Transcriptors v Michell Hydraulic reference

[jeules0]

Since the early 70's I have used a Michell badged Hydraulic Reference, however I was told that when J.A Michell took over at Theobald Street Borehamwood when David Gammon went to Carlow Ireland there were a number of David Gammon made Hydraulic Reference's that ended up badged Michell most like mine with round feet, mine also has the 1971 Design Council Award triangular sticker on it.

People complain that the Reference sounds poor, poppycock (I Cleaned that up) must have a solid mount I use 100kg (220lb) paving stone mounted in an alcove to 2 brick walls,I replaced the armboard with a solid duralumin plate & as I have with a thick brass SME shape spacer, remove the sponge from the feet & replace in my case oak cone feet or use metal points & I use a DC motor I still use the hydraulic speed control.

I remember years ago being told years ago D Gammon was going to use hard supports in the platter weights though he ended up using sponge pads (Perception of record damage?); Having seen a Trans-Fi Audio "Resomat" platter mat using vinyl points, I made 9 pads from graphite impregnated Teflon bar, no record slip or damage.

My Hydraulic Reference is fitted with a Hadcock 242 silver arm & a Cartridge Man Music Maker & Isolator it sounds as good as any TT I have heard.

David Gammon was far sighted genius.

John

Hi John
I too have an early Michell badged Transcriptor Hydraulic Reference with the round feet and Design Council sticker, and agree with all you have said. Mine is absolutely original with fluid arm and Shure V15, and I now use a clear acrylic mat from SRM Tech which looks very good.
I also have a Transcriptor badged one to which I've fitted an Audiomods arm fitted with an Audio Technica m/c cartridge, which complements it really well.(pics in the gallery).
They are beautiful to look at, and sound great too!
Chris

[Big John]

Hi John
I too have an early Michell badged Transcriptor Hydraulic Reference with the round feet and Design Council sticker, and agree with all you have said. Mine is absolutely original with fluid arm and Shure V15, and I now use a clear acrylic mat from SRM Tech which looks very good.
I also have a Transcriptor badged one to which I've fitted an Audiomods arm fitted with an Audio Technica m/c cartridge, which complements it really well.(pics in the gallery).
They are beautiful to look at, and sound great too!
Chris

Chris

For many years I used the laminated glass platter & long spindled knurled platter retaining nut & record clamp 1970/80's from J A Michell latterly with a leather mat. I also have the later large diameter bearing assembly that J A Michell produced in the early 1980's. However the hard pads inserted in to the 6 gold plated brass weights & 3 alloy supports is a bigger improvement than super glueing oak cones in to the feet; allowing vibration to track to ground.

John

[jml3p]

Hi John
Have just read your post, is there any way you could put up some pictures?
Many thanks
Jonathan

[Big John]

As requested pictures of my Hydraulic Reference. The black pads in the gold weights are hand made Carbon impregnated Teflon though the pads are hard there is no record slip or damage. (The masking tape stops the Oak cone feet slipping on the glass topping the massive paving stone support)the leads on the left are to my Muse DAC.

The arm is a Hadcock 242 silver it sits on an SME plate on a hand made brass spacer, bolted through with high tensile cap head bolts to 8/9mm Duralamin arm board. Fitted with a one off XTC counterweight made by John Choong of Xact Audio Design (ebay). in the headshell is The NEW Musicmaster cartridge with the latest Isolator by Len Gregory aka The Cartridgeman"

Everything is silver wired from the cartridge to the speaker leads.

http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt13 ... 701306.jpg

]http://i605.photobucket.com/albums/tt13 ... 6b9bd5.jpg

[wundershlung]

Hi,
I have owned the reference hydraulic transcription turntable by j A Michell, for around 4yrs, throughout this time it has given faultless service, with excellent sound quality, setup can be tricky but is time well spent, if you have a correct working and well looked after specimen, there is no reason why you wouldn't get excellent results from this quality piece.