Oracle Delphi mk2 Restoration
This deck was one on my bucket list (is that still a thing?)
A beautiful Canadian skeletal deck from an era of black or teak veneer belt drive fruitboxes, it stood out like the proverbial peacock in the farm yard.
Like my JBE direct drive, it looked like little else at the time of its introduction, and that was a big selling point. It didn't look bloody awful.
A friend of mine has one and doesn't use it, It has a Fidelity Research fr64 on it with a Kiseiki blue mc cart.... but he doesn't use it.
But he does have a TD124, several 301's and 401's, Lenco's, you name it, he has it. All these things were bought when the were worth peanuts, being seen as old fashioned in the mid eighties. His oracle cost him a pretty penny though.
This one is not that one. But seeing it years and years ago, It carved a place in my head as 'one of those' that I had to get my grubby hands on one day.
Pretty thing isn't it
A beautiful Canadian skeletal deck from an era of black or teak veneer belt drive fruitboxes, it stood out like the proverbial peacock in the farm yard.
Like my JBE direct drive, it looked like little else at the time of its introduction, and that was a big selling point. It didn't look bloody awful.
A friend of mine has one and doesn't use it, It has a Fidelity Research fr64 on it with a Kiseiki blue mc cart.... but he doesn't use it.
But he does have a TD124, several 301's and 401's, Lenco's, you name it, he has it. All these things were bought when the were worth peanuts, being seen as old fashioned in the mid eighties. His oracle cost him a pretty penny though.
This one is not that one. But seeing it years and years ago, It carved a place in my head as 'one of those' that I had to get my grubby hands on one day.
Pretty thing isn't it
So.
If this is not the one I'd seen and drooled over all those years ago, how did this one end up in my grubby mitts?
I was talking to a customer of mine who I had done some work for about those decks, arms and carts we had always wanted to try. The 401's, the TD 124's the Trio L07d's, the Kenwood KD990's, the Yamaha PX3's, you know, all those unobtanium turntables that have gained mythical status and require copious amounts of dosh just to be allowed in the same room as them. Maybe not the 124's and the 401's but there is a fairly substantial entry requirement even tor those. I mentioned the Oracle and he casually mentioned that he had a broken one in a box that needed work. And would I like to have a go at getting it running.
Yes. Yes I would.
He fetched it up along with the SME 309 arm, the original aluminium version rather than the magnesium one, as one of the arms I'd mentioned was the SME V. Closest I'll ever get to one of those given the prices since SME stopped selling arms separate to their decks.....
So I had the choice of the 309 or my 3009 as the deck was all original and had it's 3009 arm board.
Cool.
The original power supply was MIA at the time, but the MK2 version of the deck still had the Papst dc motor, which could be run from 18v up to 30v, so I was sure Id have a suitable power supply somewhere..
The deck suspension tower adjusters were seized up, and the motor wouldn't run, so the first job was to strip it down and see what was what.
If this is not the one I'd seen and drooled over all those years ago, how did this one end up in my grubby mitts?
I was talking to a customer of mine who I had done some work for about those decks, arms and carts we had always wanted to try. The 401's, the TD 124's the Trio L07d's, the Kenwood KD990's, the Yamaha PX3's, you know, all those unobtanium turntables that have gained mythical status and require copious amounts of dosh just to be allowed in the same room as them. Maybe not the 124's and the 401's but there is a fairly substantial entry requirement even tor those. I mentioned the Oracle and he casually mentioned that he had a broken one in a box that needed work. And would I like to have a go at getting it running.
Yes. Yes I would.
He fetched it up along with the SME 309 arm, the original aluminium version rather than the magnesium one, as one of the arms I'd mentioned was the SME V. Closest I'll ever get to one of those given the prices since SME stopped selling arms separate to their decks.....
So I had the choice of the 309 or my 3009 as the deck was all original and had it's 3009 arm board.
Cool.
The original power supply was MIA at the time, but the MK2 version of the deck still had the Papst dc motor, which could be run from 18v up to 30v, so I was sure Id have a suitable power supply somewhere..
