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Sandman
 
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Default New drive belt?

I'm dusting off my old AR Cambridge turntable to record my old vinyl
onto my computer hard drive.

As I haven't used my turntable for about 8 years is it worth me buying
a new drive belt? I just ask because I wonder if over time it
stretches/perishes.

I've got a new stylus as my old one was wearing out anyway.

Everything else looks ok but I haven't got it up and running yet.

  #2   Report Post  
Harry Lavo
 
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Default New drive belt?

"Sandman" wrote in message
news:vXTIc.69133$%_6.48378@attbi_s01...
I'm dusting off my old AR Cambridge turntable to record my old vinyl
onto my computer hard drive.

As I haven't used my turntable for about 8 years is it worth me buying
a new drive belt? I just ask because I wonder if over time it
stretches/perishes.

I've got a new stylus as my old one was wearing out anyway.

Everything else looks ok but I haven't got it up and running yet.


If it is worn out, flattened, or stretched, it will slip or you will hear
"wow" (wavering of sustained notes). If neither of these are evident, you
are fine.

  #3   Report Post  
Wylie Williams
 
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Default New drive belt?

Beware oil from your hands. As I recall AR asked that their belt be clean
and dusted with talc.

Wylie Williams

"Harry Lavo" wrote in message
news:vRUIc.45628$WX.38760@attbi_s51...
"Sandman" wrote in message
news:vXTIc.69133$%_6.48378@attbi_s01...
I'm dusting off my old AR Cambridge turntable to record my old vinyl
onto my computer hard drive.

As I haven't used my turntable for about 8 years is it worth me buying
a new drive belt? I just ask because I wonder if over time it
stretches/perishes.

I've got a new stylus as my old one was wearing out anyway.

Everything else looks ok but I haven't got it up and running yet.


If it is worn out, flattened, or stretched, it will slip or you will hear
"wow" (wavering of sustained notes). If neither of these are evident, you
are fine.


  #4   Report Post  
Gene Poon
 
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Default New drive belt?

Sandman wrote:
I'm dusting off my old AR Cambridge turntable to record my old vinyl
onto my computer hard drive.

As I haven't used my turntable for about 8 years is it worth me buying
a new drive belt? I just ask because I wonder if over time it
stretches/perishes.

I've got a new stylus as my old one was wearing out anyway.

Everything else looks ok but I haven't got it up and running yet.


If the belt is still providing adequate traction and has not taken a
"set" on the motor pulley, it should be OK.

Remove it and just let it rest lightly on a table top. See if the
rubber has taken a set where it rested around the motor pulley. If so,
try running the turntable overnight and see if that gets the anomaly
out. If not...if it retains an "impression" of the motor
pulley...replace it.

  #5   Report Post  
Isaac Wingfield
 
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Default New drive belt?

In article vXTIc.69133$%_6.48378@attbi_s01,
(Sandman) wrote:

I'm dusting off my old AR Cambridge turntable to record my old vinyl
onto my computer hard drive.

As I haven't used my turntable for about 8 years is it worth me buying
a new drive belt? I just ask because I wonder if over time it
stretches/perishes.

I've got a new stylus as my old one was wearing out anyway.

Everything else looks ok but I haven't got it up and running yet.


At your local hardware store, you can find rolls of "self vulcanizing"
rubber tape used by electricians Should cost about $3.00 a roll. This is
*not* ordinary "Scotch #33" electrical tape.You can recognize this stuff
because the layers are separated by a strip of plastic -- usually red or
blue. The stuff is very stretchy, smelly, and will not stick to anything
but itself, which it does with a vengance (self-vulcanizing).

I had exactly the same problem as you a few years ago, and the few
places I could find that had replacement belts for my 'table wanted well
over $20 for one. Just to see if I really needed to spend that much, I
made a "replacement" using a narrow strip of that rubber tape, simply
stretched, overlapped and stuck together.

Try as I might, I could hear no evidence of the splice at all, even when
I was looking at the 'table so I knew when to pay attention, so I just
used it for the transfers. Actually, it got overstretched about halfway
through, and so I made another. It seems that every time that heavy
platter started up, the belt would stretch a bit; eventually, it just
got too long to be able to get the table started.

If I were going to really put the table back in service for the long
term, I wouldn't recommend using the tape, but I was able to do a
foot-tall stack of vinyls with two strips cut off a roll I already had
in the basement.

Isaac



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Gene Poon
 
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Default New drive belt?

Wylie Williams wrote:

Beware oil from your hands. As I recall AR asked that their belt be
clean and dusted with talc.

===================

I wish I could remember for sure, but back in the recesses of the memory
is the statement by a representative of a then-independent Acoustic
Research, Inc., when the AR-XA was the current model of the turntable.
He visited our store and, among other things, said that the talc on the
belt was to allow a controlled slipping action of the motor when its
speed differed from that of the platter at startup, to let it get up to
synchronous speed without stalling as it tried to start the medium-mass
platter. It was a very low-torque motor, in a day when other-make
turntables, particularly "automatic turntables," had big, high-torque
motors, and high-traction idler wheels in a drive configuration which
wedged that idler wheel between the motor shaft and platter rim. If one
inverted the outer platter of an AR on the inner one, and watched it
start, one could definitely see the slippage between motor and belt at
startup. The motor would reach synchronism almost instantly but the
belt and platter would take several seconds to "catch up" smoothly.
Ever the experimenter, I tried observing startup after cleaning all the
talc off and reinstalling the belt, and did see a "chattering" occur
between motor pulley and belt at startup, so the motor was probably
going in and out of synchronism while this was happening. As the speeds
finally stabilized anyway, I couldn't say it made any difference in the
final reproduction.
  #7   Report Post  
normanstrong
 
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Default New drive belt?

"Sandman" wrote in message
news:vXTIc.69133$%_6.48378@attbi_s01...
I'm dusting off my old AR Cambridge turntable to record my old vinyl
onto my computer hard drive.

As I haven't used my turntable for about 8 years is it worth me

buying
a new drive belt? I just ask because I wonder if over time it
stretches/perishes.

I've got a new stylus as my old one was wearing out anyway.

Everything else looks ok but I haven't got it up and running yet.


My suggestion would be to run the TT for at least 24 hours, then check
it for flutter using a piano or organ recording. If you like the
results, record away!

Norm Strong

  #8   Report Post  
Sandman
 
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Default New drive belt?

"normanstrong" wrote in message
...
"Sandman" wrote in message
news:vXTIc.69133$%_6.48378@attbi_s01...
I'm dusting off my old AR Cambridge turntable to record my old vinyl
onto my computer hard drive.

As I haven't used my turntable for about 8 years is it worth me

buying
a new drive belt? I just ask because I wonder if over time it
stretches/perishes.

I've got a new stylus as my old one was wearing out anyway.

Everything else looks ok but I haven't got it up and running yet.


My suggestion would be to run the TT for at least 24 hours, then check
it for flutter using a piano or organ recording. If you like the
results, record away!

Norm Strong


Thanks everyone for your help.

Rob..

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