turntable help

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?

Two of the colored wires are the L and R channel signals, two of them are L and R channel ground, so if one of the signal wires breaks you'll know it because a channel will drop out entirely. Not sure what effect the ground wire breaking would have.

the turntable is a PL-71. the headshell doesn't have a model number on it.
it's possible that the problem is our amp, which is very old and crappy. i thought i'd try tackling the cheap solution first.

I think I have a similar problem as it goes. I have a couple of times been listening to a record and thought my right channel sounded a bit 'thin' or empty. When experimenting with the balance it'll crackle and pop harshly in that channel. I assumed it was the speaker/wiring but I've adjusted at the back of the speaker and nothing has changed.

I'm playing a CD right now and sounds great and no clicks or pops when I fiddle with the balance.

In the hope it'll fix both our problems, anyone got an idea? (Stanton STR8-150, Cambridge Audio amp, 70s Kef Concord speakers - hence why I thought it was the speakers.)

In my experience, if one of those little wires comes loose or snaps it will fuck with your sound. You definitely need all four connected.

so let's say theoretically someone tried to fix this problem by soldering a wire in that place but it didn't fix the problem and instead just made it worse. can i buy something like this and use it replace the old headshell? the 4-pin connection looks the same, so i would think yes?

ie is there anything i need to look for to make sure a replacement headshell will work with my turntable? are there any where the needle cartridge is easier to install?

they’re all easy. yeah get a new one!

by easier i mean "not having to connect tiny fiddly little wires to tiny fiddly little poles on the needle cartridge" but that seems to be standard

ordered one of the ones that has an easier-install cartridge. hope it fixes all of my problems!

Just bear in mind that headshells designed for DJs use a lot more downforce to keep the needle in the groove when cueing etc. It’d wear out standard LPs more quickly to have 4g pressing on the stylus. Also not good for quality sound I believe.

hm reading a bit more it’s apparently not the worst thing, but different cartridges have different recommended downforce.

hurrah NA!

yes i would unscrew that 4g weight personally. i expect your turntable has its own way of adjusting the weight on the tonearm.

i got a consumer headshell i think though i did look at those dj ones for a bit

safe bet, wouldn't want anybody thinking yr a poseur

never stopped me before

hey this worked out! getting the cartridge on the headshell and attaching all the little wires was still too fiddly but i did it. also solved a mysterious hum by ... reattaching the turntable ground wire lol. sounds pretty good now! i guess this means we can keep using the amp i bought at a thrift store for $20 about two decades ago

Aside from capacitors drying out, good 70s solid state gear is essentially permanent.
https://i.imgur.com/UKynICv.jpg

Vinyl is such a pita

yeh! after a lot of research and buyer's luck (albeit on a minuscule budget) I finally have a system that CAN make a well-pressed record sound about as good as a well-mastered CD

I mean I get that all the mucking around is part of the "fun" of vinyl but there are plenty of frustrations

I'm thinking about upgrading before the end of the year and I'm batting about the U-Turn Orbit and the Pro-Ject T1. As much as I love fully auto or even semi auto turntables, I don't think going full manual would be too much of a drag, and I like the low profile appearance both of these tables offer. Anybody here have a preference between them? I rarely ever play anything on 45, so moving the belt between gears isn't really an issue.

Is a fully manual tt more annoying in reality than it is in my imagination?

once you are at peace with knowing you will eventually wander off/fall asleep and leave the needle riding the runout groove for 6-10 hours, it's fine

Depends where the motor is. If it's in the chassis and you actually have to lift the platter off the spindle every time you want to change speed - that can get annoying. If it's outside the platter and it's just a case of nudging the belt up or down - no problem at all. Looks like the Pro-Ject T1 is the former, and the U-Turn Orbit is the latter. But I do like Pro-Ject stuff. I've had a Debut Carbon for the last five years and no complaints. I don't think U-Turn is available over here.

xp - oh yeah, the lack of auto-return; well, I haven't had that since my Ariston in the early '90s. If you want to listen to an LP, stay awake, stay in the room :)

What's the real benefit to an acrylic platter, btw? I've already got an acrylic slipmat, so a platter might be overkill (though the T1 has a glass platter, so I don't know what I'd do in that situation).

I've been using an MCS 6502, which is really a rebranded Technics SL-23, and it's been good to me, but it's starting to have speed issues and I've fiddled with every remedy I can find short of replacing the motor. Also it's limited to the AT71 cartridge and nothing else because the headshell/cart combo isn't removable, so I'd like to have more options in that department as well.

