Decided a few weeks ago to upgrade from my new but cheap $100 or less
turntable, I made the assumption that a basic turntable from the 70's or
80's would be considerably better than what I had considering the thin
plastic platter etc... of my current turntable, was this assumption wrong?
I ask because despite checking and setting up the tracking weight, cartridge
alignment(using special protractor), checking that the arm looked level with
record when playing, checking the wiring of the headshell and cartridge was
correct, checking the phonostage of my amp was working properly which I
could do with my new $100 cheapie as it had option for using with and
without preamp and finally buying a brand new ortofon cartridge and stylus I
could not improve the sound from it's original harsh and empty sound, it
sounded terrible compared to my $100 cheapie, the sound like i said was very
harsh rather than the nice warm turntable sound that I love, the frequency
response did not seem right, I think the midband was lacking and the high
frequencies were too high and harsh, the base was probably lacking a bit too
but I think the mid to low band was what was giving the sound an empty feel.
Anyhow after spending $180 on an upgrade and many hours and much effort I am
ready to give up, I don't have the time to become an expert which is what it
seems I would need to be to get this thing sorted, I presume the stylus is
somehow not sitting correctly in the record but I have done all the
adjustments that can be done on this player, if the arm needs to be raised
or lowered then I am out of luck because I think that cannot be done with
this turntable, I'm totally fed up with it all to be honest, this is not a
game for parttimers, now i know why cd rules, the sound maynot be as good
but everything else is better. Anyhow if anyone has any suggestions as to
what the hell is going on here then I would like to hear, I have all but
given up but if someone suggest something new I will give it a try, within
reason. By the way changing tracking weight etc.. seems to have no great
affect, whatever my problem is it is too big to notice changes in tracking
weight.