turntable help

Oh good call. I hadn't considered that. Not too sure how to figure that out though- trial and error perhaps?

the website GPIIH linked to helpfully shows tracking weights for aftermarket styli if you remember which one you have.

Thanks, hopefully it will clear things up. It perks me up to consider that I won't necessarily have to roll the dice on yet another stylus and hope it fares better.

Also bear in mind that carts can take time to "burn in" to the sound you'll eventually get. But tracking weight and where the stylus is hitting the groove are important. Vinyl Engine has protractors you can print out and use if you need to, it's pretty simple to do.

this is probably NOT what you're looking for, but there are aftermarket styli from JICO in japan that people swear by for shure cartridges"

http://www.jico-stylus.com/product_info.php?cPath=18&products_id=1525

like people seem to buy the shure n97xe more or less with the idea of putting a JICO stylus in it

fyi I have an Grado model that was equivalent to a silver, and then put a gold stylus in it. it sounds really nice, but doesn't always track very well on inner grooves or on loud parts I guess?

tell me more about denon cartridges... the MC ones get good reviews, but then maybe I am going down the road of buying a separate preamp (even though yeah I know they're high-output).

I have seen some excitement over the JICO stylus, but it is indeed a bit too pricey. Who knows. I ended up ordering the Pfanstiehl. It will be fun to compare it with the old n97xe stylus that I currently have, anyway. If the $50 n97xe comes back in the meantime, I can do a fairer comparison. tbh, the desire for a new stylus started when I noticed a lot of sibilance on bjork's "Show Me Forgiveness", and I later discovered that it's mostly from the recording.

that grado silver cart looks pretty cool btw.

sibilance is what has driven me crazy trying to replace cartridges and fine tune alignment in the past, but I wonder if I'm just sort of at the limit of the medium. inner groove distortion and sibilance. people make claims about cartridges that can track everything and sound beautiful on inner grooves, but I guess I kinda don't trust them?

I try not to fool myself about the limitations of vinyl. I just want to make it sound as good as I can.

I've been struggling with the same problem, replaced my Grado cartridge last year and have been noticing distortion and sibilance more and more. Maybe it just isn't broken in yet, as I don't use the turntable all the time. I definitely struggle to wrap my head around some of the finer points of adjusting a turntable.

^ This is exactly my problem word for word, except replace "Grado cartridge" with "Stanton stylus".

I doubt that "burn in" really is a thing

yeah never heard abt that actually

what can you do - align the cartridge, check weight and antiskating?

there's sibilance on cds too

The sibilance on CDs isn't a function of their playback mechanism or physical condition though, is it? It's bad recording.

if you have the same cart and you're hearing sibilance that you didn't hear with the exact same cartridge before, it's almost certainly a set-up issue

(again i thank god i live in the same city as Needle Doctor so I can buy a cart in the store and have them put it on)

I hadn't understood you were experiencing sibilance on tracks that used to play without - just meant to say that sibilance is a pretty common feature of recordings and not necessarily product of poor cartridge alignment/worn records

^^^ I listen more carefully to vinyl, and so I notice more good and bad things in the sound. I tend to blame the bad things on my setup too quickly.

this is a good explanation of what can be going wrong. So even if you hear more sibilance on the vinyl compared to the CD, it could be due to error/compromise in the cutting process.

so my problems ended up just being a worn/damaged stylus. the Pfanstiehl that GPIIH pointed me toward has been great. the plastic parts are hilariously fragile, so I just ripped off the little stylus guard. the weight difference with shure stylus was also pretty hilarious, so definitely had to recal tracking force (xp to Evan in case he didn't do this with his aftermarket stylus). think I'll be happily replacing the stylus more frequently with this option.

Thanks, I actually haven't looked into it yet! I keep putting it off. I definitely hope it just comes down to needing to calibrate it in a differently way than the old one. I probably haven't done enough experimenting with trial and error? I don't want to end up putting too much weight on it without realized it either. I get a little paranoid about carving up my records due to my gear ignorance.

(on the offchance anyone not following the other thread is following this one, apologies for duplicating)

Hellos.

My 17-year-old Ariston turntable has started making a weird whinnying sound if its been playing for more than 15-20 minutes. Someone on Facebook suggested I replace the belt, which has never been replaced in its lifetime, as the belt can sometimes make that weird noise if its too old.

I've tried to purchase replacement belts online, but if they're even a few millimeters too long, it seems, there's a massive impact on the speed of the record player - if too tight, too fast, if too loose, too slow. Like, an unlistenable impact.

So:

a) do I need to let one of these new, tighter belts run in, or are they just too big?

b) is it the belt that is causing this problem?

I am v close to getting rid of the turntable and buying another (old) one off eBay but am also worried that I will hit a similar impossible-to-remedy problem.

I am also newly reconverted to the appeal of CDs now (not really, the tray of my CD player is also busted and I can only put CDs on through the use of a bent up piece of thin metal).

ANY help or advice appreciated.

I've had good luck emailing the Needle Doctor with questions they are pretty helpful

If you buy another turntable you could get a direct drive table which does not use belts. I recommend basically any Technics model; the one I have is about as old as me (nearly 40) near bottom of the line and has never required any maintenance besides replacing the cartridge.

whinnying sound seems like it'd be a part rubbing against something? I also have a 40 year old Technics. I've had to service the tone arm motor setup a couple times, but old Technics service manuals are available online. cosign getting a technics 1200 or 1600 mkii if you can find one at a good price, anyway.

