Possible silly question ahead....

by **Apokalypse** » 06 Oct 2004 01:30

I have a Technics SL120 with an SME 3009 tonearm.

When playing an LP the headshell moves horizontally left and right about 3-4mm every half second or so. Is this right? I knew it would have to move inwards due to the grooves going inwards but why would it move outwards again?

by **lanny** » 06 Oct 2004 01:48

It's a poor-quality pressing, not anything to do with the turntable. The hole in the record is off-center, so the hole and the grooves are not concentric. 4mm isn't too bad--some are much worse than that.

If you really care about hearing that record without the wow effect, you can elongate the hole with a round file so you can center it on the spindle.

by **Apokalypse** » 06 Oct 2004 02:09

Thanks very much. You're right. The LP I was using was an extremely poorly pressed brazilian heavy metal LP. I've just tried an LP that would be pressed with higher quality standards and it's fine.

I never even thought of the record causing the problem.

I have another question for which I think I know the answer of... but I don't like the answer so I'll ask someone else. With my particular record player on some LPs (probably about 1 in 20) the treble in the right side gets really loud for about 1/2 a second at one particular point. It has to be the record player because it does it with a few records. I gather it's the stylus riding up high in the groove on that one particular point but I don't know. Any ideas?

by **Apokalypse** » 06 Oct 2004 15:00

posted the question in a new thread