Cheap upgrade for michell gyro

[TAD12]

I seem to remember doing something similar to a 401 platter back in the eighties. Oops showing my age !! But was with a liquid plastic compound, obviously just on the underside of the platter. I think I painted on three very thin layers. I don't suppose this stuff exists now. Appeared to deaden the response when struck with a screwdriver. Swapped it for a 60hz platter, before I moved to Canada. The 60hz platter just feels lighter than the 50 hz version. I'm open to suggestions as to how to proceed further with the Garrard platter, but that's probably for another thread. One could also use dense foam injection, but this would be irreversible. HMMM, not such a good idea then.

[Pegwill]

In the States they manufacture a product named ‘Mortite’ it is used for ceiling windows they call it caulking. You can find it on eBay but it is very expensive, it’s the postage costs. It is a very good dense damping material that is moulded and pressed into place. I have used it many times but I have not been able to find a product in the uk, that’s not to say there isn’t one, I’m sure there is I’m probably not looking in the right place. Any way it’s very good at dampening. I’ve used it dampening the inside of cases etc to stop them ringing. The best of it is it’s easy removable and leaves no marks
Hope this helps

[gwernaffield]

well the eBay caravan none setting mastic works a treat , adds a bit more weight , but helps in deadening the chassis more , Tad it will be the same on yours, this was why the Odyssey was a special , all the black stuff was factory fitted , i have just added to it with the white where the factory missed,now they say add to the web in the chassis so that is all i have done, i suppose you could fill the lot in you wanted too , The Gyro is Built to a price , were as the orbe is the top deck so it has this Denso damp the same as the odyssey , Bass is extended and tighter, the piano is in the room , the bass drum will have your skin jumping ,Phil Collins,Honey love , wow , it added a bit more, i also took the bearing out and put a small amount around that tightened back up until it all pushed back out but left a little bit on the mating faces, the bearing is true , it is very quiet now , it was before but now 101% ,

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5m-length...kAAOSwtrtb9Xhn

[TAD12]

thanks so much, William. I'll be looking into it with my builder!

[gwernaffield]

who is william ?
pete

[TAD12]

User name Pegwill, the post before my previous one.

[gwernaffield]

yes i understand now, William is a good member who added the washer , to the top of the bearing , and to the Cheap upgrades

[AJSki2fly]

OK so after doing most of the known upgrades on this thread to my Gyrodec/Orbe which has made as I reported previously a great improvement in clarity, separation and detail I was still not happy by one particular aspect of the deck. This is basically down to the poor design of having the pylons screwed directly into the feet, which basically creates a direct coupling path to the chassis and bearing. A perfect way to transmit vibrations to the platter and arm. The one change on this thread I am waiting to do is to replace the feet with the rubber ones, however before I did this I wanted to confirm something for myself.

So this morning I got a marble chopping board out of the kitchen that we hardly ever use and it just happens to be the right size to sit a Gyrodec on top. I also took 4 sorbothane isolation semi-spherical feet that I already had and the result is below. By the way the four of them are the right consistency, you need to purchase 30 or 40mm diameter for the weight of the marble and TT, check the weight of your version Gyrodec, Gyrodec with Orbe platter, and Gyrodec or ORBE and also whether it is SE or not. This is important for the decoupling to work.

So the result is that bass is better defined, instruments have more clarity, the sound stage is clearer, this was very apparent on orchestral music as I can now pick out aspect of the orchestra clearly. I listened to several tracks I regularly use for test listening and in each case there is a significant improvement, in some case aspects of the mix I had not heard before I could now hear.

What is happening here IMO is that vibrations previously getting to the platter/cartridge have been lessened and so there is less colouration of what the stylus is picking up and hence better musical extraction from the groove and improved reproduction.

This definitely works and is IMO another big improvement, and for the cost is a no brainer, if you do not believe me give it a go.

The good news is the cost to do this is £20-25 with postage. If you do not like marble then you could try slate or a similar hard product, but each will have its own dampening properties and will have a resonant frequency of its own, which may have an effect on the end result, you just want dense and heavy.

I will be doing the rubber feet as well and I think that this will be the icing on the Gyrodec cake!

By the way the white bits hanging down from the marble are just the old feet and are not touching the acrylic shelf, I will remove these at some point.




https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Extra-Lar...4AAOSwKfVXKfnN NOTE this is 30cm by 40cm, a larger one 30cm minimum by 45cm minimum would be better IMO.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SORBOTHAN...u3Uq_sCRn4HYyQ

[Pegwill]

Hi Guys

Continuing the theme of dampening the chassis. On my Gyrodec if I tap the chassis in the middle front with my finger nail and trying to use the same amount of force /pressure keep taping the chassis between the front pylons and listen to the note it’s quite high. I think that’s where the lead weight is it produces a distinctly higher note I can’t quite see where the lead weight is, the Dec needs to be in a better position. If you continue tapping every few militmetres as you move around the chassis the note goes lower. The lowest note being produced around where the motor fits. I suspect that where the arm fits will perhaps be the same but it’s quite difficult to get my big fingers in. I believe this could do with damping to try and get the same note all round. I will try and do this at the weekend.
It is such an easy thing to check you can even do it with a record playing.
Id love to hear your thoughts, should we really looking for the same note from anywhere on the chassis? Or is that going to kill the sound and make it lifeless. I was suprised just how different it sounded from front to back. My thoughts are it should be the same all round.

[AJSki2fly]

Hi Guys

Continuing the theme of dampening the chassis. On my Gyrodec if I tap the chassis in the middle front with my finger nail and trying to use the same amount of force /pressure keep taping the chassis between the front pylons and listen to the note it’s quite high. I think that’s where the lead weight is it produces a distinctly higher note I can’t quite see where the lead weight is, the Dec needs to be in a better position. If you continue tapping every few militmetres as you move around the chassis the note goes lower. The lowest note being produced around where the motor fits. I suspect that where the arm fits will perhaps be the same but it’s quite difficult to get my big fingers in. I believe this could do with damping to try and get the same note all round. I will try and do this at the weekend.
It is such an easy thing to check you can even do it with a record playing.
Id love to hear your thoughts, should we really looking for the same note from anywhere on the chassis? Or is that going to kill the sound and make it lifeless. I was suprised just how different it sounded from front to back. My thoughts are it should be the same all round.

The effect of put weight of lead or whatever it is around the chassis will be to create an isolated sections with different sonic properties, hence the different tonal sounds.

There are several things that can be done. Simplest and probably cheapest but not necessarily most effective IMO is fill the holes in with a heavy substance, like on the Orbe. Second is to remove the weights and then fill all the webbing in with a suitable heavy material, this is tricky as the weights are there to counterbalance the arm. IMO Finally throw the chassis away and make it out of a solid and dense material and probably without holes in the middle, if it is heavy enough it should overcome out of balance issues of the arm. It certainly should dampen any vibrational issue through it to some extent, obviously you would need to address the suspension issues with the additional weight, or it might be easier to forget about them and have it directly mounted on isolation feet carefully designed with vibration absorbing material, but by now you would have a new deck.