The deck suspension tower adjusters were seized up, and the motor wouldn't run, so the first job was to strip it down and see what was what.
As you can see, There are a few more bits to it than your average suspended subchassis deck from the early eighties.
As the motor is in a fixed location and the chassis can bounce, the first port of call was the suspension. It was not possible to get the belt to stay on even when hand turning the platter because the chassis, and hence the platter drive surface, was cockeyed in relation to the motor pulley. The suspension towers were duly disassembled, and I found that they were seized up because the original grease on the adjuster threads was rock solid. so they took a bath in degreaser to get it all off
As the motor is in a fixed location and the chassis can bounce, the first port of call was the suspension. It was not possible to get the belt to stay on even when hand turning the platter because the chassis, and hence the platter drive surface, was cockeyed in relation to the motor pulley. The suspension towers were duly disassembled, and I found that they were seized up because the original grease on the adjuster threads was rock solid. so they took a bath in degreaser to get it all off
I reassembled it all, careful to put the springs back in the correct towers as they are different spring rates for each one, and used some new lithium grease in place of the old crusty stuff.
Now it was possible to level the chassis, I could start on the motor. First I checked the cable that runs from the motor to the controls for continuity to eliminate that from the equation. That was fine.
There are plenty of resources on the Oracle website relating to the old decks with schematics of this one. I found this mark had a relay for speed switching which has been known to cause issues. The motor pod comes off and under it is a spun aluminium mounting plate. Under this is a circular PCB, and on that is the relay. The relay was desoldered off the PCB and taken apart. The contacts were a bit grimy, a bit of corrosion here and there on them, so they were cleaned up and the relay put back in place. I reflowed the solder on all of the solder pad joints on the PCB to eliminate the possibility of a dry joint causing issues while it was all out.
Next job was to find a suitable dc power supply for it, and a 24vdc switching PSU from some old LED aquarium lights was found that had plenty more current capacity than the specs for the original. And the correct jack on the end of it. Which was nice.
As the motor control on this deck is old school, the motor speed is governed by the voltage coming out of the PSU. No quartzlock, no regenerating power supply, just a regulated voltage. Speed stability is governed by how stable the DC supply is. Just like my beloved JBE. Which isn't all that stable, but that's another story.
So expecting it to run slow because the original supply was a 27v supply, if it ran at all, the switch was thrown.
I was rather happy when it did run. And switched speeds which before it failed and was put away, it wouldn't.
Next thing to do was to tweak the speed up to where it should be..
But first, it needed the arm and cart fitting so that stylus drag could be taken into account when doing this. This duly done and the cartridge aligned in the 309, the easiest arm I have ever set up in my life, I then realised I needed to set the bounce too as all these things could have an effect on the belt orientation. If the chassis was adjusted and set too high then the belt would run up into the flange at the top of the motor pulley and make nasty rubbing noises.
This was the biggest pain in the arse of the job as the deck is very sensitive to the position of the chassis balance weight. Much swearing ensued. The bloody thing is very temperamental.
That done it was time to start tweaking the motor.
Now it was possible to level the chassis, I could start on the motor. First I checked the cable that runs from the motor to the controls for continuity to eliminate that from the equation. That was fine.
There are plenty of resources on the Oracle website relating to the old decks with schematics of this one. I found this mark had a relay for speed switching which has been known to cause issues. The motor pod comes off and under it is a spun aluminium mounting plate. Under this is a circular PCB, and on that is the relay. The relay was desoldered off the PCB and taken apart. The contacts were a bit grimy, a bit of corrosion here and there on them, so they were cleaned up and the relay put back in place. I reflowed the solder on all of the solder pad joints on the PCB to eliminate the possibility of a dry joint causing issues while it was all out.
Next job was to find a suitable dc power supply for it, and a 24vdc switching PSU from some old LED aquarium lights was found that had plenty more current capacity than the specs for the original. And the correct jack on the end of it. Which was nice.
As the motor control on this deck is old school, the motor speed is governed by the voltage coming out of the PSU. No quartzlock, no regenerating power supply, just a regulated voltage. Speed stability is governed by how stable the DC supply is. Just like my beloved JBE. Which isn't all that stable, but that's another story.
