Zen & The Art of Turntable Maintenance

[JimJ 11]

A lot of people still have turntables in their homes, or are contemplating buying one - but good information on how to set one up still can be difficult to find in this age of Ipods and shiny silver discs. Maybe you have a battered Technics or Dual that hasn't played records since Gorbachev was in office and your records look like they picked up a case of the plague; maybe you're thinking about purchasing a brand new SL-1200MK2 or Rega P1 to hear for yourself what these vinyl loonies are really yapping about. Regardless, anyone that's planning to add LP capability to their setup could use some hints about setting up and caring for the centerpiece of your analog rig. I'm going to assume you already have a 'table that you want to put to work, or you just brought one home...I'm not going to get into turntable selection and purchasing just yet, that's another topic entirely.

Anatomy of a Turntable

Just so we're on the same page as far as terminology goes, here's a very basic diagram of the major parts of most turntables; yours may differ slightly, and that's fine. The Michell Tecnodec is a pretty good example of the $1000-$2000 class, using a variant of the Rega RB-250 tonearm and a simple belt drive system. The headshell is not removable on this model, but arms on 'tables built with DJ use in mind likely will have removeable headshells for ease of cartridge replacement.

Buying a Cartridge

Chances are, that 20-year old stylus has seen better days. And if you buy a 'table new, they almost certainly don't come with cartridges installed, unless you negotiate a package deal from the dealer (which is an excellent way to buy a vinyl rig, assuming you're lucky enough to have a competent dealer near you). So you're likely going to have to choose what phono cartridge to pair with your player. All record players require a cartridge - it's what converts the little squiggles in the groove to a faint electrical signal ready for amplification. As you can imagine, it's no place to cheap out. But first, let's talk about the basics.

All phono cartridges are going to be labeled as either MM (moving magnet), or MC (moving coil) cartridges. It's not really in the scope of this article to explain the gory details between the two, but here's what you need to know: Moving magnet cartridges are generally cheaper and have much higher outputs than their MC counterparts. Sounds good, right? Well, almost all the ultra-high end cartridges are moving coil for a reason. Having a lower output level reduces the level of surface noise that gets amplified as well, so you don't hear pops and clicks intruding on your music as much.

So what's the right choice for you? http://www.theneedledoctor.com has one of the best selections of reasonably priced phono cartridges out there...my personal favorites? Well, I've liked the results I've gotten from Denon's line of high output moving coils (the DL-110, DL-160 and more expensive DL-103). They combine the best of both worlds - at 1.5mV of output it's enough to drive most phono stages, but doesn't have the harshness of a much higher output cartridge. But Dynavector, Goldring, Shure, Ortofon and others make very worthwhile cartridges that will extract all the nuances out of your records. Don't be afraid to experiment. Go on the forums and read what people are having good luck with, and with what turntables.

Cartridge Setup

When you think about it, a record player really is a simple device. All it needs to do is spin a platter at an exact speed, while providing a way for the stylus needle of the cartridge to stay in the groove. Sounds easy, but it gets a little more complicated in three dimensions. So when it comes to getting the most out of your records, you need to take a little time and make sure the cartridge is aligned properly.

The tool to do this is called a two-point protractor...you can buy expensive ones that cost over $200, or you can download the one from here: http://enjoythemusic.com/freestuff.htm for free Using it is pretty straightforward, the idea is to get the cartridge aligned relative to the lines on the guide.

Looks simple, but time spent at this point can really improve your enjoyment of the system No point in spending a lot of money on the analog rig if it's tracking the records wrong...

Just getting the cartridge lined up on the tonearm isn't everything, though. There's one more adjustment you need to make - the amount of vertical force, also known as "tracking force", that keeps the needle on the record. If you bought a cartridge new, the manufacturer will list how many grams of tracking force to use. If you just found a turntable and have no idea what the manufacturer recommends, your best bet is to go online and see if anyone's familiar with your cartridge's requirements.

The cheapest, reliable way to set tracking force is Shure's SFG-2 gauge: http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshowdetl.c...FTOKEN=50864726. There's a whole range of products to do this, including expensive digital scales that can measure down to tiny fractions of a gram - those are nice if you have the money, but I'd rather spend that on more records to listen to! Using this gauge is pretty simple, it involves balancing the tonearm by moving the counterweight until the arm tube is horizontal, placing the cartridge and stylus on the gauge, and slowly adjusting the counterweight until the gauge reads the suitable tracking force, as shown here:

Choosing a Phono Preamplifier

The output of most phono cartridges is really small. Tiny. For all you people that think 2V preouts on a head unit are low, you'll get a kick out of this. The highest output phono cartridges are usually around 5-7mV...that's millivolts. Really high end moving coil cartridges are even lower than that, in the neighbor of 0.3mV-1mV. Obviously, no amplifier is going to be driven with this kind of input signal, so we need a way to boost it to overcome both cable loss and put a signal into the line level preamplifier, without introducing any more distortion or noise. That's the job of the phono preamp.