I've got a direct drive turntable, and the only problem with them vs belt drive is at really (really, really) high volumes you can hear noises from the drive mechanism sometimes. My shitty bootleg of Loveless sounds even shittier with clunking and whirring between songs.

Also you can get a component CD player for like $30 at a thrift shop, if that's an option for you. Or you can pick up a decent one brand new for like $120+.

Thanks for the tips guys - tbh have just seen my dream turntable (Philips 212, used my dad's old one as a teen but junked it for the Ariston when I got my first paycheck, what a fool) on ebay v v cheap so I think I'm just going to plump for that and pass the ariston on.

any reason why that's your dream turntable?

Just loved the way it sounded when I had one as a teen, and also it has these ace LED-lit 33/45 buttons. Mostly sentimental reasons though, tbh.

Seem to be a lot of em available cheap. Might check one out someday if my Technics ever quits.

Elderly mom wants to get one to play her old John Hammond records. Any decent stand alones w/built in speakers or am I going to have to go the amp / speaker route?

OKAY SO

I recently got a Philips 212 from the 1970s, dream machine, my dad had one back in the day, sounds AMAZING, works fine (I have heard they can be a little temperamental).

It arrived only with a DIN output, so I went and bought a Din-Phono connector at a nearby vintage hi-fi place. However, the left channel often cuts out, and I have to jiggle it a lot to get it to work, and as with all such wiring stuff, am guessing its only so long before all sound is lost. Cannot tell if it is the connector that's at fault or dud wiring in the cable from the turntable (which is built-in), but am guessing the latter.

Have purchased a new DIN-phono connector to check and see if that's the fault, but if it is the cable from the turntable, a) should I take it to the hi-fi place and get them to repair the wiring or b) can I just cut off the DIN plug and rewire it myself with PHONO jacks instead, or does life not work like that?

Have been toying with tracking down the original amplifier that was supposed to go with the turntable, which would make chopping off the DIN plug a mistake, but am doubting I will have the budget for that in the near-term.

I do not have much in the way of technical nous whatsoever, btw.

this is kind of a minor dumb issue but while i love my pro-ject debut III i also don't like how the tone arm doesn't auto return to the cradle so i'm thinking of getting a new one, preferably something vintage, inna woodgrain stylee maybe. any recommendations? looking for under $500.

Xenon dp47f

Denon*

and sry thats vintage, but a great turntable

Project has a series of tts with auto return, has some name like "comfort" or smth

If you like your deck, you could just go the route of a tonearm lifter:

http://www.thequp.com/

Technics 1600 mkii (not wood grain)

Project has a series of tts with auto return, has some name like "comfort" or smith

those are quite expensive IIRC

stevie -- sounds like you're having a tuff go-of-it playing your wax -- quick google found these:

http://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=49434
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9lv9ou_Qnk

Your symptoms point to a bad DIN, but who knows as it could also be loos wiring anywhere along the path (did you check the cartridge/stylus?). The pics showing the quick clips make it look like a straight-forward job (white,green,green,red,,,,BLACK; where does that 'fifth' wire go in a RCA scenario?) to switch to RCA output, but it sure looks like a nice unit. Good luck!

http://www.project-audio.com/main.php?prod=xpressioncomfort

700 euros inc 2M Red Ortofon cartridge, not cheap but not that expensive, maybe you can find a used one or bargain w local pro-ject dealer?

Thanks Bodacious - found that vid too, and what that guy does is WAY beyond my skillset (though it did confirm that I can't just cut off the din socket and whack on some RCAs). With patient wobbling I can get it to work alright (and how glorious it sounds when it does) but it is still temperamental - going to take it somewhere and get someone who isn't a klutz to fix it for me when I get some time and cash.

stupid turntable question

i know that you are supposed to ground most turntables, often by attaching the grounding wire to a pre-amp or amp.

for me, that is no problem.

the problem is that the electrical outlet nearest to where i have my system set up, is not properly grounded. if that's the case, and i plug my turntable into the outlet (or rather into a surge protector that is plugged into the outlet), will i get the "hum" characteristic of ungrounded turntables?

hmm, i found this

http://ask.metafilter.com/30282/Grounding-appliances-in-a-2prong-apartment

Grounding is beneficial only if you have a short in the appliance and could get a shock. Lack of grounding doesn't harm the sound, except for the wire from the turntable to the amplifier, which needs to be either connected or disconnected according to which way eliminates loud hum.

this sounds like it makes sense, but as with all stereo system-related advice, i'm likely to find the opposite admonition on another webpage.

yeah, the shared grounding of outlets is more about not getting a shock from touching your toaster and turntable cases at the same time.

yeah I don't have grounded outlets either, no prob

No humming, no elec shocks; no problem

here's something i noticed

my receiver/amp produces a hum in the right channel (it's audible if you turn the volume up loud) when it's set to "phono," even if nothing is actually plugged into the phono inputs. (it's not a speaker problem, since i swapped speakers a few times and it's always the right channel.) the hum doesn't appear when the amp is set to "aux," "CD," etc.

so i'm guessing this is a problem with the phono stage inside the receiver. there are a few possible fixes/workarounds:

1) just switch the built-in preamp in my new audio-technica turntable on and plug the deck into the "aux" inputs on my receiver, thus bypassing the phono stage altogether

2) don't use the built-in preamp in the turntable, but rather get a dedicated standalone phono pre-amp which can be plugged into the "aux" inputs. i imagine some audiophiles who are skeptical of phono stages in receivers and turntables would recommend this option.

3) just buy a new receiver to replace my 21-year-old kenwood.

do you think i'd really notice an improvement in sound quality using a $200 dedicated phono preamp rather than the preamp built into the audio-technica?