A great day experimenting,. £300 is a lot of money to tie up in a little gadget who's name escapes me at the moment but sounds like it could be worth it.
just purchased a full funk firm set for my Technics SL-1210GR / Nagaoka MP-200 setup: the achromat for 1200, the cobra headshell and the houdini. also purchased the mnptech isolation feet and the audio technica AT6108 leads as well. i just can't wait for hear the results on my precious japanese technics. great video! keep on the good work my friend. best regards from israel.
@@dittonworks well, after a couple of months of use: The houdini is amazing, allthough the plastic screws and the install are very annoying, so i purchase long brass screws and now it's great and looks great as well. The cobra headshell is good, but too high and feels a bit cheap: the arm is very low and close to the record. Did'nt like it, allthough it looks great. The achromat is really that upgrade of them all that makes a big difference - you can hear it right away! just one big problem: it's wobble. not flat at all. I can't stand it to see the record wobble like that, so i return the rubber mat and consider to buy the AMP one with the glass. That should be total flat. My conclution: begin with the AMP mat first or the achromat (if it's flat).
@@JumbleTasteSpinningdo you still have the hodini & cobra? How do you like it? I had a herbies record mat which sounded good on my 1200mk2 after replacing the stock mat. I then tried the achromat which was a step up from the herbies record mat. You may want to try the soundeck record mat which is a step up from the achromat and it is totally flat.
@@JumbleTasteSpinningalso did you get the apm? How does it sound over the achromat? And where did you get the brass screws for the hodini? I may get it.
This is why I gave up vinyl for CDs decades ago, so I didn't have to worry anymore about all this stuff (including the costs involved), as well as constantly cleaning the records and stylus, not to mention the enormous amount of extra space required to store vinyl. Vinyl MAY have slightly better sound quality over CDs, but not enough to me to deal with all those extra hassles.
Hi DM , fancy seeing you here !! The problem with vinyl is that you can never get truely accurate replay from it. It can sound great and you can really enjoy both the listening and the tinkering and tweaking but it's never going to be accurate. You can spend a gazillion on a TT setup but you'll never get there, not doable, not possible, This is why hard core analoguists like R2R for their analogue fix, but even R2R has its issues. The difference in mastering between the different formats also muddies the water considerably.BTW, I'm absolutely not suggesting that people shouldn't love their vinyl replay, as I once did, when I had the space.
@@djsubculture2786yup. Bought my current tts back in 1986. Heavy mods done to it. Still kicking. Bought my first cd Player Sony x55 es cd Player in 1991. Lasted till 2009 because the laser went out. Purchased a used Sony 777 es cd Player. Could not match the sound coming from my heavy modded technics 1200 tts. I sold the cd Player and still have the 1200s.
Wondering if the Houdini cartridge decoupler would bring any benefits to a Nasotec swing headshell, which kind of decouples the cartridge from the tonearm in horizontal movements, though it’s not its main purpose but self-alignment during playback (zero tracking error). I haven’t heard of anyone using them both, but already come across a shop that sells turntables and offers the both options to be added. Does the Funk Houdini decoupler add some play in vertical movements (up and down) to increase trackability of warps, for example, in contrast to the Nasotec swing headshell?
i think the apm mat only worked better than the others because the others could never sit correctly due to the sl1210 platter ridge. another mat that works brilliantly with these turntables is the hexmat eclipse
This almost brought a little tear to my eye and reminded me of my past. Way back when there was another English guy, forgotten his name at the mo I'll post it if I remember, who made a similar device as the Houdini it wasn't as nice looking but did the same thing. He also had his own cartridge based on MI (Grado) (moving iron) technology called the Music Maker which is similar to mm. Anyway these cartridges were similar in price to mid-expensive mc's and sounded every bit as good if not better. Anyway I know what the Houdini can do but as you've said it returns less as you go up the price in arm and cartridges. My current TT is the amazing Dohmann Helix 1 v2 SAT arm for for almost £90K I doubt it would make any difference or might even mess with the setup although for just £300 it would be worth ago.. I am looking at Arthur's new arm which is around the same price as the SAT £30k it looks incredible. I spoke to Arthur many years ago for a long evening over many many drinks, incredible guy but totally out there. Arthur (Funk) makes incredible isolation feet have you tried them on your turntable???
@@dittonworks Oh I forgot to mention my speakers as you mentioned at the end of the video that you like speakers. They are the Tannoy Westminster Royals and very good they are to. Massive yes but incredible from a whisper to a scream ;-)
Len Gregory, The Cartridge Man Ltd. I don't see why the Houdini wouldn't make a difference to any arm. If it works, it works. You may not prefer the sound but I'm sure it would change it.
