Michell My Belle! Customer Upgrades His Gyro Turntable With Michell Techno Tonearm
/Christmas arrives a little early for one of our customers as he has treated himself to a new tone arm on his Michell Gyro turntable. He had an ageing Rega RB300 previously installed on the turntable that was starting to become troublesome. With our advice the customer chose the obvious choice, the Michell Techno A tonearm in black to match the existing finish of the turntable.
Michell Gyro with new Techno A arm fitted
At the same time we have also removed the old acrylic plinth and lid giving the deck a much slicker look and feel. This was achieved by adding the Michell Gyro Spyder kit as shown below. The old deck is dismantled and the feet are removed from the plinth and threaded on to the new Spyder.
Michell Gyro Spyder kit
Techno A arm unboxing
New arm mounting plate
The old arm mounting plate needs to be replaced as it is the single mounting point plate. The new mounting plate is seen fitted in place above. The new three point mount all ready for the new tone arm.
Tonearm mount from top
Techno A arm fitted
Next we need to fit the cartridge to the tonearm. Our customer decided to go for the Rega Ania MC cartridge as shown below.
Rega ANIA MC cartridge during fitting
Rega ANIA MC cartridge
Now we need to adjust the height of the tonearm to make sure the vertical tracking angle is correct for the cartridge installed. This is achieved by the clever Michell thread at the mounting of the arm. In this case no adjustment was needed so the three mounting screws can tightened to fix the tonearm in place.
Tonearm height adjustment
Michell Techno A arm Scallop counter weights
Two different weight scallops are supplied depending on the weight of your cartridge. In this case the larger of the two has been used.
Scallop counter weight in place
Checking tracking force
Above we are checking the tracking weight using Project Measure IT stylus balance gage.
Ready for the first play
Cue up ready……”drop the needle on the record”
Michell HR power supply + Nytech CDP122
Above is the is older Michell HR power supply (this has now been replaced with a more modern looking box and case work) alongside the Nytech CDP122, our weapon of choice at the moment when it comes to supplying moving magnet or moving coil setups.
Final pic of the completed setup
Thanks to Steve for his permission to blog about his latest audio upgrade. In the pic above we have the front of his home cinema setup. The classic Pioneer plasma, Arcam AVR550, REL S3, Oppo UDP-203 & the now discontinued Bowers & Wilkins 683S2 teamed with the HTM61S2 center speaker. He finishes off his surround system with two B&W M1 speakers on the rear and B&W CCM665 in the ceiling for Dolby Atmos, creating a very impressive 5.1.2 system. Michell Techno A arm and Rega ANIA MC cartridge is available from all branches of Audio T.
Michell Engineering turntables are available from the following branches of Audio T:
Brentwood, Cardiff, Manchester, Southampton, Swansea
Thanks for reading: Hefin, Nick (blogger) and Kerrin Audio T Cardiff.
