turntable help

If it's an old stylus I'd still suggest any news is good news

thanks all - saw online that the Audio-Technica AT95EBL cartridge is a good budget replacement, and I think it's elliptical.

The spherical stylus

The spherical shaped stylus is the simplest and
cheapest to produce and it is, therefore, the
most common. Spherical styli can be
recommended in all cases where robustness and
economy are taken into consideration in the
purchase of a cartridge.

The elliptical stylus
The elliptical shaped stylus bears greater
resemblance to the triangular shaped cutting
stylus that is used when cutting master records.
The elliptical stylus is able to follow the groove
oscillations more accurately than the spherical
type, and its distortion and phase error will,
therefore, be less.

via https://www.ortofon.com/media/14912/everything_you_need_to_know_about_styli_types.pdf - p helpful at first glance

thanks all - saw online that the Audio-Technica AT95EBL cartridge is a good budget replacement, and I think it's elliptical.

that's the one that came with my turntable, and it's definitely an upgrade on the godawful shitquake i used to have. other audio issues aside, several previously skippy records of mine that were seemingly destined for the bin now play all the way through without one hiccup

aaaand that's exactly the hard-sell I needed, thanks Nick!

(is it difficult to replace a cartridge?)

New Poll

It's not, really, but you'll need needle nose pliers and small screwdrivers. New cart should have a wiring diagram or color-coded posts (Red-Right, White-Left, Green-Right Ground, Blue-Left Ground if it doesn't). I'd advise downloading and printing a protactor from online - or at least making note of where the needle hits compared to your old cart and approximating that, heh.

Oh and when you're putting the cart on either leave the stylus cover on or remove the stylus... and attach the wires before you screw the cart on to the headshell.

Thanks GOTT PUNCH!

can anyone recommend a cheap turntable? one that will reliably play a record at the correct speed?

i had a Crosley record player for a few years and it was always pretty shitty with playback speed and eventually was too slow to play anything. so i threw it out and bought a new cheap turntable, an Ion Archive LP. at first it played wonderful but as the months went by started going slow and now (it's been less than a year) it's too slow to play anything also. i contacted a local audio electronics repair place and they said it would be cheaper to just replace it than fix it.

i need to get a new record player but i am understandably weary of spending a lot of money and then having this same thing happen to me. any recommendations for a sub-$200 turntable?

why do they make such shitty turntables these days? i used to play my records on old turntables found in thrift stores and they tended to work fine for years. does this new shit fail by design?

First mistake; Crosley stinx.

This probably does as well: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1151732-REG/ion_audio_airlp_turntable.html

I would buy this: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1108890-REG/teac_tn_300_b_analog_turntable_with_usb.html

For $200 you can find a great old Dual or Technics that will last you the rest of your life.

Exactly. I thought he was after the ez-ripping feature.

thanks for the advice all. i will look into a Dual/Technic!

i never do any ripping. just need something that will play daily for years.

My Technics SL-23 is bullet-proof! 20 years ago, i bought it for $50

It's a little tricksy, but my Philips 212 from the 70s sounds like a dream and was about $200 off eBay

(Just get someone else to switch the cartridge)

I would say if you see a Dual, do a little googling on the particular model. They made some great stuff but there are some later models, one i bought in particular, that weren't nearly the same quality. Mine broke and it was a short in the cartridge, but this model the cartridge was actually glued into the headshell. Anyway, Dual is generally great but I think they must've done some crappier stuff in the mid/late 80s. Technics are pretty consistent as far as I know. Another company that is really worth looking into, esp late 70s/early 80s is the now-defunct Scott. I have one I got off Craigslist and it sounds great esp w/a new cart.

Scott's are getting a little more well known but sometimes you can get a really good deal on them as they are not as known as Technics or Dual. This is the one I got:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fmLwOEgNP74/maxresdefault.jpg

Also, I think weight is often a good indication on an old turntable, if it's pretty heavy that's a good sign imo.

in all my research this seemed to be the go-to non-shitty but decent record player that should last awhile

http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/turntables/583f30b3a8662772/

*non-shitty/cheap

I bought a Dual 745 (iirc) for $50, but the headshell was glued together in a spot, and the glue fell apart after holding together for 30 years or so. My local shop tried to fix it, but all their replacement headshells fell apart in the same way. If you get a Dual, I'd suggest trying to find a 12xx series model, they seem to be built better.

Also I've heard good things about the Uturn Orbit, although I haven't gotten one for myself yet. The baseline model is $179 and it's supposed to rival stuff like the Rega RP1. If you can afford the optional Ortofon 2m Red with it, that's a great sounding cartridge.

For budget, Audio Technica LP-60 is usually what I show entry-level folks. That should get you through several years of listening, and is easy to "level up" from. Stylus is also easy & cheap to buy & replace.

But if you can go up to $200, I would recommend the Pro-Ject Essential II over the U-Turn. Their production quality is higher, IMO (work at a shop that has sold both).

And yes; never ever buy or go anywhere near a Crosley. That's plastic trash, not a turntable.

Pro-Ject Essential II is what I have and is brilliant. Several ilxors took my advice and got one too and they were very happy with it.

