Equipment Recommendations - The Home For New System and Upgrade Advice

Angsty said:
These older mechanical turntables are a bit more complicated than most made today. The play/off lever is purely mechanical. It activates a gear and cam system before a limit switch kicks in electrical power to the motor. The tonearm is lowered by a mechanism but is free to move once on the record.

My suggestion is:

1. Put on a low-value record and start playing
2. When the stylus is an inch or so in, disconnect power using the wall plug
3. At this point, the tonearm should be free to move up and down by hand - don’t use the play/off lever
4. Lift the tonearm to change the stylus and slide the VTF scale under it
5. Once the VTF is set where you want it, remove the scale and gently lower the stylus onto the record by hand.
6. Pull the play/off lever to “off”
7. Plug the turntable back in

At this point, the mechanical lifter should lift the stylus before the record starts turning and return the tonearm back to the rest as the platter starts rotating.

Try this out on the old stylus before trying to swap in the new one!

I had an old Garrard changer with similarly complex mechanics. After trying for quite a while to “restore” it (since mechanical things require service and lubrication), I bought a dead-simple VPI Traveler instead.

Edit: Alternatively, you could do all the above with the old stylus only to set the VTF and then swap to the Black stylus once the tonearm is in the rest. There should be no difference in weight between the two styli.
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Yeah this sounds like a decent plan. My buddy really doesn't know how to use the table, was a hand me down and we had it serviced years ago to get it in good shape. Sounds great but yeah the mechanisms on that thing are like trying to suss out the inner workings of a Rube Goldberg machine...
 
OMC said:
I know how that game works, cables, amplifiers, etc. Sometimes you just have to give in and play along watching your wallet get skinnier and your smile getting bigger.
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Yeah I mean he was smart, he brought me all the top stuff but then like a couple of the cheaper ones. The difference was staggering, was not expecting that at all.
 
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Mather said:
Yeah I mean he was smart, he brought me all the top stuff but then like a couple of the cheaper ones. The difference was staggering, was not expecting that at all.
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Monster Cable used to mislead in their demos. If the “cheap” comparison wire is too skinny and too long, you will likely hear a difference with speakers that dip into low impedance.

See the section titled Misleading Wire Demonstration for more details.

Roger Russell’s classic article on speaker wire:

Speaker Wire

www.roger-russell.com
 
Angsty said:
Monster Cable used to mislead in their demos. If the “cheap” comparison wire is too skinny and too long, you will likely hear a difference with speakers that dip into low impedance.

See the section titled Misleading Wire Demonstration for more details.

Roger Russell’s classic article on speaker wire:

Speaker Wire

www.roger-russell.com
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Yeah no it wasn't that, it wasn't exactly cheap cables, it was just a few different ones from different manufacturers that did not sound good, but he didn't bring in any of the lower tiered models from the manufacturer I bought from. So yes it's possible I'd be getting exactly the same sound from the lower tiered models from the same manufacturer that I do from the top end ones, I don't know because I didn't hear them, I did hear one mid range RCA from the same manufacturer and it did not sound as good to me as the top one. But honestly I don't really care either way because I've never had a single hum issue, cross talk etc. These are very well shielded and do everything I want them to do so I'm good.
 
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Mather said:
Yeah no it wasn't that, it wasn't exactly cheap cables, it was just a few different ones from different manufacturers that did not sound good, but he didn't bring in any of the lower tiered models from the manufacturer I bought from. So yes it's possible I'd be getting exactly the same sound from the lower tiered models from the same manufacturer that I do from the top end ones, I don't know because I didn't hear them, I did hear one mid range RCA from the same manufacturer and it did not sound as good to me and the top one. But honestly I don't really care either way because I've never had a single hum issue, cross talk etc. These are very well shielded and do everything I want them to do so I'm good.
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I remember reading about your manufacturer and their cables. I can see why you’re good!
 
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