Greetings from Argentina 🙋♂️ Very good channel and these accessories are very interesting. I wanted to ask you if you have tried the Audio Téchnica AT VM540 ML and AT VM 740ML micro linear capsules and if so, your opinion, comparing them with the Ortofon 2M Blue. Thank you very much.
be careful using a record weight I know on the Mkll you can't use it because it's a nylon shim it's probably the same on that, if you're going to want something like that use a michell engineering delrin clamp. how much does a Houdini weigh? I use balsa wood and that does work very well . another thing try couple of tight o-rings over the nut, there's issues with the nut and headshell assembly. there is a fixed but you needs to dismantle the socket in the arm and headshell. worth putting some copper tape on the plinth below the platter cut down magnetic failed and wrap a piece around the the arm in the middle. get some moongel put them under your feet and 2 pieces on the plinth between the platter and arm. ideally need to take the transformer out and have a switch mode power supply separately to the unit, that'll make a real big difference. yeah you wanna use 30 gauge solid silver wire with teflon tubing not expensive.
Great video. Analogue vs digital really depends on how the source material was mastered. Early CD's are terrible for instance. Oh a simple low cost tweak you may want to try is remove the platter on the sl1200. Tap the platter in various places you will see that it is the inner boss under the platter that rings more than the platter itself. By eyeballing that boss you will see that it can be unscrewed easily by a few screws. Remove the boss, and pack the voids underneath with blue tac, refit the boss and put the platter back on. Listen and you should get a calmer sound with more insight. But as always YMMV perhaps your fancy mat is filtering this out, but it is good to remedy this ringing at source.
Is achromat really worth the money? Ive watched comparison videos on youtube with my best audio setup and it didnt sound that much different from other mats. In fact i found that the acrylic mat edged it in terms of instrument separation
I've really been looking into adding this to my setup which is pretty simple as far as my deck goes. So it's quite easy to install even with an existing headshell? Or would you recommend a brand new headshell to make this Houdini sound even better? Thanks for the video
it woul be good if you did comparrison recordings of the deck with and without the upgrades so we can hear the difference ourselves rather than going only be description.
Good afternoon I have purchased a technics 1210 Gr turntable and I am thinking of purchasing the Vincent pho 701, just to confirm these turntables HAVE NOT GOT BUILT IN AMPS ?
When you say HF, you should say Treble. HF is a communications term where you're referring to inaudible frequencies used as carriers in electromagnetic transmission
The odd thing is that the Ortofon Concorde and the 2M blue are close relatives. I f you get an OM20 or OM30 or OM40 the Concorde will be incredibly good.
@@dittonworks use DaVinci-resolve,for your sound and video editing, role of the bottom and top ends at - 24 db 100Hz and 1050Hz give you that professional sound.
@@hoobsgroove yep. It all costs money buddy. This channel is demonetised, so unlike some channels, I have to pay for everything. Let’s see if the channel grows anymore? Then I’ll invest a few quid on better equipment 👍 Thanks for watching
Ortofons are old,change to the Audio Technica VM95 range.Other beneficial upgrades Rega rb250/300 preferably rewired will lift the1210 to higher level.
The tone arm bearings will have a big influence even with the houdini in place and older 1210 tonearms were prone to having sloppy bearings made worse by dj misuse! When funds permit just change the tonearm and use with the Ortofon/Houdini,you may be surprised.
A great day experimenting,. £300 is a lot of money to tie up in a little gadget who's name escapes me at the moment but sounds like it could be worth it.
🤣👋👋
Hi Michael, a guy on eBay UK is selling the Funk Firm Houdinis for £199 at the moment. 😉
Jim 🏴🙂
😂
Great entry, mate. This is really an eye opener.
Great video mate. Very well explained and detailed
Very interesting video, loved it.
I can confrim that the 2m Blue coupled to the Houdini is outstanding. It really is that good.
just purchased a full funk firm set for my Technics SL-1210GR / Nagaoka MP-200 setup:
the achromat for 1200, the cobra headshell and the houdini.
also purchased the mnptech isolation feet and the audio technica AT6108 leads as well.
i just can't wait for hear the results on my precious japanese technics.
great video! keep on the good work my friend.
best regards from israel.
@JumbleTasteSpinning 👍👍
Let me know how it all sounds 👌
@@dittonworks well, after a couple of months of use:
The houdini is amazing, allthough the plastic screws and the install are very annoying, so i purchase long brass screws and now it's great and looks great as well.
The cobra headshell is good, but too high and feels a bit cheap: the arm is very low and close to the record. Did'nt like it, allthough it looks great.
