MoFi UltraDeck / StudioDeck Owners and those interested

Hmmm... I don't like it. Sorry for being the party pooper. It looks eclectic in a non- Feng Shui way. I find those knobs look crap and that window for the speed control, gimmicky. It looks too much like a Spiral Groove Turntable and I have never liked their look. But that is just my taste.
displayname said:
I changed my belt one time. I did so because I noticed the timing was off. Wasn’t massively off but I put on one of my favorite albums and it just didn’t feel right. Checked speed to confirm, called music direct and they charged it over the phone since it wasn’t listed on the website.

I think it was $35 all in. Haven’t given it another thought since.
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I asked my dealer here in Germany if they have a replacement belt in stock. They said no, and that one normally doesn't need a replacement. Mine is about four years old and I asked again, doesn't it stretch with time. Again the answer was no. It is a silicon belt which one just has to wash under warm water, dry off and it should like new. Now that confused me. Can that be true?
Also concerning bearing grease, they also told me normally once greased up correctly you don't have worry about it agin for a long time. Something which Allen Perkins did also mention in the video.
 
AnthonyI said:
I really, REALLY, like this deck..........which is not a good sign, lol.

That said, I've been able to talk myself off the ledge due to one simple thing, and it's important to me at this point in my life, a removable head shell. Honestly, with my eyes getting older, hands not as nimble and all that goes with just getting older, a removable head shell is a huge, almost non-negotiable, option for me.

So what happens a few days ago? My guy at MoFi reaches out, out of the blue about the new cartridge. We chat about a few things, then we get on the discussion of the MasterDeck and ultimately I mention the removable head shell issue being my "hesitation", and apparently, there is a set screw on the head shell that allows it to be removed to mount the cart.

This all being posted before watching the vid by the way ;)



......after watching the vid, F**K 😖 (5:05 ON THE VID)
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** starts saving to buy Anthony’s Technics **

:)
 
Beatlesblogger said:
Hi all, I may have missed a reference to this up thread, but has the Ultratracker cartridge quietly disappeared from the MoFi site?
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Its still up for sale in the general market place . Its hard to tell from the MOFI site as sometimes they do not show the product , but then it comes back . I did not see any specific reference to it being discontinued , but that does not mean it has not been dropped .
 
HayesWeighsIn said:
You guys wanna talk about absolutely uncanny timing - I go to spin my 3rd record of the morning, and pitch is WAY slow, all over the place, up and down. Belt's shot!

So there's your answer on my end - 2 tables, 4 years on the belt on each.

Wonder if MD'll do a BF coupon on accessories? 🤪
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Wanted to give a shout out to Audio Advice - they have MoFi belts in stock with free shipping, and I am in the same state, but I received it less than 24 hours after ordering. Amazing.
 
Hi gals and boys, I have seemed to encounter an issue with my deck. I did some tweaking with my playing weight, wanting to increase it slightly and hence lower my arm at the pivot (vta) to get the arm parallel again.

The problem is the arm level piston is touching the deck and can't go down further, and now the stylus doesn't hit the record when lowered.

I presume I may need some shim for the cartridge now, which is a bummer.

Does anyone have a suggestion?
 
AndreasT said:
Hi gals and boys, I have seemed to encounter an issue with my deck. I did some tweaking with my playing weight, wanting to increase it slightly and hence lower my arm at the pivot (vta) to get the arm parallel again.

The problem is the arm level piston is touching the deck and can't go down further, and now the stylus doesn't hit the record when lowered.

I presume I may need some shim for the cartridge now, which is a bummer.

Does anyone have a suggestion?
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I’m actually kind of baffled at how you managed this. Can you please post some photos? Was adjusting the counterweight not sufficient to give you the tracking force you need? VTA adjustment should be performed after getting your tracking force dialed in. In fact, the tracking force should have very very little impact on whether or not your tonearm is level - that tends to be more of a function of the cartridge height.
 
StudioDeck.jpg
It is nighttime here, so a bit dark to take photos. With some fiddling I could get the stylus to touch the record, however the piston on the right is touching the base, the tonearm is resting/touching the horizontal cue arm. There is no light between the tonearm and the foam padding on that arm. There is very little room for adjustment, as well as when playing and there is a slight warp, or through the natural up and down movement when playing, the arm may hit that padding and cause sonic problems among others.

This is all a bit hard to explain, and I will do some more adjustments and see if I can solve the issue. Another thing, I am using a Goldring 1042 cartridge and I think they are not very high, that's why the consideration of using a shim for more clearance.
 
AndreasT said:
View attachment 189194
It is nighttime here, so a bit dark to take photos. With some fiddling I could get the stylus to touch the record, however the piston on the right is touching the base, the tonearm is resting/touching the horizontal cue arm. There is no light between the tonearm and the foam padding on that arm. There is very little room for adjustment, as well as when playing and there is a slight warp, or through the natural up and down movement when playing, the arm may hit that padding and cause sonic problems among others.

This is all a bit hard to explain, and I will do some more adjustments and see if I can solve the issue. Another thing, I am using a Goldring 1042 cartridge and I think they are not very high, that's why the consideration of using a shim for more clearance.
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If possible, take some pictures of the entire length of the tonearm with the cart so we can better see what you're talking about. I can't think of any reason you'd need to have your tonearm so low.
 
I too am rather confused. How did increasing your tracking force affect the VTA of the tonearm? The counterweight has more than enough adjustments to allow for as much tracking force as you could possibly want no?
 