So expecting it to run slow because the original supply was a 27v supply, if it ran at all, the switch was thrown.
I was rather happy when it did run. And switched speeds which before it failed and was put away, it wouldn't.
Next thing to do was to tweak the speed up to where it should be..
But first, it needed the arm and cart fitting so that stylus drag could be taken into account when doing this. This duly done and the cartridge aligned in the 309, the easiest arm I have ever set up in my life, I then realised I needed to set the bounce too as all these things could have an effect on the belt orientation. If the chassis was adjusted and set too high then the belt would run up into the flange at the top of the motor pulley and make nasty rubbing noises.
This was the biggest pain in the arse of the job as the deck is very sensitive to the position of the chassis balance weight. Much swearing ensued. The bloody thing is very temperamental.
That done it was time to start tweaking the motor.
There are two sets of pots to tweak. One fine and one coarse, a pair for both 33 and 45. The two fine adjust pots are accessible from the rear with a jewellers screwdriver and are meant to be adjusted by the user. You can see these in the centre of the picture on the bottom right of the motor PCB. When the motor top cover is on there are two holes in it to access them. The coarse adjust points are not accessible and have to have the cover off and some stickers removed to get at them. They are down a pair of holes in the PCB which you can see in the bottom left of the visible motor PCB.
I used a Lenco strobe disc to time it up slightly slow on both 33 and 45 with the coarse adjust pots then tweaked it to speed with the two fine adjust pots.
The put it back together again and sat down for a listen.
I used a Lenco strobe disc to time it up slightly slow on both 33 and 45 with the coarse adjust pots then tweaked it to speed with the two fine adjust pots.
The put it back together again and sat down for a listen.
I don't know what I was expecting, maybe some instant sonic nirvana, or a halo to form around the deck and the performers on the record to suddenly form up in front of me, or something like that, but it didn't happen.
On paper, it should have, I was sat in front of an Oracle Delphi, with an SME 309, and a Dynavector DV20. The armchair internet audiophiles would call bullshit if I said I was abit....... Underwhelmed. But that was what I was.
I did some setup tweakery and studied the thing to see if I'd done something wrong. But nope. The initial thoughts were of bloated bass, congested midrange and splashy top end. I resolved not to form an impression immediately, and stuck it on in the background for a day to see what it did the next time I sat down in front of it.
The next day it seemed to have freed itself up somewhat, the bottom end was tighter, the midrange less congested and the top end less splashy.
The one thing it had that was very nice was the openness and sense of space. And it was nice and lively, rock and eighties pop such as simple minds 'alive and kicking' sounded brilliant. Pat Metheney 'still life (talking)' on the other hand didn't play to it's strengths and sounded diffuse and a bit wishy washy. So I went back to Simple Minds, Deacon Blue, Led Zep and Bon Jovi. That sort of stuff. Then it was great again.
Then I got it. Why the Oracle has such a following and status.
The deck has a wonderful joi de vivre (French canadian?), a bouncy, lively sound but not strictly speaking accurate.
But.
There is something about it that makes you want to listen to it, it's got this quality to it that keeps you playing records.
But I found that I was getting a bit annoyed at it when playing certain music that I felt it was masking the finer points of.
an analogy may be that this deck paints a beautiful watercolour whereas my JBE with the linear arm on it presents a technical drawing. I like the technical drawing better than the watercolour.
The interesting thing, at least for me is that my dad called in to listen to it and said it reminded him of his 1987 Linn lp12 "but without the screech" in his words. That particular lp12 had the Valhalla board, Akito arm and a K18ii. He detested that deck, he was never happy with it because of said screech, and said he had about 7 records that sounded great and the rest sounded mediocre. I inherited that lp12 and found something similar. I never really got on with it.
Perhaps this is why I like the Roksan Xerxes, that deck has a more accurate sound in my opinion, some say clinical, I say clean.