Because the signal levels are so low, phono preamps are called upon to have heaping amounts of gain - 40 to 60dB is standard. Compare that to a power amplifier that may only have 25dB of gain. This makes phono stages extremely vunerable to noise, because any noise that gets in is amplified tremendously.

If you own a receiver or integrated amp from the '70s, it may already have a decent phono stage built in that you can use. Manufacturers in the '90s and onwards succumbed to the multichannel fetish and phono stages on "home theater receivers" nowadays are unheard of, replaced with HDMI inputs and approximately eleventy billion line level RCA jacks (seriously, who uses all those?) If that's your situation, you need to buy an outboard one. Warning! Doing an Ebay search on "phono preamp" yields hundreds of hits on $20-$30 imported junk that shouldn't be allowed in the same room as the rest of your stuff! You can go a couple ways for an outboard unit you'd be proud to call your own - if you're handy with soldering, you can build the Hagerman Bugle kit for $150 and end up with a very nice solid state unit, that's configurable for both MM and MC carts (http://www.hagtech.com/bugle.html). Or, if you want something that'll rub shoulders with the likes of stuff you'd see in Stereophile, opt for the Bottlehead Seduction kit (http://www.bottlehead.com/et/adobespc/Seduction/seduction.htm). Pricey, but it's likely the last phono stage you'd ever need to buy. In addition, many affordable line level preamps also include excellent phono preamps, like ones from NAD or Adcom. These can be found on Audiogon or Ebay for cheap.

Keeping Your Turntable Happy

As you're well aware by now, this isn't a CD player that you take out of the box and sit atop your entertainment center, without a thought more. Listening to CDs, by comparison, is a passive experience - analog demands that you be an active participant. Quite frankly, there's more to go wrong with an analog setup from a user error perspective, so you need to be in tune with your 'table and know when it's angry at you.

* Use a dustcover when the turntable is not in use. There's some people who claim dustcovers mar the sound during play, and some who don't - that's up for debate, but what isn't up for debate is that you need to keep the turntable as dust-free as possible. You can always remove the hinges from the base and move the cover off during play. Dust will damage stylii and ruin LPs, you don't want it anywhere near the playing surface.

* If your tonearm has a cueing lever, use it! Dropping the stylus on the record freehand, unless you've practiced it a lot, will damage both your stylus and the record surface. It's just a lot easier to use the lever. Of course, some vintage tonearms don't have one, so in that case you'll need to practice cueing manually.

* All the weight of the platter rests on the turntable's main bearing, so it needs to stay well oiled. Fancy designs like the Teres or Scheu Premier have platters that weigh as much as small children - these behemoths use oil-impregnated bearings with sumps that automatically keep lubrication flowing throughout the life of the bearing. Yours most likely won't have that, so you need to make sure the main bearing is oiled adequately from time to time. The Needle Doctor is a good place to get bearing oil.

* Eventually, the belt on a belt-driven turntable will need to be replaced. If you haven't changed the belt in the last 20 years or so, I'm willing to bet it could stand to be swapped for a fresh one. If you start hearing the pitch wobble, look into changing belts.

* Cartridges also don't last forever, though every now and then you see posts on AudioAsylum or elsewhere with people that have 15-20 year old stylii that are just humming along fine. It'll be obvious as your stylus degrades past the point of usefulness, as bass response will weaken and treble will become brittle and rolled-off.

Happy listening!

[Acidburn 10]

interesting, very interesting

good to know since im going to see if i can have my Dad's old 'table

[Audio Junkies 3]

Great stuff Jim! Do you mind if I put a link to this thread on my site?

[JimJ 11]

Great stuff Jim! Do you mind if I put a link to this thread on my site?

Nope, don't mind at all

[Godsmack 360]

Great read............not quite up to speed on some of the lingo, but I did pick up some usefull tips especially sence I have a somewhat decent collection of records at home.

J

[Fi Car Audio 64]

Mmmm... vinyl.... drool...

I have some playing now