Premier Rock Forum

I'd swap the needle and make sure it's balanced and set up properly.

The 4000 dollar Technics sl-1200g turntable is a Product of the Year for Absolute Sound magazine, even though the reviewer didn't like the tonearm, so he's only reviewing the rest of it (!!!), and it's direct drive after everyone in the universe said belt drive is better, and now you can hear the sound of my Absolute Sound subscription expiring...

Redline wrote:The 4000 dollar Technics sl-1200g turntable is a "Product of the Year" for Absolute Sound magazine, even though the reviewer didn't like the tonearm, so he's only reviewing the rest of it (!!!), and it's direct drive after everyone in the universe said belt drive is better, and now you can hear the sound of my Absolute Sound subscription expiring...that tonearm is great for a DJ. Not so good for hifi. it has a nasty upper mid resonance that I do not like. Why would they recommend the turntable if there is no provision to fit an alternate tonearm? Eh. TAS has been irrelevant for a while. it is a shame. in the 80s and 90s they were the bible. Stereophile is marginally better, I guess. Just pinch your nose shut and read Fremer?

motorbike guy wrote: Why would they recommend the turntable if there is no provision to fit an alternate tonearm? Visions of James Bond in You Only Live Twice pop into my mind.I already let Stereophile run out, after awhile I got to the point of listening to my stereo instead of taking all the time to improve it.On a related note, the new Music Direct catalog is out and there's all kinds of wild stuff in there, JBL speakers with giant horns, crazy VPI turntables, etc.

Facundo wrote:Ground rod (many buildings don't have).I had to do this once to get rid of hum. I ran some bare copper wire to the ground underneath the house and built a little junction box for the TT wire to connect to inside.

I used it like a star ground, anything needing a ground went to the little terminal strip that I made. So, directly from the TT, I connected the wire to the strip. I can't remember what else I grounded to it but it's a good way to determine and eliminate ground loops. I took some 16 gauge copper I had and ran it from the terminal strip inside to the crawl space below.The other quick check you will want to do is the little cartridge wires. Make sure you didn't jostle one of those a little loose picking up the tonearm. Check the blue and green wires and make sure they are fully fastened to the post connectors on the cart.Finally, if you have a little ground lift adapter thing you can plug one of your components into, that could eliminate a ground loop as well; try it on the pre-amp, amp or the TT itself.

biscuitdough wrote:Do you have dimmer switches or fluorescent lights?I just found a thread on a TT forum that mentioned dimmers as a hum cause.

mookie1010 wrote:Well, I only have one dimmer in the house, so I should be able to make sure I isolated that properly in testing. Do you mean to plug the ground lift adapter into the socket and grounded to the mounting screw?I have actually never used the little mounting screw thing but, plug it in so that the ground is lifted, like reverting to two-prong. You could start with the phono stage, TT, and/or pre. If any of your gear is older, I've read that people who have vintage electronics with two-prong try flipping the orientation of the plug, but proceed with caution.

I don't think that's stereo...An old GE WILDCAT is as close as you're going to get. They're out there.The pic you posted looked like my first record player. Many records were worn to a glass smooth finish under its heavy stylus...

Looking for a vintage portable suitcase type deal with 16, 33, 45 and 78 speeds that has a stereo out jack (RCA, 1/8" or 14"). Finding a lot of cheap ones on ebay but they either don't have all 4 speeds or don't seem to have an audio out (just a speaker). Something like this GE would be preferable:Anyone have experience with these? Any help would be appreciated.