I am unsure what tracking has to do with armlift height...………………………………
Thicker/heavier LP - is the cart' or cart' lead(s) touching the LP while playing? Arm set too low in other words.
Turntable woes
- Thread starter White Zombie
- Start date
I am unsure what tracking has to do with armlift height...………………………………
Thicker/heavier LP - is the cart' or cart' lead(s) touching the LP while playing? Arm set too low in other words.
White Zombie
pfm Member
Apologies mind was elsewhere there, no I haven't touched the armlift height, wouldn't know how to to be honest. When I got the turntable in, I set up the tracking and added the anti skate weight.
I'll have a look at the leads to check tomorrow/
White Zombie
pfm Member
Quite possibly, I'd just assumed the seller on here would have had it suitable set up and with it being packed in the original box it would be fine.
Start totally from scratch on set-up and see where that gets you. I would be very surprised if that didn't solve the problem but bear in mind the two things that have tripped most of us up - armlift must be clear of the arm during play across the entire width of the LP, and cart' leads must not dangle below the cart'.
White Zombie
pfm Member
Been up early with it
the arm is sitting totally parallel all the way across with the leads well above the cartridge and the arm clear of the arm all the way across the record.Checked the vertical tracking angle with a small level which shows it being perfect. Also double checked with a tiny tape measure which shows the distance from the record to the centre line which is along the tonearm to be the same all the way along the arm and the same regardless of the position of the stylus on the record.
Looked at the azimuth as well and the stylus appears to be totally vertical in the groove.
Only thing I haven't considered is the actual cartridge alignment, but again I would need to read up a wee bit on that as I've never done it before.
White Zombie
pfm Member
Starting to consider that. Not sure what to change first to see what makes a difference. Try it with a different cartridge first or get a different phone stage hmm
The same records play perfectly OK elsewhere and the problem sounds (apologies for the pun) so gross that that is very difficult to believe. In my experience, increasing cost/sophistication (however you want to define it), produces a system LESS prone to play dust and suchlike and as the records play OK elsewhere, it is very unlikely to be pressing quality.
I'd make absolutely sure that everything is set up as it should be and if the problem persists, change the cart' - hopefully you have a spare?
White Zombie
pfm Member
Sadly I don't but I think that's going to be the first thing I change to see if it makes a difference.
Honestly I'm not imagining things, I took over half a dozen records that sounded terrible on my system and when I played them on his it was like night and day, no crackling at all. But as I say I've got plenty that sounds excellent on mine.
Mongeddavid
pfm Member
If the records have been cleaned incorrectly the fluid or whatever was on the surface is allowed to dry within the grooves the records can visually look clean but in fact this surface crud and fluid can be dried into the grooves. Re clean them if at all possible with a suction cleaning RCM and see if they improve
White Zombie
pfm Member
Yup done all that, vacuum cleaned and rinsed. But again if there was gunge in the records and it was the records causing the problem then surely they would sound bad no matter what turntable I played them on.
going to get a loan of another cartridge this afternoon and see if that makes a difference.
White Zombie
pfm Member
Yes tried a couple, sound good as well.
manicatel
pfm Member
Once you are satisfied that the set up, tracking weights, angles etc are all as they should be, it will be time to move on to the physical components of the system to start eliminating potential culprits.
I would start with a replacement stylus or other cart. I’d strongly guess that an Ortofon 2m series stylus would slot into your Project Pick it cart, for instance.
It is my hunch that if the arm is set correctly, the stylus is the issue.
I would start with a replacement stylus or other cart. I’d strongly guess that an Ortofon 2m series stylus would slot into your Project Pick it cart, for instance.
It is my hunch that if the arm is set correctly, the stylus is the issue.
Agreed, but whatever it is, it has to be the oddest damned fault, playing like chalk and cheese if the OP hasn't exaggerated the problem with the "bad" LPs.
White Zombie
pfm Member
I genuinely haven't, honest. I couldn't believe it when I put them on on my pals record player and they played fine.
deebster
Half Man Half Biscuit
Recently I had a similarish thing occur on a WTL Amadeus with DV20X2L cart. Some albums would sound fine but others were quite noisy despite being new and having been cleaned. I initially put this down to just bad pressings but on further investigation - and on playing some older albums that are in excellent visual condition - found I couldn't nail it down to that enough to be sure.
The Amadeus has easily adjustable azimuth, which is also fairly easy to knock out of adjustment by for instance me catching the back of the arm when puttting the aftermarket cover back on the deck. I spent a bit of time tinkering with small changes to the azimuth - only by eye as I had nothing to help with it - and this did reduce a lot of the noise on most albums but again, not enough to convince me that that was entirely the issue.
The DV20 may well have a bit of caked-on gunk on it though - and this is really my point here - that after changing cartridge to an AT33PTGII and setting azimuth with a cheap but handy gauge that issue is a goner now. My thinking here is that in tandem with azimuth a finely-profiled but gunked-up MC stylus / an MM that is a little less finely-profiled maybe cannot sit snugly in the groove so rides up the side walls and generates noise, whilst the same album played on a clean and finely-profiled MC is noise-free.
Perhaps something to try here is to find some albums / 12" singles with nice wide grooves and compare those with narrower-grooved ones.
The Amadeus has easily adjustable azimuth, which is also fairly easy to knock out of adjustment by for instance me catching the back of the arm when puttting the aftermarket cover back on the deck. I spent a bit of time tinkering with small changes to the azimuth - only by eye as I had nothing to help with it - and this did reduce a lot of the noise on most albums but again, not enough to convince me that that was entirely the issue.
The DV20 may well have a bit of caked-on gunk on it though - and this is really my point here - that after changing cartridge to an AT33PTGII and setting azimuth with a cheap but handy gauge that issue is a goner now. My thinking here is that in tandem with azimuth a finely-profiled but gunked-up MC stylus / an MM that is a little less finely-profiled maybe cannot sit snugly in the groove so rides up the side walls and generates noise, whilst the same album played on a clean and finely-profiled MC is noise-free.
Perhaps something to try here is to find some albums / 12" singles with nice wide grooves and compare those with narrower-grooved ones.