2026 vs 1962 Turntable Design | AR XA Acoustic Research

Comments · 118

• BU

  @burlingtonbill1 · 4 weeks ago

  I think Villchur's concern was FOOTFALLS in older houses. My dad had a Garrard SL-95, properly set up, mounted in a small couch-side cabinet, at least 30 feet away from the corner horn speaker, but you had to be careful walking by the turntable, or you could cause the stylus to skip.

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• PA

  @patrickspader4062 · 1 month ago

  Back in 1979  my older “hands on” brother built a rolling platform  for  our JVC rack hifi system so that  we could move it from room to room or clean the floor around it.  Sometime later we  noticed the sound distorted at higher volumes.  We organised for the retailer to come and “fix it” because it was still under warranty.  The technician couldn’t find the problem and said the turntable, amp and speakers were functioning electrically perfectly then he casually asked about the platform the rack system was sitting on as he didn’t recall it being part of the hifi system. My bro then proudly said he he built it and demonstrated how we could easily move the system. The technician scratched his head for a second, removed the system off the DIY   rolling platform and the distortion resolved itself.  Turned out that the speakers vibrating the platform made its way up to the turntable😂

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• RH

  @rhodaborrocks1654 · 1 month ago

  I remember in England back in the day if you had a Garrard SP25 or BSR HT70 and a magnetic cartridge you'd done about all you could on the turntable side, you just forgot about it, it was the amplifier and loudspeakers that you worried about most.

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• ST

  @Stelios.Posantzis · 1 month ago

  I think this is probably the best discussion on turntable design on this channel. One should start here. Unfortunately, the subtitles are not synchronised with the sound.

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• TH

  @TheRealWindlePoons · 1 month ago

  My first turntable was a direct decedent of this, I had an Acoustic Research AR77-XB. It worked very well for the money.

• NO

  @northa4021 · 1 month ago

  Thanks so much for this video. I have always been curious about this turntable. Cheers!

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• RI

  @RICHIE87622 · 1 month ago

  I listened to a AR legend a couple of  years ago, it wasnt my cup of tea! I left the sledge hammer in the car. Great video!

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• GO

  @gotham61 · 1 month ago

  One additional limitation of the AR arm is its lack of any type of height adjustment. Plastic shims were provided to put between the cartridge and headshell

• CE

  @cellovid · 1 month ago

  My dad was a bit of an audiophile in his young days, he built a dynaco amplifier and a pair of horn-loaded speakers, and he had this exact turntable… I grew up with it, but never saw that advert.  As a teenager, I happened to thump it with my knuckle during operation one time, and noticed it didn’t skip or even suffer an audible sound from the blow.  I didn’t really respect my dad’s setup because I was a teenager and figured anything he did must not be cool enough, but that experience taught me to respect that AR turntable a bit!  I had no idea that I had stumbled over one of the major selling points of the thing!

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• GE

  @geezer-w3o · 1 month ago

  Been using an xa i bought at a bx on guam in 74. Wonderful. Little motor noise after 55 years so i use a Zen Air to quiet it down.

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• MI

  @MichielDeWaal-tl4xb · 1 month ago (edited)

  reminds me a bit of the concept of my STST Motus II

• GO

  @gotham61 · 1 month ago

  The bias forces on the VIV Labs arm are towards the spindle for the fist half of the side, zero at the null point, and away from the spindle for the second half. It would require a pretty tricky anti skate device to compensate for that.