I found the Oracle hard to listen to because I found I was having to strain to place instruments in the admittedly wide and deep soundstage and to follow instruments and voices. The leading edges of notes were a little smeared where they aren't with my Lenco's and direct drives. That start/stop precision is important to me and it isn't quite there with the Oracle. I found I couldn't jump between following instruments as easily with the Oracle as I can with the Lencos or direct drives. But conversely I can appreciate why that bouncy, lively happy quality that it has is sought after. It's like with some music it is enthusiastic to play it. If that makes sense.
If it sounds like I'm criticising too harshly that's fine, if everyone was the same, had the same thoughts on things and the same preferences then there would be no variation in anything. And that would be rather boring. Plenty of folk can't stand JBE's and Xerxes's.
They say never meet you heroes, but even though I was disappointed in some ways that it wasn't my kind of sound, I'm glad I got the chance to
It's just not quite for me. The Xerxes is closer to my 'sound', the accurate structural sound that I hanker after. But enough of my faux amateur reviewerspeak, the damned thing is still bloody gorgeous
Onwards!
On paper, it should have, I was sat in front of an Oracle Delphi, with an SME 309, and a Dynavector DV20. The armchair internet audiophiles would call bullshit if I said I was abit....... Underwhelmed. But that was what I was.
I did some setup tweakery and studied the thing to see if I'd done something wrong. But nope. The initial thoughts were of bloated bass, congested midrange and splashy top end. I resolved not to form an impression immediately, and stuck it on in the background for a day to see what it did the next time I sat down in front of it.
The next day it seemed to have freed itself up somewhat, the bottom end was tighter, the midrange less congested and the top end less splashy.
The one thing it had that was very nice was the openness and sense of space. And it was nice and lively, rock and eighties pop such as simple minds 'alive and kicking' sounded brilliant. Pat Metheney 'still life (talking)' on the other hand didn't play to it's strengths and sounded diffuse and a bit wishy washy. So I went back to Simple Minds, Deacon Blue, Led Zep and Bon Jovi. That sort of stuff. Then it was great again.
Then I got it. Why the Oracle has such a following and status.
The deck has a wonderful joi de vivre (French canadian?), a bouncy, lively sound but not strictly speaking accurate.
But.
There is something about it that makes you want to listen to it, it's got this quality to it that keeps you playing records.
But I found that I was getting a bit annoyed at it when playing certain music that I felt it was masking the finer points of.
an analogy may be that this deck paints a beautiful watercolour whereas my JBE with the linear arm on it presents a technical drawing. I like the technical drawing better than the watercolour.
The interesting thing, at least for me is that my dad called in to listen to it and said it reminded him of his 1987 Linn lp12 "but without the screech" in his words. That particular lp12 had the Valhalla board, Akito arm and a K18ii. He detested that deck, he was never happy with it because of said screech, and said he had about 7 records that sounded great and the rest sounded mediocre. I inherited that lp12 and found something similar. I never really got on with it.
Perhaps this is why I like the Roksan Xerxes, that deck has a more accurate sound in my opinion, some say clinical, I say clean.
I found the Oracle hard to listen to because I found I was having to strain to place instruments in the admittedly wide and deep soundstage and to follow instruments and voices. The leading edges of notes were a little smeared where they aren't with my Lenco's and direct drives. That start/stop precision is important to me and it isn't quite there with the Oracle. I found I couldn't jump between following instruments as easily with the Oracle as I can with the Lencos or direct drives. But conversely I can appreciate why that bouncy, lively happy quality that it has is sought after. It's like with some music it is enthusiastic to play it. If that makes sense.
If it sounds like I'm criticising too harshly that's fine, if everyone was the same, had the same thoughts on things and the same preferences then there would be no variation in anything. And that would be rather boring. Plenty of folk can't stand JBE's and Xerxes's.
They say never meet you heroes, but even though I was disappointed in some ways that it wasn't my kind of sound, I'm glad I got the chance to
It's just not quite for me. The Xerxes is closer to my 'sound', the accurate structural sound that I hanker after. But enough of my faux amateur reviewerspeak, the damned thing is still bloody gorgeous
Onwards!