DIAMOND CHECK If the mechanical adjustments are not correctly made a distorted signal will be the result. If you have done your best and distortion persists, and it is not caused by the maltreated record groove, you should check the diamond tip of the cartridge or have it checked by a professional.

A used diamond has at its very tip very small facets that cannot be seen with the naked eye. They are at the end of the tip and not on the sides above the groove as many do expect when checking a tip. These facets let the tip act as a chisel that will "cut" the grooves, especially the grooves which contain high dynamics.

If you play with a good tip and if down force and side thrust are well adjusted, than you can listen to your records many and many times without the quality diminishing. A FINAL WORD ABOUT THE CONDITION OF THE LP AND THE ENJOYMENT OF THE MUSIC CHOOSE THE BEST HEADSHELL If you use a tone arm with e detachable headshell, you can optimize the sound reproduction by choosing the headshell which will give the best harmonics, the best attack and transient and the most even frequency curve. The main feature of aluminum is that it does not send the energy back to the cartridge. The transmission and dying out is also relatively fast. Generally aluminum provides a wide frequency band. Magnesium or a mix of aluminum and magnesium can provide a more controlled signal reading. The high frequencies are more precise. .

Another most important point is that the headshell has to be screwed as tightly as possible. If this is not done the sound will loose precision and the transient will be impaired. You can check this by playing a high quality guitar recording.

Also The Turntable Mat does influence greatly the precise reproduction. AUDIOPHILE REPRODUCTION Music lovers with excellent sound reproducing systems often use expensive phono cartridges. A price tag of $ 1000 or even $ 4000 for a cartridge is no exception. Naturally these music lovers demand that the gramophone record is of the highest quality: no scratches and the groove must be clean and undamaged. HISTORIC PERFORMANCES There is a second category of collectors who go for specific artists and performances. They are primarily concerned with the authenticity of the performance and the originality of the recording. Minor imperfections are often unavoidable and are accepted. Yet even collectors demand good reproduction without irritating distortion.

Maybe you fall into both categories and can enjoy the perfect and overwhelming rendering of a beautifully recorded symphony, opera and concert, but also can listen with great involvement to an old imperfect record. CHOOSING THE RIGHT SYSTEM For the older records a monaural cartridge with a spherical tip in combination with the appropriate mass of the arm and the appropriate down force is needed. Sometimes one encounters a very old mono record from the early nineteen fifties which will sound very well when played with a crystal pick up and a downforce of even 8 gr. Some old Deutsche Grammophon or Philips discs can benefit from this approach. I also have discovered that old Remington discs sound rather well on an old Garrard portable gramophone with a small tube amplifier. I once encountered an old 4 record set of Tchaikovsky's Yevgeniy Onegin on an early Soviet label which did not sound at all with a Denon DL-103 in a rather heavy arm, but revealed all its intensity and beauty with that same Garrard portable. CHOOSE ANOTHER TOPIC

RIGHT CONNECTIONS OF HEADSHELL WIRES - COLOR CODE The position of the connecting pins at the back of the cartridge varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. The connections for the cartridge wires on the inside of the head shell however always have the same configuration if a standard SME type shell is used. Make the correct connections for the leads. Otherwise the reproduction will not be in true stereo. This tone arm/headshell wiring diagram shows you how to. Also the headphone and the loudspeakers should be connected correctly. If not, the rendering of the musicians in the middle of the orchestra or the jazz formation will not occur because the middle part of the image is on the outside of each channel / speaker and will not 'connect' acoustically. CHOOSE ANOTHER TOPIC

CARTRIDGE LOADING Is the sound shrill and are the high frequencies accentuated? Or is the sound too dull and lacks transparency?

In any case you should check the loading of the cartridge. The phono input of your (pre-) amplifier should have the right capacitance to meet a specific moving magnet cartridge. The higher the capacitance the duller the sound. So check the specifications of amplifier and cartridge given by the manufacturers.

