"David Goodwin" wrote in message

On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 09:03:15 -0400, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

It seems to show up pretty much everywhere...not on all records all of
the time, but on enough variety with enough frequency to bother me,
esp. when I *bought* the damn thing to finally transfer stuff over.

If this happens with recordings known to be in good shape, the
finger points more directly at the cartridge or how it is set up.
Can you increase the tracking force? Is there some chance that
despite all the supposed guarantees of proper adjustment inherent in
the P-mount system, the cartridge is still misaligned?

I don't know. I don't have the instructions for the turntable...I
never did. It's second-hand. I don't know what this "tracking force"
is supposed to look like, or what I'm supposed to do with it.

Have I missed something? I can't find out what turntable you have.

If the problem is more prevalent at the beginning of the recording,
you might want to look at your anti-skating adjustment since the
skating force is largest for the outer grooves.

Nah, it frequently happens in end-of-siders.

A bit of this is present in many vinyl playback systems that are working
well - it's an inherent problem with vinyl. I've listened to three of your
samples, and they are all have very severe sibilance, much worse than usual.

Sounds like mistracking. Adding stylus force may be a solution.
Perchance the stylus has picked up a big wad of dirt and needs to be
cleaned?

This doesn't *look* like the case, but then again, I suppose "big"
here is very relative.

Big could actually be any. The stylus should be perfectly clean.

Have you listened to the MP3s? I could throw up a few more. Generally,
the signal suddenly has a lot more clicks/pops when lots of
high-frequency info is present.

That would be mistracking. When I listened to your samples I noticed that
the problem seems to be far worse in the right channel.

Could this problem be cartridge related?

Maybe.

Is it fixable?

Maybe. One possible fix might be another cartridge.

Ugh.

Might my records just be kinda trashed?:-(

Probably not all of them, but possibly the ones you like to listen
to the most.


Yeah.

Stylus force is often adjusted by means of a spring or a dial near the pivot
point of the tone arm, or by means of adjusting the position of the
counterweight. Does your turntable have any adjustments associated with its
counterweight? If you try to rotate it, does it rotate? If it rotates, does
it move along the length of the tone arm?

You can temporarily add tracking force by taping a small object to the top
of the cartridge. A dime weighs about 3 grams, the amount of weight you
might want to add would be no more than half of that.

There are such things as stylus force gauges - Shure makes one that sells
for about $20. Depending on the specs for the cartridge you want a tracking
force of 1.5-2.5 grams.

http://www.lpgear.com/Merchant2/merc...Code=LG&Produc
t_Code=SPSFGS


Here's some articles about setting up tone arms. Some of the instructions
don't apply because you have a P-mount tone arm and cartridge:

http://www.audiophilia.com/features/cartridge_setup.htm

http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/O...stemsetup.html

http://www.avahifi.com/root/audio_ba...pdf/ab1984.pdf (starting around
page 30, second column)