinyl out. My kids are very interested in this ancient technology. Thanks for your assistance and the excellent service provided. David Kelly

Feedback from Fred Saunter of England on stainless steel pulley upgrade :

dear michael, just to let you know my rega motor pulley arrived on 28th nov. i am very pleased with it.a big improvment in sound quality highly recommended thank you so much it was a pleasure doing business with you. kind regards fred saunter east sussex england

Feedback from Tsuyoshi Nakamura of Japan on stainless steel pulley upgrade :

It is superb pulley. I am going to make the most of that item. Thank you in various ways.

Feedback from Robert of Louisville on stainless steel pulley upgrade :

Michael,  I received the pulley today. It installed beautifully and sounds amazing. Speed is perfect. Thanks for providing a way to upgrade Rega turntables, the service is invaluable  Robert, Louisville , KY

Gear pullers to remove pulleys

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