Ariston RD11E – My Loss!

I thought that after 40 years I would just relate a heart felt regret to my readers and how I got onto the audiophile bandwagon.

At the tender age of 23 and an entrenched “radio ham”, I visited a friends home amateur radio shack and was invited into his families lounge to listen to some music. What I heard changed my life FOREVER. It set me on the road to becoming a life long audiophile and pushed me into eventually leaving the radio and TV industry and entering the recording industry.

I will never forget hearing his Ariston RDllS/SME 3009 combination, Yamaha receiver, and Maudant Short 500 speakers provide a listening experience that was truly a revelation and “blew” my mind.

Ariston RD11S

I went home determined to replace my home made speakers, Sugden BD1/SAU2 and Grado grey cartridge with the same hardware that he was using. So, still a university student, off I went and purchased a pair of Maudant Short MS600 speakers, the next leg up from the MS500’s, and what I thought was the next leg up from the RD11S, the RD11E – see opening image. I purchased it “sight unseen” as I understood that it was just the AC synchronous motor that had been updated to a servo controlled DC motor. I was a little disappointed when I opened up its box.

Sugden BC1 Turntable

Sugden SAU2 Tonearm

I felt that the latter was not the right selection, and to this day I regret not purchasing the RD11S. Even though the RDllE seemed to sound great and had a DC motor with electronic speed control it WAS NOT the same construction quality as the RD11S. So I eventually sold it, a decision I still regret to this day.

After years of researching and budget restrictions I purchased the Thorens TD160S and paired it with a Hadcock GH228 Super arm that is the original development arm I worked on with its designer, George Hadcock, and contains the only available 7 ball bearing pivot. It is still the vinyl replay system that I use today. This pairing has been significantly upgraded, see here for further details.

Thorens TD160S & Hadcock Arm GH228S With my Original Lentek Entre And Now Hana SL Cartridges

The Thorens TD160S has many design and mechanical similarities with both the RD11S and LP12 original turntables. These include:

• Belt Drive
• Two part well damped heavy platter (RD11S – approx. 7lbs, Ariston/Linn – approx. 9.5lbs)
• Solid plinth construction
• Low machining tolerances for the main bearing and platter
• Three point damped under-slung separate sub-chassis
• AC synchronous motor (Thorens – 16 pole, Ariston/Linn – 24 pole)
• Single point bearing

The RDllE used PTFE (Frelon) lined inserts in the main bearing rather than sintered brass. These bearings shed their PTFE coating onto the turntable spindle causing an extremely low friction contact as both surfaces become coated in PTFE. This technique significantly reduces rotational surface friction and therefore bearing noise. When I designed and built my own turntable I used this very same design, see the image below.

My Spare Turntable Bearing Assembley

You can just see the top PTFE insert in the brass bearing housing and the light gray bands of PTFE at the top and bottom of the ground and nitride hardened steel spindle that rests on a nitride hardened steel ball creating a similar single point contact as used by Ariston/Linn. The bottom of the brass housing contains a ‘bath’ of Moly-Graph EP grease which the ball and bottom face of the shaft sit in.

(I believe that the current bearing inserts in the LP12 are manufactured from PEEK (polyether ether ketone). This is a very high performance plastic with outstanding mechanical properties. Oil is used to minimize frictional losses between the shaft and inserts. )

Eventually I gave this turntable away and purchased the Thorens and Hadcock arm. An excellent pairing that to this day I am very pleased with. Though I still really regret selling my Ariston RD11E and giving the turntable that I built away.

A Little Ariston & Linn History

Hamish Robertson owned a company called Thermac in 1967, which became Ariston in 1970, and Ariston Audio in 1973. He was the man who invented the RD11 in 1971 with Castle Precision Engineering Ltd. machining many of its parts. Prior to the death of Hamish, Ariston was bought out by Peter Dunlop of Dunlop Westayr Ltd. who reorganized his company as Ariston Audio Ltd.

Hamish became friends with Ivor Tiefenbrun, the son of Jack Tiefenbrun and owner of Castle Engineering. In 1973 Ivor founded Linn Products Ltd. in order to sell turntables made by Castle Precision Engineering. This resulted in a patent litigation against Linn by Hamish, for selling the Sondek LP12 that was almost a carbon copy of his original RD11. Unfortunately Hamish died during the ensuing legal battle that resulted in Linn being awarded the turntables patent(s) and Ariston loosing the turntable battle.

Linn’s iconic company logo is the simple geometric representation of the ‘single point’ bearing which was one of the unique features of the LP12 turntable, along with its precision machined main bearing assembly.

See here for details on my vinyl replay system upgrades.

Linn home website -UK.

Take a look at the Livingston 4 Studio Complex that I maintained.