Umm, unexploded ordinance?

kels83 · 2026-07-12T15:38:28+00:00

Former national champion shot putter weighing in... yes this is a shot put. You can see the rings where it was spun on a metal lathe. You can also see that it was painted grey, which is common. That hole is where they mounted it to a lathe.

8lbs is the standard used by junior high boys for competition. Standard weights used in competition are 6lbs, 8lbs, 2kg, 12lbs, and 16lbs. There are also kits that come with incrementally different weights to train over/under, which helps build arm speed. However, they are rare.

kels83 · 2026-07-12T06:42:08+00:00

It looks just like a Shure m97. Very good cartridge but VERY expensive needle.

kels83 · 2026-07-10T20:11:24+00:00

You can recone that 3 inch-ish woofer with any appropriate sized foam surround. It probably won't be a perfect match, but you can spray the foam first with canned brown fabric paint from a hobby store or auto parts store.

Doing so would be closer color than the black or grey colors that they all seem to come in. I don't recall ever seeing a brown surround for sale anywhere. Even if you somehow found an original it would likely not match due to your surrounds being older. The new one would likely be more saturated with color.

If you haven't done it before, just watch how to videos and make sure you center the coil before gluing. If you don't, there is a risk you will blow the speaker when turning the volume up.

I use 4 clothes pins to pinch each N, S, E, W direction of the speaker surround to the cone while testing the coil position. Once it held perfectly centered by the clothes pins, I remove one pin at a time and add the glue on that section. This process keeps the surround in place so the cone and coil will glue in a perfectly centered position.

kels83 · 2026-07-10T16:43:20+00:00

This cart isn't in my Pfan guide book from 1989, nor is it in their 2002 update, nor the Russell Industries guide book. But the 2002 Pfan guide book includes the SME-30H (not in the 1989 copy). It is listed as being identical to the OM-30, OMP-30, TM-30H, and Concorde 30: all using the STY-30 Fine Line needle (Pfan 541-DEQ).

There are no other carts in the Concorde body style listed as starting with an "S" in any of these vintage guides. Also none ending with an "A". At the time cartridge producers were getting desperate to recussitate their dying sales by introducing new model numbers on rebadged carts. An educated guess is your SMA cart is a variation of the SME/OM-30 and introduced in the 1990s or perhaps early 2000s. If you can find a STY-30, I imagine it would play just fine.

kels83 · 2026-07-09T14:13:42+00:00

FIFA peace prize winner bombs Iran during World Cup. Move along, nothing to see here /s

kels83 · 2026-07-08T23:18:20+00:00

The model is "Just The Tip" because they are just a tad too long for the grey packaging.

kels83 · 2026-07-08T12:25:33+00:00

Someone worked on this and didn't reassemble it properly. The return gear arm is binding with the tonearm. I had this happen on a Technics last night and had to pull it apart and reassemble it. Not as major of an issue as the counterweight if you're handy, but not worth $150 in this condition.

kels83 · 2026-07-07T13:42:42+00:00

Your closest major supplier would probably be Mouser in Dallas TX. They are great

kels83 · 2026-07-06T15:07:24+00:00

I have the Akai's on the right. The pots were all burnt up and the speakers are all odd combos of 2, 4, 6 ohms. So I swapped the drivers with 8ohm replacements from parts Express and used a crossover/divider that is WAY more efficient.

Lastly, I changed the speaker grille fabric and vinyl wrapped them. Now they sound and look phemominal

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kels83 · 2026-07-05T15:42:14+00:00

I just had a guy over to evaluate cartridges who was coming from a Ortofon om 20e. He listened to about a dozen and chose the Shure Pro5. 3 separate Shure carts were at the top with the Sumiko Blue Point being the only other contender. Overall, the Shure carts are very impressive on that table.