The achromat is really that upgrade of them all that makes a big difference - you can hear it right away! just one big problem: it's wobble. not flat at all.
I can't stand it to see the record wobble like that, so i return the rubber mat and consider to buy the AMP one with the glass. That should be total flat.
My conclution: begin with the AMP mat first or the achromat (if it's flat).
@@JumbleTasteSpinning APM 👌
@@JumbleTasteSpinningdo you still have the hodini & cobra? How do you like it?
I had a herbies record mat which sounded good on my 1200mk2 after replacing the stock mat. I then tried the achromat which was a step up from the herbies record mat. You may want to try the soundeck record mat which is a step up from the achromat and it is totally flat.
@@JumbleTasteSpinningalso did you get the apm? How does it sound over the achromat? And where did you get the brass screws for the hodini? I may get it.
Frickins head's gone.. heads gone.. :) great stuff. I think I will not now get a record player..:)
And why not, good video as always.
That was great advice
This is why I gave up vinyl for CDs decades ago, so I didn't have to worry anymore about all this stuff (including the costs involved), as well as constantly cleaning the records and stylus, not to mention the enormous amount of extra space required to store vinyl. Vinyl MAY have slightly better sound quality over CDs, but not enough to me to deal with all those extra hassles.
Hi DM , fancy seeing you here !! The problem with vinyl is that you can never get truely accurate replay from it. It can sound great and you can really enjoy both the listening and the tinkering and tweaking but it's never going to be accurate. You can spend a gazillion on a TT setup but you'll never get there, not doable, not possible, This is why hard core analoguists like R2R for their analogue fix, but even R2R has its issues. The difference in mastering between the different formats also muddies the water considerably.BTW, I'm absolutely not suggesting that people shouldn't love their vinyl replay, as I once did, when I had the space.
My 1210Grs will outlast any CD player.
@@djsubculture2786yup. Bought my current tts back in 1986. Heavy mods done to it. Still kicking. Bought my first cd Player Sony x55 es cd Player in 1991. Lasted till 2009 because the laser went out. Purchased a used Sony 777 es cd Player. Could not match the sound coming from my heavy modded technics 1200 tts. I sold the cd Player and still have the 1200s.
So why are you here ?
Wondering if the Houdini cartridge decoupler would bring any benefits to a Nasotec swing headshell, which kind of decouples the cartridge from the tonearm in horizontal movements, though it’s not its main purpose but self-alignment during playback (zero tracking error). I haven’t heard of anyone using them both, but already come across a shop that sells turntables and offers the both options to be added. Does the Funk Houdini decoupler add some play in vertical movements (up and down) to increase trackability of warps, for example, in contrast to the Nasotec swing headshell?
According to Ortofon. The 2m black stylus is interchangeable with the 2m Bronze but Not the 2m Blue ??
i think the apm mat only worked better than the others because the others could never sit correctly due to the sl1210 platter ridge. another mat that works brilliantly with these turntables is the hexmat eclipse
Very very interesting video
Thanks for watching
This almost brought a little tear to my eye and reminded me of my past. Way back when there was another English guy, forgotten his name at the mo I'll post it if I remember, who made a similar device as the Houdini it wasn't as nice looking but did the same thing. He also had his own cartridge based on MI (Grado) (moving iron) technology called the Music Maker which is similar to mm. Anyway these cartridges were similar in price to mid-expensive mc's and sounded every bit as good if not better. Anyway I know what the Houdini can do but as you've said it returns less as you go up the price in arm and cartridges. My current TT is the amazing Dohmann Helix 1 v2 SAT arm for for almost £90K I doubt it would make any difference or might even mess with the setup although for just £300 it would be worth ago.. I am looking at Arthur's new arm which is around the same price as the SAT £30k it looks incredible. I spoke to Arthur many years ago for a long evening over many many drinks, incredible guy but totally out there. Arthur (Funk) makes incredible isolation feet have you tried them on your turntable???
The Funk feet are my next purchase 👍
Thanks for watching.
@@dittonworks Oh I forgot to mention my speakers as you mentioned at the end of the video that you like speakers. They are the Tannoy Westminster Royals and very good they are to. Massive yes but incredible from a whisper to a scream ;-)
@@garth56 omg 😳 that’s a mega set of Tannoy’s.. wow I’d love to hear your set up 👍👍
@@dittonworks You're welcome 🙂
Len Gregory, The Cartridge Man Ltd. I don't see why the Houdini wouldn't make a difference to any arm. If it works, it works. You may not prefer the sound but I'm sure it would change it.
