Goodmans GSP 650 balance tonearm + hello, new person

by **wendyhouse** » 23 Jan 2011 15:56

Hello to you all and thank you for having me. I'ma bit new to all this so please excuse me if I use unclear terms or ask questions I could have found the answer to somewhere else on the site. I have a Goodmans GSP 650 turntable which has always seemed extremely sensitive to to someone even walking across the room and I've noticed that used records seem to play better and with much less surface noise than new ones. Having recently dragged out my old portable fidelity it seems much less likely to jump and the tone arm heavier. Just out of interest I stuck a bit of blu-tack on the top of the shell on the goodmans, much,much better. No skipping and surface noise extinguished. I'm pretty sure the stylus is ok but will replace just to make sure. This suggests to me that I need to adjust the balance or something needs adjusting. I have no instructions and the whole set up looks a bit delicate with tiny screws, don't want to start messing about until I've some idea what I'm doing, anyone got any idea about how to go about it please? I'm guessing what I'm doing with the blu-tack is probably bad for stylus and record so I hope this won't give anyone a breakdown :lol:

Many thanks in advance for any assistance.

by **smeg68** » 23 Jan 2011 18:24

Your turntable:

appears to have a T4P cartridge mount on the arm. This should mean that it is already set up (more or less) correctly from the factory. In practice, a worn or damaged stylus may cause mistracking issues. Can you check that the cantilever (the short rod that the stylus is mounted on) is straight and there are no kinks in it. This being the case, look at the diamond itself and make sure it's free of dust and fluff. Use a soft brush, in a back to front motion only, to clean it.

There may be a trim screw for the tracking weight on the turntable somewhere, if problems persist it may be worth giving this a small turn. Bluetack on the headshell may cause record wear and stylus failure, not really recommended.

Let us know how you get on and welcome to the engine

by **wendyhouse** » 24 Jan 2011 13:41

Hi, many thanks, sound advice I think. Cantilever looks straight, and stylus has been cleaned, as this is a problem that has crept up I think that
on balance a new stylus should be next step before fiddling about with tiny screws, always assuming I find the right one. Also will remove blu-tack and stop using till said stylus arrives. Just one more thing, I've seen lots of stuff on forums about upgrading styli (?). Is there one you could recommend apart from the GSP 650 and would it be worth it? Playing deck through a technics SA-K2L casette reciever amp with JVC Labyrinth 80w speakers, all sounds ok to me when working right but any improvement always welcome. Thanks again for your time and welcome.

by **smeg68** » 24 Jan 2011 14:24

The cartridge on your table is a Sanyo MG66 (it may be rebadged Goodmans) and the stylus is £17 available here: https://shop.mantra-audio.co.uk/acatalog/Goodmans_stylus.html

Though this is a T4P universal mount, I'd honestly say that rather than buy a new cartridge I'd save the cash and put it toward a proper turntable - the Goodmans is very much bottom entry level gear and really wont make the best of any upgrades. You could pick up a 2nd hand Pro-ject Debut or a Dual for £50 - £80 on eBay and this would be a MUCH better long term proposition than the Goodmans. You'll be surprised how good Vinyl can sound!

Anyway, before you even go spending £17 on a stylus, you need to check the tracking weight. See if you can borrow a set of electronic scales and find out what weight the cartridge is tracking at. T4P systems should all be around 1.25 Grammes and if it is significantly different (more than 0.2 g) then you will need to adjust it.

Scales can be found very cheaply - check these out: http://www.redsave.com/products/pocket-digital-scales

by **kelvinMunson** » 24 Jan 2011 14:34

Hi Smeg, had a look at the scales and agree they are cheap.

Do you have a set, any idea of the accuracy..... to be able to measure 0.2g they should really be an order of magnitude better than that ?

by **smeg68** » 24 Jan 2011 19:09

Why? Will expensively weighed cartridges track better than cheaply weighed ones?

All these scales are built on the same few circuit modules, they have more than enough accuracy for the job in hand. Just weigh a few coins to zero them in first, you can find the weights for Sterling currency here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coins_of_the_pound_sterling

by **wendyhouse** » 24 Jan 2011 20:43

Hi again, you must have read my mind, have been looking at some of the pro-ject decks on ebay just the last couple of days. Pretty pleased at how good vinyl sounds on present set up so I'll probably fall over with shock with something decent. Thought up grading would probably not be worthwhile so thanks for confirming that. Already ordered stylus but will still weigh out of interest. Thanks again, I'll let you know how it all goes and will no doubt be asking advice on pro-ject soon, any thoughts on the jukebox?

by **smeg68** » 24 Jan 2011 22:05

Honestly? I wouldn't. Nice idea and all that but an amplifier should be nowhere near the electrical field of a motor. Add to that the difficulty in upgrading, the limited functionality and the ridiculous new price and it's not a great deal at all.

You already have an amp and speakers, much better to buy a vanilla turntable and upgrade the other components as and when. It'll sound better and be much more flexible.

If space is an issue then I'd look at using a T-amp instead. £35 will get you a nice one off eBay.

by **wendyhouse** » 25 Jan 2011 13:42

Great, thanks, will stop bidding. What's a vanilla ? thanks again

by **kelvinMunson** » 25 Jan 2011 14:29

[quote="smeg68"]Why? Will expensively weighed cartridges track better than cheaply weighed ones?quote]

I think you probably misunderstood me smeg. I wasn't talking about the cost. I meant that to measure 0.2g accurately you need a scale accurate to +/- 0.01........ ie an order of magnitude better. Because the scale reads to 2 decimal places doesn't mean it is accurate to 2 decimal places from zero to 200g.

by **smeg68** » 25 Jan 2011 19:18

Why would you assume it is not? If it worries you just go with a manual stylus balance.

Wendy - vanilla just means plain, as in without added fripperies.

by **wendyhouse** » 25 Jan 2011 21:31

Cool, thanks, don't want anything too scarey. Re. "bottom entry" started about 6 months ago with ancient dynatron, so called portable with garrard deck, largely wooden, don't get much more bottom than that. Then got fidelity HF42 portable then present set up so at this rate I should have something quite special by this time next year, learning loads and to use a riding analogy, I'd rather start on a steady old cob than leap straight onto Red Rum. Don't want to get anything that's going to be too tricky to set up for bottom entry level enthusiast :wink:

by **smeg68** » 25 Jan 2011 22:34

No worries on that score. We are here to walk you through it. Some of the people on this board could set up a turntable in a hurricane

by **wendyhouse** » 26 Jan 2011 12:22

And it may feel like that at times! Thought I'd just practice getting old stylus out last night and believe me you didn't need a microscope to judge condition :oops:

Another thing, I have realised is that I really need to pay attention to the whole way present system is set up. Don't want to go into further details, thought about posting a photo as a "what is wrong with this picture" quiz but thought I might get struck off the forum. Will post picture when I've sorted it all out and my concience is a bit clearer.
Meanwhile, loving the forum and all the friendly help. As well as the decks you mentioned, I'm also watching a NAD5120, watching plenty of pr-ject debuts too but must admit that for some reason I'm strangely drawn to the Dual CS 505s..........
At some point I'll take the plunge I'm sure.

many thanks again.