Rare gramophones-radiograms-records

Audiolab 9000A Integrated Amplifier
Dear frineds,
New addition to my TT collection: A SOTA SAPPHIRE [non vacuum] Turntable, made in the USA, with a Grado tonearm/catridge.

View attachment 7001
View attachment 7000

It has a 14-pound platter mounted on a dense 22-pound subchassis,employ a four-point hanging suspension,
Speeds: 33-1/3 and 45 RPM, electronically switchable with fine tuning for each speed selection.
It runs on DC power supply.

It needs some weight balance and I am on it. I found that the fine weight balancing is done by a bunch of lead balls kept in a storage below the tonearm.

If anyone of you own a SOTA or is aware of leveling the tonearm-platter assembly please let me know.
 
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ANILKUMAR said:
Dear frineds,
New addition to my TT collection: A SOTA SAPPHIRE [non vacuum] Turntable, made in the USA, with a Grado tonearm/catridge.

View attachment 7001
View attachment 7000

It has a 14-pound platter mounted on a dense 22-pound subchassis,employ a four-point hanging suspension,
Speeds: 33-1/3 and 45 RPM, electronically switchable with fine tuning for each speed selection.
It runs on DC power supply.

It needs some weight balance and I am on it. I found that the fine weight balancing is done by a bunch of lead balls kept in a storage below the tonearm.

If anyone of you own a SOTA or is aware of leveling the tonearm-platter assembly please let me know.
Click to expand...

+1, Impressive!!
 
Congrats on a great buy. The Sota Sapphire is an all-time classic.

The lead balls are there to create the correct resonant frequency for the combination of platter and arm suspension. Ideally, the weight of the Sota armboard + the arm + the right number of lead balls should be between 2.5 to 3 lbs, but should not exceed 3 lbs. If you've bought the TT from someone who might have already calibrated it for this particular arm (seems like a Rega from the pics), then you need not bother. However, if you want to be doubly sure, or if you plan to change the arm, then you need to remove the armboard, and weigh it along with the arm, and add the right number of lead balls to make the weight.

The great part of the Sota suspension is that is does not need to be ever re-adjusted; it remains in place for a lifetime.

Cheers!
 
Friends,

Yesterday I was lucky enough to get few LPs with no visible scratches and in almost not played condition. which includes 3 BEATLES collections. 1. Twin LP collections Beatles-(1962-1966) 2. Twin LP -Beatles-(1967-19770) 2. "St Peppers Club Band-Lonely hearts", also few good Country collections and best of oldies, John Denver, carpenters etc.
These records are much more louder and clear than any record I played earlier. I had even played many records in mint condition earlier.... But all from this bunch are much more louder and clear...No idea how..

The best part is for its condition, I got them for peanuts price.

regards,
Anil
 
I got another great record yesterday- Enoch Light's Million Dollar Sound Of The Worlds Most Precious Violins of 1959. This is a great sounding record.

View attachment 7348

Read from the Album Review:

It's not really apparent on The Million Dollar Sound of the World's Most Precious Violins whether Enoch Light's string section is full of Stradivarius instruments, but the bandleader does try to give his listeners their money's worth on this collection of orchestral treatments of pop standards of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. His arrangements as usual are full of ear-catching effects, starting with the bongo drums on many tracks that give an exotic (if not exactly expensive) feel to the proceedings. Light tends to hand the melodies around the orchestra, bouncing them from the strings to the horns and reeds, and adding his own little themes here and there. When the group plays "I'll Be Seeing You," for instance, the massed saxophones provide a bed reminiscent of a Glenn Miller arrangement, with some of the strings picked pizzicato for percussion and flutes adding little note clusters like cascading water. What does any of that have to do with the sentimental tone of "I'll Be Seeing You"? Who cares? The lyrics aren't being sung, anyway. Similarly, Light gives "Temptation" a bolero drum pattern (for part of the track, that is), while the strings emphasize the melodrama, as if the music were intended as the soundtrack for a sword-and-sandal screen epic. All the gimmicks are there to engage the ear, and they do, even if they also give Light's music a novelty aspect.
 
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Amazing...! but how could you forget to put SOTA star sapphire in your signature??? Is it fully running now with cart etc?
 
LPs I got today in almost mint state.

1. 16 Number one Conuntry hits
2. The Very best of Engelbert Humperdinck
3. Anka- Paul Anka
4. Diana Ross
5. Simon & Garfunkel - Sounds of silence
6. OSIBISA -mysitic energy
7. OSIBISA - Ragupathy Ragava Rajaram
8. Polish Jazz - Stanislaw Sojka
9.Carnatic Music of India- Sung by Jon Higgins Bhagavathar vol 1 and 2
10. Gorden Light foot - endless wire
11. Bob Seger -The silver bullet band
12. Country Super start vol -11
13. Billy Joel - an innocent man
14. This is Harry Belfonte
15. Paul Mc cartney-Wings greatest
16. The very best of NAT KING cOLE
17. The John Lennon collection
18. County Super starts
19. Oldies but goldies
20. The sensational seventies
21. Michael Jakson - Trhiller
22. John Denver- Greatest hits
23. Beethoven - Sym. No 9 - HERBERT VON KARAJAN - rare German press, New pack, I just opened it
24. Rubinstein Plays Chopin - 12 LP Box set. RCA Red Seal
25. The Magnificence of STEREO- Ustad Bismillah Khan
 
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Hi anil,

If you come across Osibisa album that has "Dance the body Music" & " Coffee song" grab it, the recording is Audiophile , made at Abbey Road Studio in 1973 the same place and year as "Dark Side of the moon".

Pl let me know if you have the album "Disco Gold" by Biddu, released by EPIC or Warwick Records, I am hunting for it unsuccessfully.:licklips:

N.Murali
 
murali_n said:
Hi anil,

If you come across Osibisa album that has "Dance the body Music" & " Coffee song" grab it, the recording is Audiophile , made at Abbey Road Studio in 1973 the same place and year as "Dark Side of the moon".

Pl let me know if you have the album "Disco Gold" by Biddu, released by EPIC or Warwick Records, I am hunting for it unsuccessfully.:licklips:

N.Murali
Click to expand...

Murali,
I have almost all LPs of OSIBISA , I think around 10+. I became a OSIBISA fan the moment I heard them during my school days. "Dance the body Music" is one of best after the Sunshine day. The Stereo effect in Sunshine day is wonderful.
I just pick up the RAGHUPATHY RAGAVA LP/EP when ever I see it. I think I have already 4 copies of it :)
I have few Biddu LPs. Let me search for the Disco gold by Biddu. I remember having it in Tape.
 
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Hi Anil,

Just a request, if you have Disco Gold pl lend me for a day, will be very thankful. :yahoo:

N.Murali
 
Hi reubensm,

Anilkumar has mentioned that he will search from his own collection at Trivandrum, which he has shifted from chennai. From his PM I presume that he is relocating to Trivandrum from Chennai.

N.Murali
 
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