More Mober For Linn Sondek LP12

Mober sub-platter for Linn LP12 tur table, though Cirkus compatible, I much prefer the sound when mated to it's intended partner, the Mober bearing.

In my last story about the Mober sub platter, as started with my desire for the latest Linn Karousel bearing upgrade, but the prohibitive pricing of Linn lead me to looking else where. Along came the Mober items purchased from Edmund Chan who makes these Mober products & ships out of Hong Kong. 

Doing the Mober bearing upgrade, much like the Karuosel, requires the Vahalla or Hercules power supply board to be moved out of the turn table, in to a separate external box. That means my Hercules II Gold power supply board will need a box to be housed in. Fear not, Mober has a solution in the form of a Mose kit!

In the process of reading up on the Karousel vs Mober bearing, it would seem to me that Edmund had started putting the Mober bearing in to the market 2 years ahead of Linn! However, the emergence of Karuosel has made Mober to introduce an improved version with collar mount option, compared to the 3 point mount of the previous design, as in Linn's Cirkus bearing. Competition does indeed spark innovation in this case!

Now let us go through the build pictorial:

Mober(left) bearing vs Linn Cirkus(right). Notice how much bigger the Mober bearing is at the bottom? The Mober bearing also offers collar mount, which I feel in much better than 3 point mounting, as the stress points are even out with collar mount.

The bridge comparison, left is the Mober supplied unit which came as part of the bearing package. Compared to the Linn supplied unit, notice the bearing thru hole in the center, which is much bigger diameter with the Mober unit. Also note the heavier steel gauge used, and that improved wire hold down design, which is far more rigid compared to Linn's fragile looking P-clip, not shown here.   

On the back is similar story, the Mober parts exudes quality build that Linn can only dream about!

The Mose casing to house my Hercules II Gold power supply board. This 2U design casing is aluminum extruded and finished in satin black for an overall high quality look & feel.

The back panel of the Mose box, a multi pin socket provides easy & removable wiring option from the turn table.

Even the IEC socket provided with the Mose is a gold plated audiophile grade item, Mober has put in much thought to his products!

Inside the Mose box is an added AC board for LED indicator at face plate, and rerouting all Hercules II Gold cabling requirements to the multi pin socket.

The Mose box with the Hercules II Gold power supply board fitted.

The completed Mose box, with a blue indicator at front face plate, when powered up.

Fitting of Mober bearing commence! The Mober bearing is first collar mounted on to the Linn Kore sub-chassis. This is followed by the motor & 33 & 45 rpm switch on the top plate.

M for Mober!

The wire hold down clamp as seen here in white is much easier to work with, compared to Linn's P-clip design. Just lift the clamp high enough to slip the cables through, then tighten that hex key.

The finished project, with Mober's L shaped power supply board to accommodate the much bigger bearing. the multi pin cable from Mose box shown earlier is attached to this L-shaped PS board. Also seen here with tone arm cable & multi pin cable being clamped down respectively. 

An older picture for comparison, with Linn's Vahalla board in place with Circkus bearing. The Hercules II Gold board is basically a 2 speed version of the Vahalla!

And lastly the whole turn table assembly sits on the Linn Trampolin II

The finished project, with the newly Oak finished plinth. This project is like a total rebuild, and since I am at it, I also swapped the Koetsu Black cartridge to serve on the Linn LP12 turn table. 

The Linn LP12(top tier) with the Mose kit & Marantz PH-1 phono stage below deck, sitting on my Spyder rack.

The sound of the finished project is excellent from the first needle drop! The initial sound was fast and exciting, with little to no back ground noise. LP surface noise is largely reduced as well. The bass is now truly powerful and tight! The Linn finally has the bass power to rival my Kuzma turn table. No more  Linn's flabby, "mong cha-cha" bass of the old. The Mober bearing package, with it's sub platter really brings the Linn LP12 detail retrieval ability & clarity to a whole new level. The good part is Linn's much fabled mid-bass is now clean, and doesn't intrude and cloud the male vocals anymore. Treble is much extended, airy and clear like a breath of fresh air! The noise level after the Mober bearing & Mose kit installed is near zero or un-audible now. After a few days, as the 3 springs that suspends the Linn settles down, the treble begins to soften a touch, and some semblance of the Linn LP12 sound character re-emerges, but just enough to remind you that this is still a Linn LP 12 after all.

I feel the Mober kits offer very high value for money in each & every way one looks at it. The Mober kits are well made, with good materials, high quality finishing and much design details that only someone with an intimate knowledge of the Linn LP12 can think of. Best of all, the Mober kits are much, much more affordable than the Scotland made stuff, yet suffers no sound penalty or build quality. I think the Mober kits may somewhat sound a little different if compared to using all Linn parts catalog, but on the whole, Edmund Chan is a person who understands the Linn's engineering philosophy well, and doesn't stray too far from where the apple tree is. I now have much respect and high regards for the Mober kits. If you have a Linn LP12 turn table at whatever vintage, do give the Mober kits a go!

