Trying a turntable-it sounds crappy, what's up??

"I almost threw up when I connected my turntable for the first time after a 15 year hiatus"

That is the best line of this thread :>

Psychicanimal/Inscrutable-Thanks for the info. So there may be hope to try this Technics table with a well chosen cartridge to at least help me get started to get the idea of what reasonable analog sounds like again.
If I like what I hear, I can get my own table, but will no doubt need some guidance. For instance, I was at the local midfi/semi-high end store here in town and they had a Music Hall that looked just fine to me, but what do I know.

All you guys have all been very informative.

>At any decent volume, the needle skids right off the platter!<

If this is happening, you have a problem. Acoustic feedback can indeed be a problem with a 'table placed incorrectly in a room. But what you describe is out of the ordinary. Don't blame what you hear on inherent problems with vinyl, investigate further.

Oz

Lk, I've already gone through the motions of modding a 1200. I know what does what. My initial suggestions still hold:

1) Oil
2) Sorbothane hemispheres
3) Cryo'ed outlet
4) Call Kevin

There's more you can do on the cheap, but start w/ the above.

***

I just found out from the owner tonight that he thinks he bought the turntable in mid 70's!!!!
He may be wrong as he was high most of the 70's, but at any rate it is an older model.
It was serviced here locally about five-six years ago but I cannot vouch for what they did.
He thinks the AT cartridge was bought about the same time but he cannot remember.
I took off the shell mount and cartridge and found out it is an AT12SaPQ model. I did a Google and it does not show up anywhere so I have no idea what quality it is/was.

Will contact Kevin for more info.
Thanks.

OK, I have a little more info FWIW and also wish to share a little experience I had today.
I got some info on the cartridge from Kevin at KAB and also an A-goner in another thread.

Anyway-will maybe try a different cartridge to see what things sound like. Kevin at KAB beleives that the SL-1900 will provide pretty decent sound with the right cartridge and if things are set up correctly.

In order to learn a little more firsthand I went to a local midfi, sort of high end store today. They had four different turntables set up with different systems.
An entry level Music Hall, a Music Hall MMF 5 with the stock cartridge, a Project 1 Xpressions, and something else.

Out of curiousity I asked to hear the Music Hall MMF 5 that was running through a midfi Denon receiver and was playing through some average monitors, no sub.

The sound was smooth, but boxy, and small soundstage. Not real impressed.

I then went to another room where they has the Project
1 Xpression TT with a Sumiko basic cartridge. It was running through a Musical Fidelity A308 Integrated Amp and was playing through some multi driver large JM Labs speakers. The sound was smooth, but again the soundstage was small and I was not thinking this is great or anything.

In fact it was not that much better than this Technics with this mystery AT cartridge that I am borrowing.

For yucks, I also listened to the Musical Fidelity A308 CD player hooked up to the system. That was impressive-huge soundstage, depth, clarity, extension on both ends, blah, blah, blah.
Slightly edgy compared to the turntable as the source on the same int amp/speakers but that was only element that might have been better from the TT.

Anyway,the Music Hall TT may have been hampered by the basic system it was hooked up to. The Project 1 Xpression should have performed better as it was in a very nice system. I think the Music Hall was listed a $629 and the Project 1 at $400+ something.