Stanton Gyropoise Turntable

[fantao]

I've decided to start a thread on Stanton (and Pickering) Gyropoise turntables because there's not much information available on them, and there's already a good thread here on Stanton cartridges.

This all started for me when I saw a cute turntable up for auction, and couldn't resist buying it. This was my first Stanton model 8004 II turntable (see above). This looks at first glance like a baby Thorens 160. My first impression was that it looked like a toy. The build quality is not very impressive (understandable if it was inexpensive, see below) but the design is based on sound principles. The basic design is the same as an AR turntable, with a suspended chassis. The one innovation is that the platter is suspended vertically (floats) by opposing ring magnets. Here is a picture showing one of the magnets on the base:


The platter shaft is held vertically with two bronze sleeve bearings. The motor is a Hurst 300RPM synchronous and drives the platter through a flat belt of around 19 inches circumference. The arm is a unipivot design, called "Unipoise" by Stanton. There is also a magnet on the arm rest to hold the arm. Antiskating compensation is provided by an adjustment ring at the base of the tonearm. One strange feature of the tonearm is that the finger pickup is at the top of the headshell, not at the side (takes some getting used to)!


The turntable came with a Stanton 681EEE cartridge, but the needle was bad, so I bought a NOS D6800EEE-S stylus for it (stereohedron, most 681's are elliptical). Note that this turntable has a fixed headshell that only accepts specially modified Stanton (and Pickering) cartridges which have the mounting ears truncated - the cartridge just plugs in, though it is a tight fit and difficult to remove (I believe that these cartridges have a "TT" prefix to identify them - mine was marked "TT 681EEE").

After plugging in the new stylus, I put on a record, not expecting much. The record was MFSL 1-507, Respighi's "Feste Romane" and "The Pines of Rome" with Lorin Maazel and the Cleveland Orchestra. I probably hadn't listened to this record in some 20 years and didn't remember how good it was. As the record played, my jaw dropped. It just sounded fantastic. By the way, most people are familiar with "Pines" but "Fest Romane" contains some of the most outrageous scoring ever (some would call it inane, but it's lots of fun to listen to). This was my first experience listening to a Stanton cartridge, having started with Shures and now owning dozens of others, including moving coils. I'd have to say that the Stanton 681EEE-S sounded in some ways better than the Shure V15-V that I used to have, at least in the midrange.

Here is a question that I hope some people can confirm. It has been reported that the Stanton 8004 II sold for only about $100 (in the mid 1970's) with a 681EEE. I find this hard to believe, since the cartridge itself must have been worth at least $50 in those days. When I was in college, I spent close to $500 of my hard earned money (painting and cutting lawns in the summer) on a turntable setup - JH Audio turntable, Formula 4 arm, Shure V15-V cartridge, and I'd have to say that this Gyropoise would have given that combination a run for its money. I could have saved a lot of money if I had known about the Gyropoise in those days!

Another question. It has been reported on the internet that the Stanton Gyropoise (no model number given) had a lot of quality issues and a high rate of return. Can any of the former employees comment on this. My first 8004 II did have some issues:
1. slight noisy motor (common issue with AR turntables too)
2. sticky speed change, fixed by lubricating speed change arm
3. intermittent power switch due to too much clearance between switch lever and microswitch, fixed by gluing in a metal shim.

Some history of Stanton Gyropoise turntables that I've been able to piece together:

Circa 1964: Gyropoise 800B puck drive turntable, very different than the 8004 II but with the same magnetic bearing. Price - $99 (without cartridge I think).

Circa 1974: Gyropoise 8004 II introduced. Was there ever a "version I"?

Circa 1979: Gyropoise 8005A introduced. Similar to 8004 II but with redesigned rocker type switches instead of slider switches (which may have had issues as I reported above). Arm also looks different. Picture of 8005A available here:
http://www.zenn.com.sg/Stanton_8005A.JPG