I think it's just heavier, denser, less speed fluctuations and less resonant. Whether you can hear any difference vs MDF is another matter. Back in '97 a physics postdoc pal of mine, who had access to a nice precision lathe and the raw materials, made a very heavy polycarbonate platter for his turntable. I got his "pre-production" effort to put on my Systemdek. Yeah, it was great, but I changed the tonearm and cart at the same time, so I'll never know whether the platter made a difference (and I had to shim-up the tonearm base to match, so I couldn't really go back).

I’ve got a project carbon and I get motor gum from it. Apparently it’s an issue with my model. I’ve since bought a used Thorens that was cheaper and waaaay better. If you’ve got a good local shop, a used turntable is the way to go.

Motor HUM.

But motor gum sounds kind of cool.

Oh yeah, there's motor hum with my Carbon too - getting worse towards the end of each side? Or maybe it just manifests itself after 20min+ of use. Anyway, at the levels I listen at (rarely headphones with vinyl), it's only noticeable between tracks. I see there are a few tweaks out there to remedy it; either to do with the transport screws (pretty sure I removed those) or damping the screws around the motor base. It's not as annoying as the anti-skating weight slipping off the notch on the counterweight, which it seems to do every time I go to use it.

My Carbon has that hum too. Not a huge deal, but noticeable if you pay attention to it. Pretty much a non-issue once the record starts playing, at any volume. I've also had an issue with the dust cover, stopped staying open on its own after a while, and became increasingly hard to open past 45 degrees. Wound up replacing it with a cloth dust cover.

Yes, same here with the bloody dust cover!

It’s amazing what you’ll happily put up with as Good Enough once you’ve surrendered your audiophile credentials. (It does sound smoother than my old forensic Michell though. Honestly.)

interesting, these sound like real flaws! i'm surprised it hasn't hurt the brand more.

I've got a Linn LP12 but it's currently out of action because there is a loose connection in the wires connecting the cartridge to the tonearm. I think I'm going to have to take it to a shop because I have no idea how to fix this or even where to get replacement wires from. this is probably going to cost a lot of money isn't it?

These are the short headshell leads? You can buy some for $10 on amazon. Take a picture of the current connections and match it. You might have to realign the cartridge after if you move it.

might also be able to squeeze the loose connector with some tweezers before slipping it back on

My wife just picked up a Pioneer PL400 off the curb in our neighborhood and it needs a new stylus. Is there a good online store for replacement parts like this or should I just get an entire new cartridge?

Woah, they look beautiful. I got a bargain PL12D earlier this year and I just love it. Pioneer for the win.

xp you might try turntablelab.com or lpgear.com

maybe worth seeing if a local retailer is a pfanstiehl dealer, which in my experience is a great deal cheaper

depending on the cartridge it might be easier just to buy a brand new entry-level headshell / cartridge combo, in which case you could just plug it in / screw it on and go

thanks, found one on lpgear that looked nice enough.

Reviews on the pfanstiehl stuff are mixed. My experiences with Tonar have been uh not good. Jico, however, has come through for me in a big way, and I’m glad to buy styli from them for any carts I can’t find OEM styli for.

finally replaced the headshell on my table and holy shit I can't believe how much better everything sounds now

headshell and cartridge?

yeah both. I had one that I used for a year, bought cheap cuz my kids broke 2 already. but now that they finally understand that ONLY DADDY TOUCHES THE NEEDLE I don't have that problem anymore. another thing I'm curious about is which setting to use on my receiver. I can't use PHONO because my turntable has an amp so it sounds like blown out garbage. AUX is pretty good, but it can't handle noisier records well (such as Dan Deacon's Bromst). I have it set to TAPE MON now and it sounds pretty good. idk if that's ideal though.

I think AUX and TAPE MON are likely the same in terms of level

I've been A/B testing them and in most instances they're the same but AUX seems to flatten the noisier/busier sections. I think there might be some built-in volume adjustment there, with AUX it seems to like to crank up any quiet bits to the point where they're louder than the parts that are supposed to be loud (for example Faust's "Just a Second" - the weird electronic bits in the second half are notably louder than the guitar jam in the first). Maybe this causes strange things to happen when listening to records that are a bit more nuts. As a side note Dan Deacon is a hell of a test for a new speaker set up

As for the new headshell/cart...one thing I was noticing on the old one was that the cymbals & hi-hats didn't sound crisp which I've heard is a sign your needle is going. I'd guess I've used it for around 400 hours which I think is about the lifespan of a cheap one?