Help me fix my turntable

Hey watmm, I know how much you all love your vinyl, so I'm hoping one of you might know a solution to my problem...

When I'm listening to records on my turntable, if the record is not in a good condition, I have to keep the volume low. Otherwise, the sound will start to warble faster and faster until the needle eventually jumps out of the groove and slides across the record. This won't happen if I keep the volume low. There seems to be a volume limit for each record, and it depends on the quality of the record.

Is the problem my needle? What should I do?

Thanks!

Holy crap that's a weird problem

  On 11/7/2011 at 9:35 PM, Ricky Downtown said:

Hey watmm, I know how much you all love your vinyl, so I'm hoping one of you might know a solution to my problem...

 

When I'm listening to records on my turntable, if the record is not in a good condition, I have to keep the volume low. Otherwise, the sound will start to warble faster and faster until the needle eventually jumps out of the groove and slides across the record. This won't happen if I keep the volume low. There seems to be a volume limit for each record, and it depends on the quality of the record.

 

Is the problem my needle? What should I do?

 

Thanks!

where is your record player situated? the listening volume should have zero effect on how the record plays. unless your record player is positioned on top or too near your speakers and is being affected by sound vibrations making the needle skip.

Adjust the anti-skate?

wait - are you saying that the record actually speeds up when you increase the volume?

lol that's wicked. please film it.

Is it belt drive or direct drive?

  On 11/7/2011 at 10:10 PM, BCM said:

wait - are you saying that the record actually speeds up when you increase the volume?

 

lol that's wicked. please film it.

made me laugh out loud at 1:36am, possibly waking up the rest of the house

awesome

I wanna know more about this!

Could be an awesome head fuck of a technical glitch, or just an internetz lolz forum misunderstanding.

  On 11/7/2011 at 10:07 PM, Solo Strike said:

Adjust the anti-skate?

Sounds like anti-skate (that small dial near the butt end of the tonearm), or tonearm not balanced properly.

Could be the weight/force of your cartridge is to low, in which case the tonearm counterweight needs to be adjusted. Usually this is done by first balancing the tonearm so that it floats completely flat/perpendicular to the platter, zeroing the counterweight, then turning it whatever amount corresponds to the recommended tracking force (should be in the cartridge spec - e.g. for my Numark CS-1 the recommended range is 3-6 g).

The volume thing is funny alright, I reckon it might be the case that when you turn up the vol. the low frequencies produce vibrations that cause the wobbling & skipping

put a 1p on the arm.

  On 11/8/2011 at 5:45 PM, keltoi said:

put a 1p on the arm.

stuck with blu-tak

  On 11/7/2011 at 10:06 PM, BCM said:

  On 11/7/2011 at 9:35 PM, Ricky Downtown said:

Hey watmm, I know how much you all love your vinyl, so I'm hoping one of you might know a solution to my problem...

 

When I'm listening to records on my turntable, if the record is not in a good condition, I have to keep the volume low. Otherwise, the sound will start to warble faster and faster until the needle eventually jumps out of the groove and slides across the record. This won't happen if I keep the volume low. There seems to be a volume limit for each record, and it depends on the quality of the record.

 

Is the problem my needle? What should I do?

 

Thanks!

 

where is your record player situated? the listening volume should have zero effect on how the record plays. unless your record player is positioned on top or too near your speakers and is being affected by sound vibrations making the needle skip.

okay, this sounds pretty spot on. My turntable is right in between my speakers lol. I'm going to try moving my set up around a bit and then I'll give it a test.

lol that totally fixed my problem. the funny part is that this is how i've always positioned my speakers and turntable since i got them and I've lived in three different places since then. DERP

thank you!

GAH I LOVE YOU WATMM!!!! NOW I CAN LISTEN TO DILLA LOUD!!!!

butter.

  On 11/8/2011 at 9:15 PM, Ricky Downtown said:

lol that totally fixed my problem. the funny part is that this is how i've always positioned my speakers and turntable since i got them and I've lived in three different places since then. DERP

 

thank you!

lol

Well, going by the success of this thread, maybe I should mention my turntable problems.

I have a Technics SL-BD22 and for the last few weeks it's been making this grinding/ticking noise when it spins. The needle and the records are fine, it's something to do with the inner mechanism.

Here's a short sample of the noise:

http://www.mediafire.com/?b94j4pjh24jlf8d

I tried unplugging it while it was spinning, and the noise stopped before the platter came to a halt. So I'm thinking it's something to do with the motor.

I took some pictures from under the platter:

How serious do you think this is? Is it something I can repair by myself?

Thought I'd just bump this thread instead of starting a new one.

I recently got a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon with a Pro-Ject Phono Box S and ever since I first plugged it in it's been giving me a low buzzing noise, just quiet enough to be ignored when listening to something. However, when I plug it into my computer's audio in to rip a record, instead of a low buzzing I get a high pitched ringing. I took a look at the spectrum of one recording and it didn't look good.

I have not for the life of me been able to figure this out. I've tried moving everything around and fiddling with switches and things to no avail. I'm starting to think it's just a problem with my house's wiring. Any help at all would be appreciated.

  On 7/15/2014 at 12:30 PM, petina said:

Thought I'd just bump this thread instead of starting a new one.

 

I recently got a Pro-Ject Debut Carbon with a Pro-Ject Phono Box S and ever since I first plugged it in it's been giving me a low buzzing noise, just quiet enough to be ignored when listening to something. However, when I plug it into my computer's audio in to rip a record, instead of a low buzzing I get a high pitched ringing. I took a look at the spectrum of one recording and it didn't look good.

 

 

I have not for the life of me been able to figure this out. I've tried moving everything around and fiddling with switches and things to no avail. I'm starting to think it's just a problem with my house's wiring. Any help at all would be appreciated.

i'm in Portugal and it also happens here, around 15kHz...

and yes the high pitched noise only happens when i have the mixer connected to my audio interface in order to record it...

i know that the phono amps boost up around 10X more than the normal aux/cd amps, so that's why we all get the 50hZ from the AC.

i asked my teacher and he said it's common magnetic interference, but it's not the fact that it's common that makes it ok...

i still have to plug my system in a place where earth connectors are available in order to see if it still happens...

I had a feeling it was some kind of issue with earthing (based on what a friend told me), though I don't really know shit about electronics.

  On 7/16/2014 at 7:18 AM, petina said:

I had a feeling it was some kind of issue with earthing (based on what a friend told me), though I don't really know shit about electronics.

yes earthing. ground loops, but i do believe there's only 50hz on there... 15kHz must come from something else, electromagnetic interference of some kind, i though it might be wireless or bluetooths or mobiles i dunno...