Elliot, stay away from any tone arm that, "needs repair." A tonearm should never need repair. Any good tonearm is a life long investment. If it needs repair it was abused in some way or it was a bad design.
Any tonearm with an offset angle requires an anti skate devise. Not having one interferes with the cartridges ability to track the right channel (outside) and increase both stylus and groove wear on both sides. You can demonstrate this to yourself with the HI FI News test record. Play the anti skate test and adjust your anti skate as per instructions. Now play the tracking ability test. Gently lift the anti skate device to inactivate it. What happens? You will have an "Oh Crap" moment. The most important function of any tonearm/cartridge combination is to be able to track the record.
The best way to do a dust cover on a turntable that does not have one is to incorporate it with a platform. To be functional a dust cover must be hinged. Trying to place a loose dust cover over a turntable that is playing is difficult, time consuming and dangerous. A dust cover you do not use while the table is playing is 75% worthless. So, you hinge the dust cover to the turntable’s platform. My favorite design is a 1" thick acrylic base with a fixed upright back higher than the turntable to which the dust cover is hinged. These guys can make it for you. https://www.displaycasej.com/custom-audio-covers
They do excellent work. They made the dust cover for my SME and it is flawless.
Some people here like lewm will tell you that dust covers SOUND TERRIBLE. As long as the dust cover is not attached directly to the structure carrying the platter and tonearm a dust cover will actually make your turntable sound noticeably BETTER. Using a dust cover is just like wearing hearing protection muffs. It attenuates any noise in the room decreasing the turntable’s noise pollution exposure by 20 or more dB. My SME dust cover is 1/4" thick. I played a 1000 kHz test tone by CD and adjusted the volume by meter to 90 dB. Then I put the meter on top of the SME’s platter and closed the dust cover. The volume dropped to 64 dB a 26 dB improvement. It is like putting your turntable in another room.
Next. Any dust on the record while it is playing is detrimental to the sound, record and stylus wear. The stylus generates thousands of volts of static electricity while it is playing which attracts dust like a magnet pulling it right into the groove. The dust cover limits the amount of dust in the vicinity of the static charged record. Along with a dust cover get one of these. https://www.sleevecityusa.com/Antistatic-Record-Cleaning-Arm-p/tac-01.htm This will discharge the record while it is playing and collect any incidental dust at the same time. Records that I purchase new never need cleaning. Since I do not buy used records I do not need a record cleaning machine. I have a Spin Clean for the rare occasion that someone brings a record over to hear but all my close audiophile friends use the same system.
Good Luck,
Mike
Any tonearm with an offset angle requires an anti skate devise. Not having one interferes with the cartridges ability to track the right channel (outside) and increase both stylus and groove wear on both sides. You can demonstrate this to yourself with the HI FI News test record. Play the anti skate test and adjust your anti skate as per instructions. Now play the tracking ability test. Gently lift the anti skate device to inactivate it. What happens? You will have an "Oh Crap" moment. The most important function of any tonearm/cartridge combination is to be able to track the record.
The best way to do a dust cover on a turntable that does not have one is to incorporate it with a platform. To be functional a dust cover must be hinged. Trying to place a loose dust cover over a turntable that is playing is difficult, time consuming and dangerous. A dust cover you do not use while the table is playing is 75% worthless. So, you hinge the dust cover to the turntable’s platform. My favorite design is a 1" thick acrylic base with a fixed upright back higher than the turntable to which the dust cover is hinged. These guys can make it for you. https://www.displaycasej.com/custom-audio-covers
They do excellent work. They made the dust cover for my SME and it is flawless.
Some people here like lewm will tell you that dust covers SOUND TERRIBLE. As long as the dust cover is not attached directly to the structure carrying the platter and tonearm a dust cover will actually make your turntable sound noticeably BETTER. Using a dust cover is just like wearing hearing protection muffs. It attenuates any noise in the room decreasing the turntable’s noise pollution exposure by 20 or more dB. My SME dust cover is 1/4" thick. I played a 1000 kHz test tone by CD and adjusted the volume by meter to 90 dB. Then I put the meter on top of the SME’s platter and closed the dust cover. The volume dropped to 64 dB a 26 dB improvement. It is like putting your turntable in another room.
Next. Any dust on the record while it is playing is detrimental to the sound, record and stylus wear. The stylus generates thousands of volts of static electricity while it is playing which attracts dust like a magnet pulling it right into the groove. The dust cover limits the amount of dust in the vicinity of the static charged record. Along with a dust cover get one of these. https://www.sleevecityusa.com/Antistatic-Record-Cleaning-Arm-p/tac-01.htm This will discharge the record while it is playing and collect any incidental dust at the same time. Records that I purchase new never need cleaning. Since I do not buy used records I do not need a record cleaning machine. I have a Spin Clean for the rare occasion that someone brings a record over to hear but all my close audiophile friends use the same system.
Good Luck,
Mike