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Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

RE: turntable motor belt

I spent a long time (in excess of a year) trying to find a belt that would fit my Orbe but wasn't from Michell ( look through some of my postings on the subject in the archives to find the reason why).

Even Michell themselves were unable to find a belt to replace the superb one that they used initially before the Japanese supplier pulled out of the market. Note that eventually their only solution was to have them custom moulded. And that took a very long time with experimental sample after sample to get the polymer mix and cure correct. That is if you thnk that they did get it correct :-).

I suspect that many of the turntable belts in the high end market are also custom items. Even if the raw belt comes from stock, they often require post manufacture finishing by the turntable company themselves. For example the Linn LP12 belt is ground to perfect flatness by Linn after supply of the raw item.

This is a difficult area. You could try using a thread ( e.g using dental floss) if you can learn to tie a flat knot. If looking outside of the hifi market be aware that many turntable belts are technically not belts at all but are large"O" rings. I think that may include VPI.

I can only think that you will need to spend a number of $$ in trying different makes of belt almost at random until, hopefully, you find one that suits. But as I have hinted, it isn't just the size that counts. The wrong polymer can kill the sound. Also be sure that it is not affected by UV light so that it cracks then disintegrates (I have a little story about that, maybe some other time ;-)).

"We need less, but better" - Dieter Rams


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  • RE: turntable motor belt - PAR 11/2/2008:55:59 11/2/20 (0)

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