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  • Dodgy Turntable

    From Spectre@21:3/101 to Anyone on Thu Oct 6 19:43:00 2022
    So, #1 Son came home with a present that I suspect is from the "girlfriend"
    one of these dodgy turntables which promises everything from 45-78, and he
    has a lone LP to play on it. After some time footling about with it, he came out and said its a dud, I can hardly hear it.

    He was a little caught out by the fact its all it says it is, a turntable,
    not an amplifier. Made me laugh. Of course I've normally got 10 thousand
    leads of all sexes and persuasions, but what I need to get it to the local system is an RCA -> 3.5mm Jack, is missing. I suspect its still at the
    church from streaming days. In the end I had to feed it through the PC line
    in and out through the PC Sound, a long in the tooth Logitech 5.1 system.

    To my mind it sounds a little bit like an old roofing nail stuck in an ear trumpet, but it might be the rose coloured glasses making me think it should sound better. Its been some find reefing out old vinyl to give a whirl though..I hung onto the Vinyl even after I got rid of cassettes, still got a suitcase full of 78's somewhere.

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: A camel is a horse designed by a committee. (21:3/101)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Spectre on Thu Oct 6 09:16:00 2022
    Hello Spectre!

    ** On Thursday 06.10.22 - 19:43, Spectre wrote to Anyone:

    To my mind it sounds a little bit like an old roofing nail
    stuck in an ear trumpet, but it might be the rose coloured
    glasses making me think it should sound better. Its been
    some find reefing out old vinyl to give a whirl though..I
    hung onto the Vinyl even after I got rid of cassettes,
    still got a suitcase full of 78's somewhere.

    Maybe replace the cartidge/needle assembly too. The needle
    ideally should be replaced every few-hundred plays to maintain
    good sound and less damage to the vinyl.

    --- OpenXP 5.0.51
    * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Ogg on Fri Oct 7 08:18:00 2022
    Maybe replace the cartidge/needle assembly too. The needle ideally should be replaced every few-hundred plays to maintain good sound
    and less damage to the vinyl.

    Hmmm reminds me of a story my father told, you're meant to replace the needle on the gramophone after every play or were at the time. Being war time they only had one tin of needles, and couldn't get any more. But they religiously changed the needle after every play. <chuckle>

    I don't know where #1 son got this thing from or what it cost. But I think
    its just the nature of the beast. As the audio arrives from the turntable it has little bass in it, lots of high sratchy sounding stuff and mediocre mid frequencies. I don't think it'd qualify as remotely HI-FI. Probably really better off finding one thats 50 years old and banging a new stylus in it. The problem I keep running into with older systems is the speed control gets knackered and won't stay put, no idea what the cause for it is.

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: A camel is a horse designed by a committee. (21:3/101)
  • From Oli@21:3/102 to Spectre on Fri Oct 7 16:04:12 2022
    Spectre wrote (2022-10-07):

    I don't know where #1 son got this thing from or what it cost. But I think its just the nature of the beast. As the audio arrives from the turntable it has little bass in it, lots of high sratchy sounding stuff and
    mediocre mid frequencies. I don't think it'd qualify as remotely HI-FI. Probably really better off finding one thats 50 years old and banging a
    new stylus in it. The problem I keep running into with older systems is
    the speed control gets knackered and won't stay put, no idea what the
    cause for it is.

    These record players need a phono preamp for amplification and equalization.. Most amplifiers did have a phono input. There are also two standard MM and MC. ( https://vinylrestart.com/mm-vs-mc-phono-preamps-explained/ )

    If you connect your turntable to line-in without a preamp, it will always sound crappy.

    ⁂

    ---
    * Origin: War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. (21:3/102)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Spectre on Fri Oct 7 19:09:00 2022
    Hello Spectre!

    ** On Friday 07.10.22 - 08:18, Spectre wrote to Ogg:

    [...] The problem I keep running into with older systems is
    the speed control gets knackered and won't stay put, no
    idea what the cause for it is.

    Belt-drive turntable? If so, the belt is sure to be the cause
    as it dries up or the material becomes unstable over time.

    I had a belt-drive Technics SL-220 (something like that) which
    featured an adjustable speed control via a reference strobe
    light. Very gimicky. But over time, even the electronics for
    that controller started failing.


    --- OpenXP 5.0.51
    * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Ogg on Sun Oct 9 07:49:00 2022
    Belt-drive turntable? If so, the belt is sure to be the cause as

    The most common here appear to be direct drive rather than belt...I could probably pretty safely say I've never seen a belt drive model...

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: A camel is a horse designed by a committee. (21:3/101)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Spectre on Sat Oct 8 19:48:00 2022
    Hello Spectre!

    ** On Sunday 09.10.22 - 07:49, Spectre wrote to Ogg:

    The most common here appear to be direct drive rather than
    belt...I could probably pretty safely say I've never seen a
    belt drive model...

    Nice! I've never had the privilege of owning a direct-drive
    turntable. My understanding was that they never go wonky and
    operate quite steady at 33.3333rpm or 45rpm.

    --- OpenXP 5.0.51
    * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Ogg on Sun Oct 9 12:35:00 2022
    Nice! I've never had the privilege of owning a direct-drive
    turntable. My understanding was that they never go wonky and
    operate quite steady at 33.3333rpm or 45rpm.

    The older ones also still do 78. The problem seems to occur not with the
    speed itself, it stays reliable at whatever speed it ultimately gets stuck
    in, but they start to refuse to lock into a newly selected speed. For arg's sake one jammed at 45 will go to 78 but as soon as you let go the selector it drops straight back to the lower speed. You end up needing 3 turntables one for each speed. Never been able to find a fix for it.

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: A camel is a horse designed by a committee. (21:3/101)
  • From Ogg@21:4/106.21 to Spectre on Sun Oct 9 10:17:00 2022
    Hello Spectre!

    ** On Sunday 09.10.22 - 12:35, Spectre wrote to Ogg:

    [...] The problem seems to occur not with the speed itself,
    it stays reliable at whatever speed it ultimately gets
    stuck in, but they start to refuse to lock into a newly
    selected speed. [...] You end up needing 3 turntables one
    for each speed. Never been able to find a fix for it.

    I've never heard of that phenom. I would very much like to
    invest in a direct-drive table some day just for the experience
    of having tried it with some favourite LPs.


    --- OpenXP 5.0.51
    * Origin: Ogg's WestCoast Point (21:4/106.21)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Oli on Fri Oct 14 07:16:00 2022
    These record players need a phono preamp for amplification and equalization.. Most amplifiers did have a phono input. There are also two standard MM and MC. ( https://vinylrestart.com/mm-vs-mc-phono-preamps-explained/ )

    You learn something new every other day. It just took me a while to get a round-tuit and look into this. Phase one was looking for said pre-amp. Then
    I realised I no idea what the stylus type is. So I went looking for that,
    and the specs on the turntable mention it contains a pre-amp in there somewhere. I'll just have to look into the equaliser end of things and see what can be managed.


    https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/tempo-temtb3003-bluetooth-turntable#product -overview

    For what its worth, still not sure I'd classify it as hifi.

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: A camel is a horse designed by a committee. (21:3/101)