turntable help

A replacement stylus for the Shure M97XE used to be available for ~$50 on amazon. Does anyone know what happened? Might as well buy a new cart I guess.

Yeah, I bought a couple of the N97XE from Amazon like 5 years ago for $49 a pop. Not sure why they're up to $90 now. A bunch of places still have it listed in the $45-$50 range, but who knows if they're in stock or not.

Was poking around today trying to figure out what the deal was, wondering if Shure is discontinuing the M97XE.

Just FYI that cartridge has non-Shure aftermarket styli available, the Pfanstiehl number is 4771 or 771; you can get them for $21 and under at

http://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/

Not familiar with Shure, but Ortofon 2M Red cartridge is great value for money - you can upgrade to the 2M Blue needle if you wear out the red one

Shure still has the full cartridge listed on their site, but not the replacement stylus. A buddy of mine works at Shure HQ; I'll see if he can find out what's up.

I have an Ortofon currently
But I have a huge love for Denon cartridges...
Grado makes some good affordable carts

thanks, all. I'm going to buy an aftermarket stylus and maybe one of the more affordable sources of the Shure part will restock in the meantime. Or maybe I'll be fine with the aftermarket part. I may look at some other carts, as well, just because it's fun. The ortofon 2m Red replacement stylus is ~%80 of the cart cost as well. I wonder if one does better buying an expensive stylus and replacing less frequently vs. buying an aftermarket stylus and replacing more frequently.

I'm having trouble getting my Stanton T.92 with new aftermarket stylus sounding good myself (it sounds awful right now, and I THINK I have everything set up properly?), but it's frustrating because it's pretty hard for me to isolate where the issue lies. I'm not a gear guy really.

do you have the correct tracking weight for your aftermarket stylus? I noticed that it can be different than that recommended for the cart manufacturer's stylus.

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