I'm fairly new to vinyl/turntable hobby, but have been listening music for my whole life more or less. Now when I just got a bit into this vinyl thing, the information overwhelms me, and I would need some help if you guys could be so kind. My knowledge is very limited, but so happens that also the information about TT's I've happened to come by is also very scarce.
A HiFi hobbyist I am not, nor do I aim to be one. My goal is to just obtain a "fair" quality turntable (with minimum budget of course.. who has money these days anyway?), so that I can listen my LPs without destroying them.
I picked up an ASA 3200 "hifi studiotrio" system, which is like a mini- stereocombo from the seventies, except that it is not mini. It has apparently a mitsubishi casettedrive mounted, plus this Dual 1256 named turntable (very close to 1254 or 1257 models I'd assume).
Picture (not mine tho): http://kuvat.huuto.net/4/06/85e328fdf0a ... 8-orig.jpg
The whole thing is in a very good condition, as the previous owner was an old lady who barely listened to records and kept her things very tidy.
Anyhow, I'll try to describe as accurately as I can what I've done, what are the problems etc.
Adjustments done:
- I have adjusted the player in the following way: tracking force (stylus weight) and anti-skating to 0, then balanced the tonearm so that it is "floating". After that, I've put 1.75g stylus weight and around the same amount of anti-skating which I checked with an empty side of vinyl to see if the tonearm is staying approximately "still".
- My cartridge says ULM 40 S, and I haven't found any info on that exact thing. However, I've gathered that these old ULM cartridges require from 1.5 - 1.75 stylus weight, and someone said that stylus weight should be rather a bit too much than too little -> thus I ended up with 1.75, and yeah, it sounds good.
- Stylus has been replaced recently by the previous owner in a hifi shop. (Unfortunately I had to redo the tonearm etc adjustments, because someone had been toying with them after the hifi shop settings)
Problems:
- With these fore mentioned settings 12" plays fine, BUT (slightly warped) 7" discs wont. The cartirdge "jumps" and only touches the stylus occasionally. Are ULM cartridges so lightweight and sensitive that I'm not able to play 7"? I tried something horrible and tossed an additional rubber Technics platter on top of Dual's, and then the 7"s seemd to play fine.
- Occasionally the platter won't start to spin, and I have to "reset" the automatic mechanisms with my hand by spinning the platter until the automation sequence has finished. Then it suddenly works again like a dream. Can this be a problem of old dried up grease in the motor, dying motor, broken fuse or (one of the Hifitrio's fuses is broken, but the casette player is not running so I expect it to be casette player's one perhaps?) ...?
Thank you in advance if you had the energy to help!
Cheers,
Hepokatti
