The upgrade is a complete reassessment of every mechanical motor component and brings the motors performance up to what the designer intended, not what the accountant delivered.

Every part of the motor is optimized to do its task as intended.
The difference between as designed and as built is significant. Structural changes are also made to the  bearing support on the  MK3. The bearing and spindle are cleaned and re oiled. You can expect a lower noise floor,  deeper low level detail retrieval. Superior transients and decay along with a wider sense of drive and power. Low frequency extension is enhanced, this adds gestalt to the performance which is very appealing. It also opens the door on full range systems to low frequency information previously hidden.  What can be harvested off a LP never ceases to impress us. Isn't this one of the reasons we still use this exciting medium? This is a fundamental improvement to the front end source component of your system. Changes here are dramatic. Owners who have had both Mk2 and Mk3 motors upgraded, report that the gap between the two is reduced. This is a big plus, as the Mk3 is becoming increasingly difficult to find.

Components of the motor worked on and optimised are: the motor stator chassis, the bearing support, the stator, commutation and speed sensing. Part of the upgrade involves the application of an organic oil to specific parts of the chassis and motor. This same oil is used by other highly rated audio component manufacturers. Over time the oil dries and stabilises, displaying considerable longevity. This explains the time delay before optimum performance. Initial proof testing of this oil was done in an electrostatic speaker HT supply in 1993. Under these conditions the oil is exposed to 5000Vdc and 50 hz, 275Vac (770 V P-P), to date it has shown absolutely no degradation. The oil was first used inside a test MK3 motor in 1995,. This TT has been run virtually daily since then, again there is absolutely no degradation. Inside the motor the oil is exposed to a very benign low frequency 30VP-P sine wave on start up, dropping to a much lower voltage at run speeds. Temperature rise inside the motor is minimal.

The work is delicate and time consuming. Definitely not of the faint hearted. It has taken us 15 years of small and sometimes large changes to get to this point. Many times we went backwards and had to rework what we had just done. We must have had the motors apart literally 100's of times. Due to the nature of some of the materials employed, the full benefit of the upgrade is not immediately apparent. That said, customers are typically delighted with the out of the box performance. Full benefits become apparent after approximately 3 to 4 months.

The fundamental principles of the upgrade are transferable to other makes. We can advise on your particular model. Should you decide to go ahead with another make of TT, the unit would need to be sent to our New Zealand operation for the procedure. This policy may change in the future.