Greetings from Argentina 🙋♂️ Very good channel and these accessories are very interesting. I wanted to ask you if you have tried the Audio Téchnica AT VM540 ML and AT VM 740ML micro linear capsules and if so, your opinion, comparing them with the Ortofon 2M Blue. Thank you very much.
great review, FunkFirm all the way, Im a proud owner of a Vector MkII Arthur is a genius
be careful using a record weight I know on the Mkll you can't use it because it's a nylon shim it's probably the same on that, if you're going to want something like that use a michell engineering delrin clamp.
how much does a Houdini weigh? I use balsa wood and that does work very well .
another thing try couple of tight o-rings over the nut, there's issues with the nut and headshell assembly. there is a fixed but you needs to dismantle the socket in the arm and headshell. worth putting some copper tape on the plinth below the platter cut down magnetic failed and wrap a piece around the the arm in the middle.
get some moongel put them under your feet and 2 pieces on the plinth between the platter and arm.
ideally need to take the transformer out and have a switch mode power supply separately to the unit, that'll make a real big difference.
yeah you wanna use 30 gauge solid silver wire with teflon tubing not expensive.
Great video. Analogue vs digital really depends on how the source material was mastered. Early CD's are terrible for instance. Oh a simple low cost tweak you may want to try is remove the platter on the sl1200. Tap the platter in various places you will see that it is the inner boss under the platter that rings more than the platter itself. By eyeballing that boss you will see that it can be unscrewed easily by a few screws. Remove the boss, and pack the voids underneath with blue tac, refit the boss and put the platter back on. Listen and you should get a calmer sound with more insight. But as always YMMV perhaps your fancy mat is filtering this out, but it is good to remedy this ringing at source.
Ha ha kev you've caught the bug 🤣🤣🤣
Is achromat really worth the money? Ive watched comparison videos on youtube with my best audio setup and it didnt sound that much different from other mats. In fact i found that the acrylic mat edged it in terms of instrument separation
It worked on the deck very well but this was in conjunction with the other funk firm bits most importantly the Houdini
Great great video. Can you share links for the APM + headshell , thanks
There you go
thefunkfirm.co.uk/
I've really been looking into adding this to my setup which is pretty simple as far as my deck goes. So it's quite easy to install even with an existing headshell? Or would you recommend a brand new headshell to make this Houdini sound even better?
Thanks for the video
Hi 👋
Cobra headshell is required if you’ve run out if VTA, the APM is thicker than the usual acromat so I needed the cobra 🐍
it woul be good if you did comparrison recordings of the deck with and without the upgrades so we can hear the difference ourselves rather than going only be description.
Good afternoon I have purchased a technics 1210 Gr turntable and I am thinking of purchasing the Vincent pho 701, just to confirm these turntables HAVE NOT GOT BUILT IN AMPS ?
No built in phono stage with SL1200/1210
When you say HF, you should say Treble. HF is a communications term where you're referring to inaudible frequencies used as carriers in electromagnetic transmission
The odd thing is that the Ortofon Concorde and the 2M blue are close relatives. I f you get an OM20 or OM30 or OM40 the Concorde will be incredibly good.
I’m using 2M Black and Quintet Blue..
Not sure I’d go backwards now
The OM30 and OM40 became the 2M black. Apparently the styli fit both OM and 2M models.
The video looks great, content is fantastic, but you could really use a lav microphone to get you to the next level.
Thanks.. yes I really must get a mic 🎤 sorted
@@dittonworks
use DaVinci-resolve,for your sound and video editing,
role of the bottom and top ends at - 24 db 100Hz and 1050Hz give you that professional sound.
@@hoobsgroove yep.
It all costs money buddy.
This channel is demonetised, so unlike some channels, I have to pay for everything.
Let’s see if the channel grows anymore? Then I’ll invest a few quid on better equipment 👍
Thanks for watching
@@dittonworks they do a free version
Ortofons are old,change to the Audio Technica VM95 range.Other beneficial upgrades Rega rb250/300
preferably rewired will lift the1210 to higher level.
No point using the better arm while I’ve got the Houdini.. it eliminates the arm.
Next cart! I’ll try your recommendation 👍
The tone arm bearings will have a big influence even with the houdini in place and older 1210 tonearms were prone to having sloppy bearings made worse by dj misuse!
When funds permit just change the tonearm and use with the Ortofon/Houdini,you may be surprised.
@@warrior9085 mine has never been Dj’d and the KAB fluid trough helps no end..
Sadly houdini isnt available here in europe :(
Oh no.. that’s unfortunate
Yeah Buyers BIAS...
Lol. Thanks for watching