Mather said:
I too am rather confused. How did increasing your tracking force affect the VTA of the tonearm? The counterweight has more than enough adjustments to allow for as much tracking force as you could possibly want no?
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Not meaning to pile on , but like Mather and Kvetcha I join the unwashed and confused group having played around with the counterweight , anti skate without the problems you appear to be having . As lighting conditions allow a few more pictures may help the heavyweight team of Mather/Kvetcha help you sort this out .
 
Maybe I am expressing myself badly.

Taking a photo now is too difficult, maybe tomorrow if I find time.
What happened was, I changed my tracking force, and as a good turntable owner I checked to see if the arm was parallel. It was a bit high on the back, where the pivot is. So I lowered it, changing the Vta to get it "right". Now, when I was lowering the arm onto the record, the bottom of the arm was touching the cueing rest. I have got it to work again, I think, by fiddling around with Vta and the cue piston. There is really very little play in adjustment if one has a low cartridge, which Goldring seems to be. One thing to consider with the StudioDeck is because of the lower platter, the armtube is shorter than with the UltraDeck resulting in less play with height adjustments. I do find this difficult to explain writing this.
 
AndreasT said:
Maybe I am expressing myself badly.

Taking a photo now is too difficult, maybe tomorrow if I find time.
What happened was, I changed my tracking force, and as a good turntable owner I checked to see if the arm was parallel. It was a bit high on the back, where the pivot is. So I lowered it, changing the Vta to get it "right". Now, when I was lowering the arm onto the record, the bottom of the arm was touching the cueing rest. I have got it to work again, I think, by fiddling around with Vta and the cue piston. There is really very little play in adjustment if one has a low cartridge, which Goldring seems to be. One thing to consider with the StudioDeck is because of the lower platter, the armtube is shorter than with the UltraDeck resulting in less play with height adjustments. I do find this difficult to explain writing this.
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Ah okay, I don't own this specific table so I don't know, but owners... is the cue lever adjustable on this table? I know on my VPI I can actually lower the cue arm.
 
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Mather said:
Ah okay, I don't own this specific table so I don't know, but owners... it's the cue lever adjustable on this table? I know on my VPI I can actually lower the cue arm.
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I'm betting it isn't and I bet they didn't consider someone using a cart with that small of a footprint either (i mean the Mofi carts all seem comically big to me and most seem to be using some woody thing when they decide to jump ship)

@AndreasT does the lever pull out? Are you comfortable not using it while the group here figures this out? If the lever is not adjustable, you may be right a shim may be the only choice.

@HiFi Guy what you got?
 
Lee Newman said:
I'm betting it isn't and I bet they didn't consider someone using a cart with that small of a footprint either (i mean the Mofi carts all seem comically big to me and most seem to be using some woody thing when they decide to jump ship)

@AndreasT does the lever pull out? Are you comfortable not using it while the group here figures this out? If the lever is not adjustable, you may be right a shim may be the only choice.

@HiFi Guy what you got?
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Yeah if the cartridge is too shallow to allow you to balance the arm without bottoming it out a shim is your only recourse.
 
Lee Newman said:
I'm betting it isn't and I bet they didn't consider someone using a cart with that small of a footprint either (i mean the Mofi carts all seem comically big to me and most seem to be using some woody thing when they decide to jump ship)

@AndreasT does the lever pull out? Are you comfortable not using it while the group here figures this out? If the lever is not adjustable, you may be right a shim may be the only choice.

@HiFi Guy what you got?
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It’s adjustable. Look at the mount from the side. Between the cue lever and the cylinder, there appears to be an Allen screw. Loosen it and lower the cylinder. This in turn lowers the cueing platform that comes into contact with the arm. Just lower it a tad, and support the cylinder from underneath with your finger so it doesn’t drop too far or fall out of the mount entirely.

Edit: I’m coming up with this from pictures, as I haven’t had the MoFi for a couple of years.
 
HiFi Guy said:
It’s adjustable. Look at the mount from the side. Between the cue lever and the cylinder, there appears to be an Allen screw. Loosen it and lower the cylinder. This in turn lowers the cueing platform that comes into contact with the arm. Just lower it a tad, and support the cylinder from underneath with your finger so it doesn’t drop too far or fall out of the mount entirely.

Edit: I’m coming up with this from pictures, as I haven’t had the MoFi for a couple of years.
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Yes there is an Allen screw, and I have loosened it and the cueing platform is as low as it goes. I got the arm parallel it should be okay. But if I wanted to have the back down there isn't enough play. There is a hair of space now between the cueing platform and the arm. If I wanted to go lower, if desired, I really would need a shim. Like I said, with the Ultradeck you don't have this issue.
 
Untitled-1.jpg

Let's see if this helps. Like others have said, this kind of makes no sense as you're explaining it. The GREEN shows the assembly that will move up and down once you loosen the Set Screw. The assembly consists of the entire arm assembly and arm cradle.

The RED is the piston, when you loosen the set screw the entire assembly will drop straight down if your not holding it, the set screw isn't an incremental adjustment, it just holds the assembly/piston at the desired height.

If you loosen the set screw you should be able to raise the entire arm assembly to your liking (level), once it's where it belongs, tighten the set screw.

If you look at the image, as many have already stated, the VTF is not effected by the VTA, meaning, the tone arm being level, once your VTF has been set are two different things and adjusted two different ways.

I would use this image below (Studiodeck) as a ballpark height and raise your assembly so it's not all the way down, adjust your VTF, then loosen the set screw, while holding the assembly and level it with whatever tool you're using to level it.

The Ultradeck (Above) and the Studiodeck have the same assembly, but the Studio "piston" is shorter due to the platter being thinner.
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I'm guessing you loosened the set screw and it just dropped and stopped once the cue assembly hit the top of the deck.
 
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