I have a Crosley I actually like for grabbing samples off records, cuz the stuff your record into your DAW sounds kinda gritty like a mid-80s sampler

but yeah they are also wrecking the shit out of your vinyl, those ceramic needs are blunt and huge and heavy as fuck

dronestreet - i live in the same city as needle doctor and i went down there to get a new cartridge have you heard the new AT MN540ML microline?

I was coming in to maybe get a Denon DL-110 or a replacement Ortofon 2M Blue (some stereo stuff got zapped by lightning strike) and the guy at the store strongly suggested this one, been really loving it so far...not crazy wide sounding as the old DL 160 (discontinued) that I had but it tracks was better than the 2M Blue and just feels "bigger" and more detailed, way way less inner groove distortion and sibilance on "s's"

ceramic needles -- on what, the Crosleys?

here's what michael fremer says about the orbit. he makes a point of mentioning its good speed control.

https://www.analogplanet.com/content/u-turn%E2%80%99s-remarkable-179-orbit-turntable-crosley-killer

bodacious - yep they use ceramics, the cheapest/worst kind of cart

GIGO

I do love my Pro-Ject - I can't think of much better for the money.

I've owned Dual, Ariston, Systemdek and - most gloriously of all, before I had to sell it - a Michell Gyro SE. Cardas/vdH rewired Rega tonearm, Ortofon MC25FL moving coil, Nene Valley Audio phono pre-amp, the works. People would gather round it at parties and just watch the weights go around. Ahhh.

Anyway, forced to rethink on a greatly reduced budget, I went for Pro-Ject about two years ago and it's not as, uh, forensic as the Michell, but it just sounds lush and rich and wide and deep and handsome (came with the Ortofon 2M Red). I pushed the boat out and got an external phono pre/ADC, so I can "rip" if I so wish. But who ever gets round to doing that? Maybe I'll "do" something with run-out grooves. No-one has ever thought of that before, right?

(there's a quickspace cd single which has the run-out groove and possibly the sound of an eject mechanism at the end of the track that would be the end of the first side on the vinyl, and the run-in groove sound on the start of the next track)

thanks - great posts and suggestions everyone! i need to just get a real turntable for once =)

i bought a new Audio Technica due to this thread and it sounds AMAZING. holy shit the sound is crystal clear. i also bought the new Yuzo Koshiro "The Revenge of Shinobi" LP and it arrived with the turntable. it also sounds amazing. really crystal clear, really quiet during the silent parts.

nice enjoy!

Okay. SO. A quick recap. Bought a Philips 212 with original cartridge, the sound blew me away, but it would skip on any record with the slightest scratch or speck of dirt.

Bought a AT95E with elliptical stylus, installed it, managed to fuck my tonearm up, only just got a dude to fix it for me.

Now it's playing properly, it's playing every scratched and dirty record with nary a skip. But. It just doesn't sound as good, as wide, as the original Philips cartridge. I can't explain it, but everything sounds bunched up, like there's a little high-end distortion.

The Philips cartridge is a 400ii. I've seen that there's an elliptical stylus on the market for the 401, which seems v similar to the stylii I used to buy for the 400ii, does anyone know if it be possible to place this elliptical stylus in the 400ii cartridge? And is it the fact that an elliptical needle digs so much deeper that's the reason the AT95E doesn't sound so great?

I'm no audiophile, I'm just surprised as all the reviews for the AT95E rave bout the amazing sound you hear. But it just doesn't sound amazing to me, after the old cartridge on the Philips.

Quick Google search shows that both use the Pfanstiehl 595-d7 so they should be cross-compatible. Just make sure to adjust your tracking force as appropriate.

Thank Gott!

And can anyone back me up on the AT95E? Am I being too picky and expecting too much from a budget cartridge?

Stuff seems more sibilant than I want it to, than it did before on the earlier cartridge...

With the original cartridge did you try raising the amount of counter-weight to see if that helped the skipping?

Yeah, still didn't help.

I think with AT carts you can upgrade the needle onto the same assembly but honestly at that point you might want to spring for a better cart. I just got a new cart and I live in the same city as the Needle Doctor retail store, dude was really passionate about recommending this new AT model over the Ortofon 2MBlue....has a microline stylus which he said is unheard of at this price point, still it might be more than you want to spend and i bet for another $100 ish you could upgrade your needle on the 95

http://www.needledoctor.com/Audio-Technica-VM540ML-Phono-Cartridge

also when you buy a cart there they install and balance etc it for free and seriously i'm so glad never to have to fuck w/that god bless y'all

Thanks Matt!

WOW WTF

http://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=41657

uhhhhhh shit. gonna have to go buy some expensive styli now.

Man I was considering upgrading to a Shure cartridge. That would be a bad idea now, right?

(That said my current cart is from the 70s and I'm still able to get styli for that)

i have a vintage pioneer turntable that i bought from a local place that had fixed it up. the headshell (?) has four little delicate wires that connect to the needle cartridge, and one of those wires broke off a while ago. since then, it seems like something is off with the stereo sound when i play records. does that seem like something that would be an effect of one of those wires breaking?

it seems like something that would be an easy fix if i had any competence in soldering, but i'm pretty bad at it. i should probably get it fixed, but if i wanted to replace the whole headshell/cartridge, could i just replace it with any headshell that has the four-pin connection to the arm, or are there other factors to consider?

Is it a PL-12D?