Given today's Linn aftermarket diversity, and Linn's endless catalog of up grade parts, I can tell you there no 2 Linn LP12 in the world that is exactly same anymore, after leaving the showroom! A celebration of diversity I guess.....

Facelift, Wood Plinth Refinishing For Linn Sondek LP12

My original Linn LP12 plinth in Black Ash, total strip down. This is not the first time I've done this!

Choosing my stain option, which I choose a rich shade of red laquer

 

The finished result! Beautiful......

From another angle at Ricky's workshop

This project was almost 6 months in the making. I had planned to refinish my Linn LP12 wood plinth, as I was kinda bored with the original Black Ash color scheme.

And since I am stripping everything down to do the refinishing of the plinth, I might as well do some upgrades! At the time, I was keen to get Linn's latest Karousel bearing design, but was horrified upon hearing the cost. Fear not, it's Mober to the rescue and I ended buying not only Mober's bearing design, but also the matching inner platter & out board PSU upgrade kit. All those parts came just a day before the MCO lock down in May, and Ricky's furniture workshop had to close as a result.

Ricky's workshop was allowed to resume operations by 3rd October and he went in to work on my Linn LP12 plinth straight away. After more than a week, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the result of the refinished work, as in the pictures above!

Ricky also does speaker cabinet repairs or any other hifi wooden bits refinishing as well. He is well known amongst those classic Thorens & Garrard turntable folks for supplying beautiful custom plinths. He is also a classic hifi & LP collector. So if you're reading this, that means Ricky shares your passion for good sound!

Ricky can be contacted at 019-3379357, should you require his services.  

Remote Bliss, Akai RC-G95 Remote Control For Akai GX-95 MKII Cassette Deck

 

Oh what joy it is to have finally found my Akai RC-G95 remote control, a perfect match for the Akai GX-95 MKII cassette deck. 2 weeks after getting my cassette deck, I set out to look for the original Akai remote to pair with the cassette deck.

I was looking at Yahoo Japan Auctions as that was the most likely place I could find it, but no luck. Salvation came from Ebay Germany. With one gentleman selling this remote, however he was reluctant to ship overseas, especially Malaysia. Willing buyer, willing seller but un-willing shipping?

For some reason, many Ebay sellers don't like dealing with Malaysian buyers. After 3 weeks of persuading him ship to me, he relented but wanted a premium for shipping. I agreed and after almost 2 weeks, the item arrived my door step via DHL.

What are the odds? both manufactured in Japan, then sent to different parts of the world, a cassette deck from China & a remote from Germany, finally coming together in my custody as a pair in Malaysia, to be paired for my joy!   

Reference Master, Akai GX-95 MKII Cassette Deck

 

Akai GX-95 MKII cassette deck, it's big, bold, yet luxurious

My hifi appetite can be insatiable! There is always an aspiration for top tier stuff if I am ever serious about something. And if you've been reading this blog, you'll notice my craze for cassette decks lately!

In my exploration, I came across this Akai GX-95 MKII model, which was made between 1991-1993 and available only in Japan, Europe and US markets. As part of the Akai Reference Master series components, the line up also includes a matching CD player, tuner & integrated amp. The original GX-95, a 3 head, 3 motor, dual capstan closed loop designed with real time recording monitor function as most top dog models do, was developed by Akai to be a Nakamichi killer in 1988, so to speak, and Akai made it the best they could muster, in every way possible. Then in 1991, Akai gave it a MKII facelift, with a slight improvement to specifications.

Let's look at the build quality, it's as luxurious as cassette decks comes, with that brutish, big and bold body in all satin black aluminum facia and side wood cheeks. It feature 4 bunkers inside the 2U all metal box, yep just built like the Yamato class battleship. Each bunker or compartment houses different sections of circuitry for best possible isolation. The top left bunker contains the power supply transformer & power supply board behind the cassette mechanism. The top right bunker contains all the operations and logic circuitry. The bottom left bunker contains power regulator board for audio only circuitry which is located in the bottom right bunker. With such construction method, the 2U box becomes super stiff, whilst achieving isolation for each circuitry. 

On the outside, the styling is plain classy restraint and functional to boot. The cassette well door is motorized and can be operated by wireless remote, as per most playback functions. Most body screws and the bottom panel are copper coated for EMI/RFI screening purposes. Those metallic Champaign footers are the real deal, where they feature glazed ceramic underneath. The back panel has an extra pair of RCA CD direct input for recording, other than the usual input & output. All this build leads to a rather heavy 10.2kgs cassette deck, 12.2kgs shipping weight, if came together with original packaging foam & box like mine!  

