mending things

I like to  fix up old turntables, especially odd or unloved examples. I've posted blogs on other decks , and back in November I saw a Thorens TD280 on ebay at a very low cost,  close to where I live. I prefer to collect, as decks need careful packing. In the end I bid and won the deck, a Thorens TD280 MK IV. I am very familiar with the Thorens brand, my father had a classic TD150 MkII followed by a TD 160 - both classics from the Golden era of the 70's. I read that the deck was a late model, and while not a classic Thorens, was widely liked by people who had owned one.  the TD280 is from the mid 80's when CD had started to put a lot of turntable manufacturers out of business, and like the Ariston Q-deck, was a bit of a final gasp from a declining industry. I got the auction for £64 as the external power supply had been lost, but I was sure I could source a new one. A bit of research indicated the external power supply is 16v AC,  and I happened to know this...

Introduction I got back into vinyl records via my son, who started to collect LPs and i decided he should get a turntable as a surprise Christmas present back in 2011. I was an avid audiophile in the late 70s and my father had a great system,including a Thorens deck. With the arrival of CD, I whole heartedly  embraced that format and hadn't owned a deck since around 1981. I decided that a decent but cheap second-hand deck would be ideal for my son, it wasnt a main present, more a novelty to see if he liked the format, so i didnt want to get a more expensive Thorens or Rega, brands i remembered from my past. Why my son had started buying vinyl without a deck I'm not sure, I think he liked the aesthetic and tactile element of LPs, which i completely understand. Looking on ebay, many of the decks i remembered were going for high prices second hand, and in the end i bid for and won a humble NAD 5120 . I looked for decks close to where i lived as i reasoned that with...

Last year I acquired a Pioneer PL-12D turntable which I restored and runs very well. In the blog describing the process I mentioned that I believed that much of the content would be suitable for a wide range of 1970's Japanese belt drive turntables from the likes of Pioneer, Sony, Sansui , Kenwood/Trio etc.  A few weeks ago I spotted another turntable being auctioned locally on ebay. The price seemed very good and I bid for it and won. It was a JVC JL-A1 which I got for a very reasonable £20 and was able to collect. The unit had been in the family from new and was in very good condition. Just a few issues due to age , namely the hardening of both rubber and lubricants with age. I had read in the vinyl engine forum that it was similar to the PL-12 and I wanted to find out, plus I enjoy working on decks. As you can see from the pictures it is very similar. Speed change on the left (buttons rather than levers) with cueing lever on the right. S-shaped arm with removable heads...

Preamble About 10 years ago we bought  a  fridge-freezer as part of a new kitchen.We got a  De Dietrich brand refrigerator, which was on offer from the people who installed the kitchen (a long story). I'd never heard of De Dietrich,  they are in fact French, despite a reassuringly German sounding name.  Our model is a  UW1597E1 but this is a re-badged  GE (General Electric) Model, so this is an American made American-style fridge, rather than European or Korean made. I'm not sure precisely which model from GE it is, probably one of the following which share common parts : TFH22PRXBWW, TFH22PRXDAA,TFH22PRXDWW, TFH22PRXFAA, TFH22PRXFWW, TFH22PRYAAA, TFH22PRYAWW, TFH24JRXAAA, TFH24JRXAWW, TFH24JWXAAA We had a number of other De Dietrich appliances including an electric oven and a steam oven. These have slowly all failed and been replaced and now only the Fridge remains. Its a monster-size refrigerator and  unlike any other...