Quandry


About a year ago I bought a new turntable (Dr. Feikert Volare) and complementary equipment. I had it assembled by a local technician as I have two left thumbs when it comes to DIY. (I know this is not a good trait for a turntable owner to have.)
I’ve been dissatisfied with the sound for some time. But I recently discovered that by tweaking the anti-skating, the sound improved dramatically. I’m now wondering what other parameters have changed during the past year.
So, not being able to tweak those other parameters myself I’m thinking of hiring the technician to come to my home to work on it. Since it sounds so good now, I’m wondering if it’s worth the expense. (He won’t be cheap.)

128x128rvpiano

+1 on Mike Trei. When I lived in NY, he was my go to for turntable set up and cartridge mounting/alignment. Sure, I knew how to do it, but Mike made it look easy and dialed everything in with no travails. When I moved to Texas, there was no set up maestro so I soldiered on myself. But if I had access to Mike, I’d still use him. Where is @rvpiano located?

Stirling Trayle, on the West Coast, is supposed to be good, but I’ve never used him. And I’m sure there are others, depending on location. Well worth the modest expenditure to get it right.

 

 

 

I’m in New York.
But the guy I go to is super good too, and he’s ten minutes from my house.

Anyway, I’m currently listening to audiophile records (something I wasn’t previously doing) and they sound spectacular. I might not need any adjustments.

Further down the rabbit hole.

@rvpiano ,

You avoid that hole by learning how to deal with a turntable. No adjustment is permanent. Poorly adjusted anti skating can cause mistracking, severity depending on the cartridge, which can make things sound pretty bad and also damage your records permanently. 

You need to be able to check VTF and antiskating for sure. All this requires is the right tools, a tracking force gauge and a WallySkater. The WallySkater is a bit pricey but it is foolproof and very reassuring. You can leave cartridge installation to your dealer although I personally do not trust any of them

@rvpiano I feel your pain. But I think @lewm is on the right track. Face your fear. Learn as much as can from Michael Fremer’s several videos on YouTube and elsewhere. Ortophon also has some excellent tutorials, explanations, demonstrations, etc. I costs nothing but your time to learn what adjustments are critical to performance. Then decide whether to invest in an outside technician or tools. If technician, you pay for each cartridge or issue; if you do it yourself, you will need to invest in tools with which you may not be comfortable using, but if you can master them, you will be ultra confident and not at anyone’s mercy. I try to buy my equipment all ready setup, but the strategy has not been foolproof.
To sum it up, educate yourself, it’s not magic, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it all yourself. You can hire someone AND be confident the job’s been done right. It is the path I would prefer, but I would have to drive at least two hours round trip to get the service; and they certainly wouldn’t come to me. Good luck with your journey. 

If you like what you are hearing now, I would just back and enjoy rather than obsess about what you might be missing.  The trick is when to learn when you’ve crossed the finish line.  Enjoy the music that this system is meant to reproduce.

  A word about getting an “expert” to look at your system.  I was a Primary Care Physician.  I had many patients who would be absolutely stable on their present medical regimen.  For whatever reason they decided to see a new Cardiologist, Pulmonologist, whatever.  Frequently the consultant would tweak one medication, prescribing a substitute that did exactly the same thing.  Why?  The consultant needed to justify the time, expense, and effort that the patient had made in seeking them out.  I am sure that this goes on in other fields as well.  So if you invite someone into your home to evaluate your set up, with which you are currently pleased, I’d be shocked if if they said “It’s all good, don’t change anything “