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Tweaking your Record-Player Page 3

The clip problem
Tonearm wiring uses a standard color code for channel and polarity ID: White = L Hot, Blue = L Ground, Red = R Hot, and Green = R Ground. If the cartridge pins aren't color-coded the same way, they will have letter identifications next to them. Trust me.

A bunched-up bath towel on your work space can be shaped to hold the tonearm in any position except standing on end, leaving both hands free for more important things. For now, you'll want the arm or headshell lying upside down. With the tonearm detached from the turntable armboard, examine the junctions between the…

Tweaking your Record-Player Page 4

For heads-up installation, hold the arm or headshell upright with the cartridge in place under it, and drop a screw through one pair of holes. The tricky part, now, is attaching the nut, because this may be so close to the cartridge body that there's no room to get a finger grip on it, or even to accommodate a small nut driver. Here's where the spaghetti tubing comes in. Select a length of this that's just big enough to allow you to force the nut inside the tip of it. This is easier if you put the nut on the tabletop and press the tubing down onto it. Then use the tubing to hold the nut…

Tweaking your Record-Player Page 5

Viewing the cartridge from dead-on in front, check to see that it is absolutely parallel to the mirror. If there is any azimuth tilt error, the mirror will show this as being doubled, giving you twice as much adjustment accuracy as you can get otherwise (fig.3). Some arms have a locking collar for the headshell, which can be loosened to adjust the tilt angle. With others, it will be necessary to add thin metal shims or washers between the high side of the cartridge and its headshell. (The arm base itself should not be shimmed, as this will upset the arm's lateral balance and impair its…

Tweaking your Record-Player Page 6

Whether to damp?
If the arm requires viscous damping fluid, add the manufacturer's recommended amount.

Some audiophiles prefer not to use tonearm damping at all, even when the arm has provision for it, arguing that the sound is "better" without it. You may agree with them (I certainly don't), but if you do, you should understand that damping acts mainly to suppress the low-frequency arm/cartridge system resonance, and that an undamped arm's "richer, warmer" sound is a coloration, whether you consider it euphonic or not. A tonearm will always provide more accurate and stable disc…

Tweaking your Record-Player Page 7

Playback VTA was standardized some years ago at 23 degrees, and most cartridges today are designed so that, with their top surface parallel to the disc, the cantilever will assume that 23 degres angle when tracked at the recommended force. It turns out, though, that VTA is too critical to be optimized by a standardized measurement; a fraction of a degree can produce an audible change. The adjustment can only be done by ear, using the nominal 23 degrees as the starting point.

Generally, when the VTA is too great (that is, when the back of the arm is too high), the sound will tend to be…

Tweaking your Record-Player Page 8

With some arms—the SME V is one—the lower range of VTA adjustment may be limited by a tendency for the rear bottom surface of the arm to rub against the disc. If this seems to be preventing you from finding the correct VTA, you can get around it by using a small 1/16"- or 1/8"-thick block of aluminum to extend the cartridge farther below the arm. (The intervening spaces should be filled with damping mastic.) Every high-end dealer who's been in business for more than five years has a bin or two of arm and cartridge hardware, and will almost certainly have at least one shimming block among the…

Tweaking your Record-Player Page 9

If more than 1 out of 50 of your discs skips grooves at 2gm, you've got a problem that urgently demands further investigation. For example, a badly worn stylus can do this, and if that's what the problem is, you can be sure it is also shredding your precious records. (If your stylus is more than two years old, it is mandatory that you have it checked with a high-powered microscope. If your dealer isn't so equipped, send it back to the manufacturer for inspection.) There's also the possibility that your cartridge isn't as good as you think it is. This isn't so easy to check out, but reading…

Tweaking your Record-Player Page 10

Record cleaning
If you care about your records, you should always damp-clean each side just before playing.

LPs are natural dust collectors. They seem to develop a static charge spontaneously, and will attract any loose detritus from the platter surface, the inside of the record sleeve, and even the surrounding air within a 6" radius. Damp-cleaning is performed while the disc is rotating, with a small pad of plush or velvet which has first been saturated with tap water and then wrung in a towel until damp. Start at the run-out grooves, and wipe slowly outward and off the edge.

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Tweaking your Record-Player Page 11

Connectors
Dirty phono plugs can degrade sound quality. Metal oxide buildup between contact surfaces acts as a rectifier, exhibiting higher resistance for one signal polarity than the other. Gold-to-gold connections don't have this problem, gold stubbornly refusing to react with the air, but any other kind will develop it over time, and because a moving-coil cartridge has extremely low output impedance, it takes very little reverse resistance to dirty-up its sound.

The phono plugs should make a very snug fit into the preamp inputs, and while it is not necessary that you first scrape…

Tweaking your Record-Player Postscript: addresses

Postscript: addresses

Arcici, P.O. Box 1502, Ansonia Station, New York, NY 10023. Tel: (212) 724-6021.
Audio Advisor Inc., 225 Oakes SW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503. Tel: (800) 942-0220.
AudioQuest, P.O. Box 3060, San Clemente, CA 92672. Tel: (714) 498-2770.
db Systems, Main Street, Rindge Center, NH 03461. Tel: (603) 899-5121.
May Audio Marketing, P.O. Box 1048, 76 Main Street, Champlain, NY 12919. Tel: (518) 298-4434.
Merrill Audio, 2125 Central Ave., Memphis, TN 38104. Tel: (901) 272-1410.
The Mod Squad, 542 Coast Highway 101, Leucadia, CA 92024-0965. Tel: (619) 436-7666…