"It was like having great sex and then having the husband knock on the bedroom door with the stock of his shotgun."
Think how Rosen must have felt, as he ran shrieking from the room.
The Mood Was Ruined
I recently bought an analog set up and a few lps. I have always been militantly pro digital. I’m trying not to accumulate lps and trying to limit purchases to interesting stuff that may not be available digitally. I have my lps cleaned ultrasonically. My tastes are generally confined to Classical Music.
Today I was playing a Columbia lp that had just been cleaned of Charles Rosen playing late Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Specifically I was listening to Beethoven’s last Sonata, Op.111. The second and final movement has very long trills, great arcing trills that tend to dissolve into arpeggiated chords in the highest octaves and played at various shadings of the pppp range. A great performance and recording can make you afraid to breathe because you don’t want to break the spell, and Rosen ( a noted scholar and author of the Classical period besides being a great musician ) had me transported there.
And then it happened. With perhaps a minute to go, as I was in rapture, a loud POP! and then the music stopped. Apparently my turntable, a Technics direct drive, when it can’t track a divot in a groove, stops playing and the tone arm lifts up. I grabbed a magnifying glass and there is a visible interruption of the vinyl surface.
It was every thing that I have ever hated about vinyl crystallized in a moment.
This record was as presumably clean as it will ever get. I just picked it up from the business that cleans it, and provided a new MoFi inner sleeve as part of the service . I am not blaming the service. I had never played the lp before getting it cleaned, but the other lps that I had cleaned the same day came back in great shape.
I will never probably play this lp again. It was like having great sex and then having the husband knock on the bedroom door with the stock of his shotgun.
I am now listening to a CD of Jonathan Biss playing Op.111, but the magic of the moment is gone
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Correct @mahler123, a record defect has nothing to do with the system. The only solution is to get another copy of that record if you can. Occasionally something gets stuck on the surface of the record and you can flick it off with a fingernail. But, if the vinyl has been damaged the only solution is a new record. | ||
Two things might solve the problem. 1. look for a boulder stuck in the groove where the problem occurs. a. spin platter slowly, watch the position relative of the paper label to help you find it. b. alcohol wipe: get that bolder out of there. play, problem gone? 2. . your arm/cartridge’s setup. all must be precisely done a. TT level (check at platter, AND check at base of arm (verify arm is mounted level with the deck) b. remove any anti-skate force, (last thing to do) c. cartridge/stylus tip: set overhang (for that arm, _____? MM in front of spindle). d. Null points (2). (for that arm). Look down from above, see the cartridge body relative to the null point lines. Look sideways, position of the arm/cartridge the stylus tip at the indicated line. Adjust the cartridge body in the headshell, so that it’s body is parallel to the lines at both null point lines. (i.e. twist cartridge left or right in the headshell). (do not move cartridge forward or back, i.e. do not alter the overhang, double check the overhang). c. arm height. remove any tracking force, use big weight to level the arm when in playing position. Note, the cartridge/arm will be very slightly up when cue lever is down, arm floating. the arm should be parallel to the lp when the and stylus is in the groove. d. set tracking force. use digital stylus force meter to get the tracking force in the middle of the range specified by the cartridge maker. LP off the TT, the scales are the thickness of an LP. e. Azimuth, viewed from the front. lp off, a mirror the thickness of an lp, placed below the stylus. ANY deviation from ’straight’ will be reflected ’opposite’ in the mirror, (easier to see). adjust so that there is no off vertical. IF not straight, solutions: 1. shims above one side of the cartridge 2. some play when the removable headshell is tightened. 3. arm has a set screw at the headshell mount: loosen, rotate to straight, tighten 4. buy a headshell with azimuth adjustment, like ’Pat’s adjustable azimuth on ebay. By hook or crook, azimuth is correct. f. balance the arm: use the big weight to balance the arm, lever down. (arm very slightly up, will drop down to level when lowered onto the LP. g, add tracking force. set in the middle of the maker’s range for that cartridge. i.e. maker says: 1.25 tp 1.75, set at 1.5 gm Now the arm should be parallel when the stylus is in the groove. h. last: anti-skate force. 1. spin the platter when on a blank disc with no grooves, it should naturally ’skate’ into the center. this is what anti-skate’s opposite force will eliminate. Generally the anti-skate needs to be equal to the tracking force. You cannot trust the anti-skate dials. Add some anti-skate force, spin the platter, watch, add more/less force until the arm does not pull in or pull out. spin a few times, adjust as needed. DONE!
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My tools for cartridge alignments:
CARTRIDGE ALIGNMENT
3,529 posts I put this together in another discussion. Not meant to scare you, or anyone starting out, just to encourage everyone to learn, bit by bit, and acquire the simple tools and skills to change/align your cartridges after the first one is worn, (typically elliptical, avg. 250 hours play time. If you get hooked on vinyl, which I suspect is a high probability: .............................................
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