The back panel, note the copper coated screws and that funny grey power cord! My unit is a 220V unit from Europe, but somehow ended up in China, and now Malaysia....... 

The front facia is typical cassette deck design, but good ergonomics 

The bottom panel is copper coated on the out side, and look at those big, heavy real glazed ceramic feet! 

The top panel with wooden side cheeks visible, typical of Japanese high end audio in the 1990's. Somehow, Akai as a audio company faded away shortly after making their best stuff, along with a few other big Japanese brands!

Compatible remote sourced from Mr Oh. Doesn't look very good, but functional nevertheless!

I was looking around to source for a unit of Akai GX-95 MKII for sometime, then a buddy of mine whom I asked to look out in China found this unit in Foshan, Guangzhou for sale. A very quick deal and airfreight saw this unit arrived at my door step 3 weeks later. Alas! this unit came without remote as it was lost by the previous owner in China. So I managed to source a compatible remote from my hifi repair buddy Mr Oh! My search continues for an original matching remote to complete my quest.

The bottom end with it's 2 bunkers, on the left in this picture which is up side down, is the audio circuitry, and on the right is the power supply regulator for the audio PCB. Surprisingly, it's not copper coated on the inside of the chassis!

Seen here from top view and right side up, is the 3 motor, direct drive cassette mechanism is front, with power supply transformer & regulator board. On the right side is logic control PCB

Cassette dampening pad to keep stable pressure on the cassette in play back & recording mode 

The cassette mechanism, which is 3 head. The GX(glass permalloy) heads are proprietary to Akai

The Akai GX-95 MKII was swiftly plugged in to my system to check for function and sound quality. I am lucky to have got a fully functional deck. As for sound quality, it was a total opposite in character compared to my Nakamichi DR-3. The Akai brought out every last musical nuance & detail with every  type of tape used, and obviously for a deck of this status, sounded best with type IV metal tapes. With metal tapes, the Akai sounds full bass bloom and attack, with nicely focused mid range, and extended, yet airy treble & spatial cues. The Akai is able to project a  convincing 3D imaging trick, just like the best CD players can.

With lesser tapes types, such as type II chrome and type i normal ferric, the sound quality gets thinner & thinner, each with lesser bass bloom & energy, depending on recording quality, some type I normal tapes even sounded harsh. I think the Akai deck is just separating the rough stuff from the diamonds, due to it's SOTA of the time status as any respectable hifi piece should do. Also with this Akai deck, it made me realized that I don't have a pair of good enough high end RCA to match! While the beer budget Gotham RCA interconnects that I used all this while sounds decent with the Nakamichi DR-3 & Teac V-670 decks, the Akai just screams for a better pair of interconnects. Not wanting to spend too much hard earned money on what is a low-fi medium, I then procced to try a pair of Van Damme RCA interconnects. The mid centric Van Damme suited Akai much better, but was left wanting in the resolution department, for which I knew the JVC could just do better.

Salvation came in the form of an old friend, a pair of well used Audioquest Sky RCA interconnects. With it's 36V DBS die electric alignment system, the AQ Sky really brought noise floor down by a couple of notches, and with that, more tape resolution capability, and a smooth, wide open space heavenly high frequency reproduction! This is the 4th pair of AQ Sky to be residing in my system! I know, this is a 20 year old cable technology and surely there are better cables out there by now, but at what cost? What ever your opinion, I still hold the AQ Sky in the highest regard amongst all other cable-dom "king" contenders. The AQ Sky, just simply matches the Akai GX-95 MKII like a dog's best friend, that they are meant to be together!

Looking at the 3 cassette decks in my possession at point of writing, I find the Nakamichi to be the warmest of the lot, the Akai at the opposing end of the sound spectrum, and the Teac is just there, hanging on somewhere in between the 2 extremes. The Nakamichi's warm sound character is easy on the ear, sympathetic to system matching, that's why it's universally loved, but at times with poorer recordings, can venture in to the MCC(Mong Cha Cha) territory. The Teac is well balance and very in the neutral sounding character, which can also endear it self in a quite a few systems. The Akai on the other hand, is somewhat analytical, full of details, if slightly lean sounding, and will expose the weakness or lack or synergy in the hifi chain ruthlessly, if not addressed. That could be the reason, that the Akai is just not quite there as a Nakamichi killer, if feed back in the various www.forums indicate. But for me, it's the best deck so far and a keeper for sure. Sort of a last stop to cassette audio nirvana I guess.

Now back to ebay, Yahoo auctions and China buddies to source for that illusive matching remote...........

And do enjoy the video below of the Akai GX-95 MKII play back!

Something New For Something Old..........

Now, what's this?

This project has been in the making since April, as all the parts have become available since May but no progress until now. Can you guess what is this item featured on the picture?

Art frame? Or something else?

If the keen eyed amongst you already know, post your answer in the comment section please.

Stay tune for updates on this project as it will start moving soon!