Michell gyrodec manual

Excessive vibration, however, should not be tolerated. The cause then is probably bad mains quality. The QC cures this, but at a cost. The Papst motor itself is virtually indestructible.

You can lubricate the motor bearing: Remove the pulley and the big round nut under it. Lift the motor's axis a bit. Put one drop of synthetic motor oil where the axis disappears into the motor itself. Move axis a few time up and down.

Platter doesn't run planar to the subchassis: Whoever did the assembly put the bearing wrongly into the subchassis. So before anything else: buy the clamp.

LPs should never be unclamped on a hard platter: the least bit of acoustic feedback will then shake the record up and down. Frankly, there is not that much you can do to improve a modern-day GyroDec without turning it into an Orbe-like thing. But if you have an older turntable, say pre, then there are quite a few upgrades possible: First bring older GyroDecs up to spec with the inverted bearing, the black platter, and perhaps the Gyro SE-style suspension turrets.

Then the most important upgrade is the QC power supply, whose impact on the sound is not trivial. It also would be possible to damp the subchassis with blacktack, with children's plasticene, or with Michell's own DensoDamp as with the Orbe.

However, over-damping deadens the sound and should be avoided. If you buy DensoDamp, the amount supplied is just enough to do the job properly. What you need is a mm thick sausage applied to all internal corners of the aluminium casting, including the full perimeter of the armboard.

Some people have reported on better sound when the Gyro or Orbe is used without spring covers. I can not hear any difference. However, it is clear that the springs, together with the subchassis, exhibit a resonance at about Hz.

Damping the springs lightly, for instance by very loosely filling them up with wool or cotton, may help here. I have tried this, but again, I can hear no difference. A final upgrade would be to get the Orbe platter kit, which gives you the big black platter, a new bearing top and spindle, and the Orbe screw-down clamp.

This upgrade is costly, and changes the Gyro's looks in a way you may or may not like, but the sonic advantages are obvious: there is a lot more detail and openness, deep but airy bass, and even less sensitivity to clicks and pops, moving the Gyro much closer to the Orbe than to its former self.

I suggest bugging Michell Engineering to make the Orbe clamp and bearing top available as a low-cost upgrade to GyroDec owners post flat-platter GyroDecs only! Rubber bands replace the springs: the standard metal spring coils are the major source of vibrational enegry in the Gyro subchassis. Tapping the platter with the stylus resting on it always gives a ringing sound around Hz: these are the springs resonating.

I myself have tried inserting felt pads into the coils for damping, but with no clear gain in sound quality. Pedersen disposes with the coils altogether and employs three rubber bands per turret, turning the suspension into something like the SME30 or SME Subchassis stabilizers: additional wires around the subchassis and suspended on turrets drilled through the plinth gives lateral stabilization.

This reminds me a bit of the Avid Acutus suspension, though Pedersen has been doing this long before Avid was founded. Subchassis and bearing stiffening and damping: a complex steel-plate sandbox is built into and onto the subchassis, turning it into a stiffer and much heavier platform for the bearing. Motor suspension: old-style plinth-based motors are suspended from rubber bands.

Personally I am not quite convinced of this as it is yet another source of resilience between motor and platter. The Pedersen mods are surprisingly affordable, but they require a great deal of DIY assembly, are partly irreversible, and afterwards your GyroDec is not a Gyro anymore. Some people report similar gains. Other people report a serious drop in dynamics.

The mod is cheap enoough to try it and use it only for those cartirdges and arms that benefit from it. TNT has a similar report on damping between armboard and subchassis. Please mind that this article only describes a basic idea, and that you yourself are responsible for the implementation.

Perhaps technically-oriented readers can translate the concept to the 24V needed by the Papst motor. Positive results have also been reported from using battery-powered DC motors. Origin Live and Scheu sell suitable types, although the easiest would be to enquire at Michell for conversion to the DC motor they have been using since Using thin sound-deadening bituminous pads for cars, e.

Damp the subchassis Michell don't sell the Densodamp putty as used on the Orbe's subchassis separately though it comes with the Orbe Platter Kit. You can probably use children's plasticene or any other dense non-hardening compound. Note: silicone doesn't work. Roll cm-tick sausages and apply these to the cavities in the subchassis, pressing hard.

Do NOT fill up the cavities completely. Take out the two lead counterweigths, and re-install them with a thin layer of Blu Tac or damping material sandwiched between them and the subchassis. Increase the motor pulley diameter DC motor only Not confirmed The belt might have an easier time when riding on a larger pulley. Have a pulley with diameter mm machined, install it, and lower the motor power supply voltage accordingly.

Cheap alternative: use the standard pulley on its 45rpm diameter and lower the supply voltage. Note: a heavy pulley with flywheel effect might be better still, if it doesn't kill the motor's bearing.

Normally the dealer or distributor stocks such shims, and knows which ones to use for which cartridges. For those people wanting a more versatile solution, Michell offer a VTA sleeve for Rega arms which itself accepts the arm from above, and sits in new-style, since January arm boards.

The procedure for setting VTA with this sleeve is: loosen arm base nut under arm board adjust arm height by rotating sleeve fasten arm base nut The sleeve has two major drawbacks: you have to reach under the arm board to fiddle with the big nut there. Perfectly possible with SEs, a bit harder to do with a full GyroDec or Orbe, as the chassis gets in the way then.

And two: the sleeve itself adds to the minimal arm height so that it is not compatible with cartridges that want the back of the arm very low. The solution here is to used shorter armboard spacers, which can be ordered on special request from Michell. The springs were directly attached to the subchassis, and the bearing different slightly from the later aluminium bearing. This version of GyroDec is so rare that you probably won't ever find one. MkI : aluminium platter with thick rubber mat, aluminium bearing , half-height motor housing, provisions for two tonearms.

MkII: black acrylic platter, rest see MkI picture see top of page! MkIII : bronze inverted bearing , updated spring turrets, full-height motor housing, only one tonearm can be mounted; later MkIIIs got PVC arm board spacers instead of the older aluminium ones, also later the two-belt drive system was changed to one belt only, as per the Orbe. This version has a flat platter, as opposed to older slightly concave platters.

DC-driven Gyros can be recognised by a larger motor pulley. You can order the parts and find your own means of cutting the chassis.

Alternatively, you can send your baseplate to Michell for the modification. It is possible to buy a whole new plinth and motor, but such a step is not cheap. Alternatively, one could buy the spider, turrets, and motor of a Gyro SE or Orbe SE , combine them with the subchassis, bearing, and platter of an old GyroDec, and so end up with a 'new' SE.

To achieve this the Orbe uses a double plinth construction, for better isolation, a fully isolated, well damped and extemely heavy motor housing, a massive platter, a new and more effective screw-down clamp, and a damped subchassis.

Adjust the inner plinth height so that the space between the two plinths is about 2 mm. Now proceed with adding the subchassis, platter and armboard. Michell GyroDec owners manual, service manuals and schematics are for reference only and the Vinyl Engine bears no responsibility for errors or other inaccuracies.

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