Some noob questions please help!

[antom1234]

So I was wondering how do you know if your turntable is grounded or not? What are some symptoms of not being grounded? Also I'm paranoid if my cartridge and stylus are setup properly. My records sound fine and my turntable was purchased brand new and I used the alignment method that Rega offers and everything looks good. I'm just worried because with some records I seem to get a lot of surface noise even brand new ones even during loud/busy parts of songs. Some sound great though virtually no surface noise. I'm just terrified of the thought that something could be wrong with it and it's ruining my records. If my stylus was chipped or something would you be able to tell sonically? Any advice would be much appreciated!

[Shadowman82]

If it's not grounded properly you might hear a hum . As far as surface noise goes this can vary quite a bit from record to record but seeing you mentioned that some records have virtually no surface noise then it's not your equipment . If it was then you'd have allot of noise on all records , not just some .

At the very least you'll want to remove the dust off your records before you play them with a record cleaning brush , if you don't have one get one .

[harkar]

A carbon fiber brush will do wonders for your LPs. Also "Magic Eraser" from your local grocery store is great for cleaning the dust off of your stylus. Cue the stylus down, then up - done