Vintage

Pioneer’s choice of 4-pole synchronous motor brings the cast zinc alloy platter up to speed within a relatively swift 2-3 secs, the ‘torquey’ drive applied via a belt and inner ring set into its underside. Our deck was running just a little fast at +0.25% but the most obvious feature of the wow and flutter spectrum [see Graph 1] are the flutter sidebands at ±25 Hz, amounting to a peak-wtd figure of 0.14%. This 25 Hz component, surely a by-product of the motor electronics, was very visible on the narrowband magnitude spectrum (not shown here) along with peaks at 75 Hz and 100 Hz, the latter also present on the W&F plot. The sidebands are split by a 4-5 Hz wow modulation and broadened by other, decorrelated noise components. While the 25 Hz peak is attenuated by DIN-B weighting, the 100 Hz spike punched through to reduce the deck’s through-bearing rumble to –62.4 dB (20 Hz-20 kHz, re. 1 kHz/5 cm/sec). While this is below average it is still vastly superior to Pioneer’s own slightly spurious ‘47 dB S/N’ specification. Courtesy of the rubber mat, the through-groove rumble is a more acceptable –64.9 dB.

The partnering, statically-balanced S-shaped tonearm has an effective length of 221 mm and an effective mass of ~14 g including its lightweight detachable headshell. The hardened alloy bearing was still free of play after all these years and friction/stiction low at ~20 mg in both planes. Resonances are typically more complex in S-shaped tubes and this is no different – there are diffuse modes at 160 Hz, 200 Hz and 250 Hz with a higher-Q break at 310 Hz. The low-level/mid-freq. modes are likely caused by the headshell, the adjustable lateral stabiliser and other appendages [CSD waterfall, Graph 2]. The counterweight is accurately calibrated (under-reading by just 5%). PM