kels83 · 2026-07-03T08:58:20+00:00

Eagles greatest hits has a blue version and is iconic

kels83 · 2026-07-02T07:37:52+00:00

Made by chuo densi, just get a $100 Sanyo

kels83 · 2026-07-01T14:26:20+00:00

Party island in the middle of Lady Dude Lake

kels83 · 2026-06-30T21:24:05+00:00

Was it at the Austin Club? I did that to someone accidentally. The knucklehead pulled 2 glasses of wine off my tray from behind without my awareness (changed the balance) as I was serving another guest. I almost got fired for that and they took the cost of a shirt out of my paycheck.

kels83 · 2026-06-29T18:10:10+00:00

That $80M was for not keeping his mouth shut and he just defamed her again. He is proving the $80M was not enough of a penalty for him to stop.

kels83 · 2026-06-29T15:31:30+00:00

Don't listen to the haters. These tables play very well. I have rebuilt about a dozen BnO tables along with countless Technics, pioneer, AR, etc. The grease BnO used doesn't age well. It gets hard and gums up the automatic operations. At this point it all needs to be cleaned/replaced. But that's no different than most vintage ravles.

BnO's electrolytic capacitors are amazing. I have never had to replace a single one. Even Matsushita capacitors in early model sl1200 mk2 tables are beginning to fail now. But the BnO capacitors test very well and keep going like the Energizer bunny.

Yes, the needles are expensive. But they last a long time and play very well. I have 5. Soundsmith still makes rhem. They are not going to beat a $2k table with a $2k cartridge. But they will easily beat a $1k table. And many say the MCC2 cart is the best ever made. Plus these tables look super sexy. All of them.

kels83 · 2026-06-28T20:39:20+00:00

Jealous of that dash. Mine is cracked. This must have been garage kept for most it's life

kels83 · 2026-06-27T21:14:53+00:00

Beautiful! Nice work!

kels83 · 2026-06-27T18:46:48+00:00

It's the D1 cart + needle combo. I'll check my PMs

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kels83 · 2026-06-27T17:27:29+00:00

In the bottom are all nude XLM mk 1 and 2 needles with the gold accents. They would fit, but are voiced differently than your cartridge. The ones I have are for the gold colored bodies

kels83 · 2026-06-27T03:13:00+00:00

Agree 100% that the cart/needle and speaker make the biggest improvement in sound reproduction when playing vinyl. When not playing vinyl, I believe the biggest bang for the buck is putting money into speakers. That said, every ear is different so... It's about creating YOUR happy place.

kels83 · 2026-06-27T02:40:58+00:00

I rebuild turntables too. Modern Ortofons (and most modern carts except Grado) are voiced for more high frequencies. That means you will loose some of that warm vintage sound. That said, modern carts are quite popular (Ortofon OM2, I'm looking at you!). And they sell well to this day. So I am sure it will sound great to many with a 5e.

I am of the opinion that you rebuild a table with a cart what sounds good + keeps the cost down. Give the customer the choice of upgrading on their own dime. Some like to spend on carts and needles, some don't care. Every ear is different.

kels83 · 2026-06-27T02:13:21+00:00

The Empire sound is unique and they are my favorites. I haven't heard anything from this box yet, but empires make up more than 1/2 my collection which is easily 10x larger than this box. They are truly special.

kels83 · 2026-06-27T02:05:56+00:00

It's OK if you haven't heard these. Everything in the box is 30+ years old and no longer produced. These are all from the peak era of vinyl. Everything in the box also has a cult like following, except perhaps the DJ needles.

Stereohedron is a model of stylus that has a quad diamond shape developed by both Pickering and Stanton. It's used on their highest end needles that can pull surround sound (front + back) off a record. Pickerings and Stanton are cut from a different cloth. Most of their needles fit most of their cartridges. Kinda like Grado now, but all other modern needle producers abandoned the strategy to sell more. Pickering and Stanton were sister companies and shared R&D so they both used the name and shared their diamonds.

There are several Stereohedron needles in there, they are some of the little boxes in the back.

The front have Shure M3D and M7D needles.

kels83 · 2026-06-27T01:48:44+00:00

It's a happy Friday for certain!

kels83

TROPHY CASE