Newbie Hints, Tips & Tricks ..

[phooey111]

New here and not really a hi-fi buff so please be gentle. So, after too many years of being lazy with music and streaming MP3's etc, I have decided I want to get back into listening to music properly and have dug out my old TT and vinyl and want to try and set up the components I already have as best I can. I do have a little budget which I will come on to later but, I'm really looking to understand what I can do with what I've already got to squeeze the best out of it. So, what have I got to play with:

Arcam Aplha 8 + Alpha 10 - Bi-amped to a pair of Mordunt Short 902s using 4 strand, solid core mains cable. Terminated directly to the posts at both ends but do have banana plugs somewhere if they will help.

Speaker stands are .. can't remember but, are the tri-pod type. Home made spikes which are 4" bolts turned to a point. I'm not sure they actually go all the way through the (thick) carpet and underlay though so , they will be getting a sharpen up. Legs are filled with coral sand - thinking of filling with concrete.

Main component stand I also can't remember, it is also on spikes and pretty steady, has glass shelves. Legs are currently not filled with anything - also thinking of filling with concrete.

CD player (which I'm not too fussed about) is a Cambridge Audio CD6. Also have a Sony BM10 for streaming Internet radio and MP3's (it's not bad actually). Internconnects are Silver Spirit.

TT is a standard (Original Goldring stylus) NAD 533 which has been stored for a ... erm, very long time. Have set up the tone arm as best I can. Cleaned the motor pulley, sub platter and belt with isopropyl. Also cleaned out the bearing well and bearing with the same (dark brown sludge came out) and re-filled with a quite light gun oil. Also added a spot of low friction PTFE tape to the bottom of the sub platter spindle.

So, I want to get back into the black stuff. When I said I have a small budget, I'm thinking along the lines of upgrading the platter/sub-platter, Stub end/counter weight and stylus (which has seen a fair bit of abuse). Looking at about £300 ... is the TT worth spending that on with the related components?

Been playing some records today which on the whole I'm OK with given what I've got but have two issues I think. Stereo separation is great but there's no real 'sound stage' as I understand it, it's either left, right or centre. Also, on some tracks, cymbals and words starting in 'S' are very ssss'y, if that makes sense. I'm reading things like wrapping the tone arm with PTFE tape and stuffing with cotton wool, is this worth playing with?

Any thoughts, advice would be vey much appreciated.

 

[iMark]

It's paramount that you balance the tonearm before setting the needle pressure. You also need to check the anti-skating settings. Bad sounding cymbals and s-es could mean that the needle pressure is set incorrectly, the anti-skating is not set properly or even that the stylus is worn.

I would start by balancing the tonearm. According to the manual the pressure for the cartridge is around 1.7 g.

http://nadelectronics.com/download.php?100422124236-NAD-533.pdf|533%20Turntable%20-%20English%20Manual

 

[thescarletpronster]

I'm no expert in these things, but it strikes me that if you're not confident about setting it up properly, it might well be worth using a little bit of your budget to get your local hi-fi dealer to set it up properly for you - and also to check that everything's working perfectly and get it serviced if it needs it. If there are parts in the TT which need repair or replacement, and/or the TT isn't set up properly, your platter/sub-platter upgrades and so on aren't going to do that much good. Better to make sure the machine is working perfectly and set up perfectly before spending more money on it.

Listen to other people more than me on this, but that would be my inclination.

 

[phooey111]

Hi and thanks for taking the time to reply.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'needle pressure'? I have re-balanced the tonearm according to the manual i.e skate off of the surface, one full turn forwards on the counter weight (= 2g) then backed off 1/3 turn to get about 1.7g. By anti-skate I'm guessing bias? Set the small red button to just over half way between 1 & 2 but it's not very precise. There are no more adjustments that I can see? Except: I dug out the card board protractor that came with the TT and noticed that the head shell was nowhere near parallell to the lines so have adjusted that. I have to push the cartridge pretty much fully back in the head shell to get it parallel though, does that sound right (excuse the pun)? It does seem to have opened up sound stage although I'm starting to wonder whether it's actually making a difference or I'm just getting used to listening to it, if that makes any kind of sense, still very sss'y though. Using The Carpenters Live at the Palladium as a reference.

I've also noticed that the bottom of the bearing is actually touching the glass shelf (put a piece of paper under it and can't pull it out), I'm guessing that is not a good thing? Would it be worth putting something under the feet to raise the whole thing up a touch, if so any suggestions as to what?

 

[phooey111]

Hi, thanks for that. You're probably right, I wouldn't say I'm not confident but, not having any friends who are into this kind of thing, and never heard a decent system, I'm not excactly sure what I'm supposed to be hearing.

Just swapped the glass self for a marble floor tile, topped that with 1/4" foam board photo mount with a hole cut out for the bearing spindle. Of all the messing about I've been doing, I swear that has made a big difference!