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When you lightly touch the armbase, or the arm-lift with your fingertips during play, do you feel vibrations?

With the sound turned all the way down, I hear a trilling noise from the turntable and the sound of the music very low. I can feet a tiny vibration when I touch the arm lift but none from the arm.

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When turning the volume totally down during record playing, do you hear the needle travelling through the grooves?

I can hear the music very faintly but not any other nose from the grooves

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If yes to either one of these questions, either the cartridge or the arm, or both are vibrating uncontrollably. IMO such vibrations can be killed by isolating 1) the cartridge from the headshell, and/or 2) the arm(-base) from the plinth.

How?

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Press one ear hard onto the plinth during record playing (or just the motor running). Do you hear/feel rumble or motor noise?

Have you adjusted VTA properly?

I do not hear a rumble but a steady trilling sort of noise. I believe I have the VTA done properly

Tomorrow when I have more time I plan to reset the entire setup..

I reset what I could today and found the tracking force was off per the shure gage..Another question or two, how does one adjust the azmuth on a TD-1 tonearm? The cartridge sits at a small angle with the inside edge visibly closer to the record then the outside?

Finally, what is the trilling noise I can hear in the machine, motor noise? If so would it be worth my while (as in not do damage to the turntable...for me to open it up and look for anything loose?

In addition, if I measure level on the felt, I get different readings in every location...Is that indicative of a poor mat...the level on the plater directly is good.

oil in the main bearing well? Alas, I have no idea how to fix that but I will try...is there a specific type of oil needed?

I beat the azimuth problem. I went to my local high end stereo shop prepared to buy a tool set for such things. After a sales pitch for a really nice Project turntable beyond the reach of this poor music lover. They advised they did not do anything complicated with turntables but said the tools might be available at a local hobby emporium, those folk sent me to a motorcycle repair shop and those nice folk to Sears where I bought a very small socket wrench with a size 1 Philips head attachment. Then home for a try and, shazam, it worked so the azimuth is now about right and 90% of my constant distortion is gone...

So, I am sure the tracking is right and I am sure the azimuth is OK and I am sure the anti skating is set right.

Now, as I have been playing the thing, distortion be damned, a couple of hours a week for almost 18 months, I am fearful my remaining problems are probably due to cartridge abuse..

I have an Ortifon 2M red mounted...new questions...

Does anyone have any experience with a good $200 cartridge (I know, in the rarefied world of vinyl any cartridge that does not cost as much as a years university admission is to flawed to count, but still....what sounds good for $200)...

I am considering the Ortofon 2M Blue or perhaps a Sumiko for a bit more.

Second question...what gets the bigger bang for the buck, a cartridge change or a phono amp upgrade?

If I had the money I would BUT...I am not Mr. Fremer...I am unable to spend the price of a modest car on a turntable...

Actually, that is unfair as you do note a upgrade path, but I do not have a grand sitting around for an upgrade so I need the system I already own to work as it should...

Bizarre azimuth fixes, strange disassembly requirements,odd tools one cannot find, overpriced alignment devices and the general voodoo required to get a turntable to work as well as a modest CD based system are the problems...

Am I suffering from wildly unrealistic expectations when I think my $900 worth of vinyl front end should play a new 180G record to sound at least as well as my $100 CD player, 'as well' meaning as reliably, trouble free, and repeatably?

The idea that the sound of reasonably priced vinyl is sufficiently better than the sound of reasonably priced digital to warrant the astounding hassle and cost of that vinyl is right up there with the idea that alien abduction is a real problem.

I have heard great vinyl...That $30K system sounded amazing. So does a $30K digital system. The problem is...a $3K vinyl system MAY sound as good or better than a $3K digital one, but that is unlikely and making it sound better involves a serious set of activities including prayer, profanity, ritual, and a lot of expensive side actions from setup to record cleaning.

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I have no recommendations, but I do wish you good luck

Thanks...I get frustrated with the process and the small results I get on my income. Still, vinyl is the only way to get a lot of old music that never made it to CD...It is supposed to be about the music...

My latest find was Dion Warwick's 'Greatest Motion Picture Hits'...I can buy some of the individual tracks as down-loadable MP3's but most not and MP3's are, after all, MP3's.

I am still interested in folks opinion on bang for the buck changes of cartridge v phono preamp...

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I completely understand your stance on having your paid for TT work properly and respect that. I too worked through some headaches with the MMF-5. I had a dry bearing issue that I noticed after I moved. Some of the bearing oil leaked out and I noticed a degradation in sound quality. I did some research and found "Super Lube" manufactured by Synco Chemical Corp. Its a Multi-purpose synthetic based oil with PTFE. The bearing was super quiet after the oil change. You can buy it in a .25 oz pen applicator. The 2nd biggest budget mod I did was to purchase a 15" x 20" John Boos hard-rock maple cutting board and place it on 3 Vibrapod-cones. I used that as a vibration isolation stand and then set the TT on 4 Vibrapods on top the cutting board. Wow blacker blacks, better bass and more detail. I would push you towards those two mods before you upgrade your cartridge, you should be able to complete both mentioned mods for under $100.

-Z

On the vibrapods...my TT is heavier at the back then the front. When I set it on vibrapods, the level is off...Any suggestions.

Now we know why...I figure I am lucky in that My spouse likes the Salamander rack.

Well, I battled with the thing today and managed to get the C clamp off after only drawing blood once when I stabbed myself in the finger with a screwdriver. When I lifted the platter I discovered the cause of the trilling noise. The company who sold me the Turntable who shall be nameless but has a catalog in which each and every item for sale has a price listed as "only" whatever, from the reasonable to the absurd, had set it up for me with an Ortofon OM10 cartridge..sort of (the tracking was off, the anti skating was off and the azimuth WAY off). The trilling noise was the plastic stylus protector for the OM10 helpfully left behind under the platter to vibrate.

Sigh...

The saga continues...remember the C-clamp that had to be removed to get the platter off? Well I managed to break it...so I need a new on, or some. Thorens is helpful..they say go to the seller...

Now the spindle does not spin....and I stabbed myself again trying to replace the stylus on the cartridge...

This blood sacrifice thing is getting old...I sent an inquiry to Thorens tech support and so far they have been both helpful and timely, though they did not appear to be very familiar with the particular table.