Yesterware

A while ago I wrote about firing up my Sega CD Model 2 and finding that it did not work.  Not only did it not work, but it was broken in more than one way. To recap, first discs were making a terrible scraping noise and getting rings scratched into them. I discovered that this was due to the shock dampers having cracked and collapsed. Page 11 of the Service Manual courtesy of the Console5 Tech Wiki The dampers deteriorated with time and use. When the shock dampers fail like this, the CD drive sits too low and the discs will scrape the tray as it tries to spin the disc. My first solution was to add some home-made washers to prop up the collapsed dampers.  While this did work, it had two major problems.  Firstly, with the CD drive rigged like this, the CD spindle was not properly level.  While the magnetic clamp holds the disc in place anyway, it seemed like being off balance like that might be putting extra wear on the spindle motor. As far as I can tell, direct repla...

An image of the SL-10 taken from Technics' archive Chasing a better experience with vinyl can be a nigh endless tumble down the rabbit hole if you let it.  Although I've been collecting vinyl itself since the late nineties, I didn't buy my first turntable until 2013, and I really had very little idea what I was doing.  For example, I went out of my way to get a deck that would support 78 RPM because I didn't realize that even in the unlikely event I ever came across a 78 RPM disc I still wouldn't be able to play it with a simple flick of a switch. One of the first things you learn about setting up your your first turntable is cartridge alignment.  When installing the cartridge, it is necessary to adjust the angle of the stylus relative to the tonearm so that as it rides in the record groove, it rides as straight as possible.  In the process of doing this I learned that it's not possible to actually keep the stylus straight the whole way through the record - at ...