A moving coil cartridge should be connected to a phono pre-preamplifier which has an input impedance of at least 2 1/2 times the value of the impedance of the cartridge's coils.

The impedance of the input of a step-up transformer should be the same or slightly higher than the value of the coils of the cartridge.

Check the specifications of the cartridge and the specs of your (pre-) amplifier or step-up transformer, and see if they match. PLAYBACK CHARACTERISTICS Before the RIAA playback characteristic was generally adopted, record companies cut their records as they thought would make the music sound best on their own equipment.

Today there are phono stages on the market which enable you to adjust (equalize) the right characteristic for the playback of a variety of vintage records. There are cheap ones of about a few hundred dollars which only do the job in mono and are sonically rather average. The really good ones enable you to equalize all sorts of mono and stereo records meticulously. But these are very expensive. RECORD CLAMP / WEIGHT / STABILIZING RING A record clamp or record weight will improve the contact of record and turntable mat. Vibrations and all sorts of resonances will have lesser chance to be generated. False high frequencies will not occur. The overall signal will be more precise and the sound will have less distortion. View: The Universal Record Center Stabilizer Weight. Eliminating distortion means improving the signal.

A Record Stabilizing Ring (RSR) which rests on the periphery of the record, eliminates distortion a step further and improves the purity of the signal. View: The Universal Record Stabilizing Ring. AVOID ACOUSTICAL AND MECHANICAL FEEDBACK If you live in a house/apartment with concrete floors, you can use an audio rack with spikes to support your turntable. If you want a good coupling make small holes in the carpet and place the spikes directly on the concrete. Always choose a 4-legged rack. A 3-legged one will not give firm support to amplifiers, players and turntables because on the side where there is only one leg, the corners of the shelves will not be supported and will have a resonance (bending mode). Avoid glass shelves. Have shelves made of plywood or just use chipboard which has a make believe plastic veneer or similar pattern. That is in my view a good material. I myself do not use MDF because of its uneven frequency characteristic. Furthermore it stops the sound energy instead of dissipating it. (Do not use MDF for loudspeaker cabinets either, unless you glue three or four layers together for the baffle of the cabinet and brace the inside walls of the cabinet.) If you do not have a concrete floor, you can have a special shelf mounted on the wall (with strong bolts). Do not use more than one decoupling device. Do not stack cones, rubber feet, etc. If you have a turntable with a suspended sub chassis (Thorens, Linn, etc.) do not put the base on another spring or rubber insulator. Couple the table directly to the shelf. TAKE CARE OF YOUR RECORDS To get the best quality of reproduction it is imperative to take care of the records. That is why records need cleaning from time to time. If you do not have access to a professional Keith Monks Record Cleaning Machine, which provides the most efficient way to safely clean records, you can buy a DISCO ANTISTAT, with which you bathe and brush the two sides of the record and then let the record dry. If you use the cleaning liquid for which you will read the recipe at the bottom of this page, the results will be very effective. After cleaning and drying put each and every record in a clean inner sleeve If you are handy you also can repair the covers to a certain extend and also clean them. See: Record Cleaning. LONG LIVE VINYL Install the record player in such a way that you can easily access and use it, that is: low enough not to scratch a disc when putting it on the platter. Always look at the record when putting the record on the platter, lowering and lifting the arm and taking the record off after play. Never look away, but concentrate on what you are doing. This will diminish the risk of damaging the record. Also keep the records as clean and dust free as possible. Fingerprints, dust and grease are the enemies of your records... and of your ears. All these measures do not only give maximal enjoyment but will also result in a longer life of the diamond tip of the cartridge. By using good equipment the record will keep its current quality, even after many hundreds of playings and for another hundred years! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Want to know the technical specifications of cartridges? Go check this CARTRIDGE DATABASE. Not for all cartridges in this database the pF (capacitance) values of the MM cartridges are given. The best way is to determine the best match with a specific (pre-)amplifier of which you have the specifications of the Phono Input and add it to the capacitance of the phono cable you use. If necessary choose a cable with less capacitance or a cable with a higher pF.