A Beginner's Guide to Cartridge Setup

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A Beginner's Guide to Cartridge Setup.

Access Link: A Beginner's Guide to Cartridge Setup

Covers the following:

1. Installation
2. Wiring
3. Tracking Weight
4. Arm Height
5. Alignment
6. Azimuth
7. Tracking Weight: Revisited
8. Aniti-Skate
9. Arm Height: Part 2
10. Final Adjustments

Some additional links for Tonearm Balancing and Cart Alignment with illustrations:

https://kb.wisc.edu/wsum/page.php?id=20270

http://www.found-music.com/analogsetup.html

http://www.soundfountain.com/amb/ttadjust.html
 
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A good one but out of personal experience, I suggest only those who have some level of experience in TTs to go there. If you get the alignment wrong, then things will go from bad to worse. Carts are very delicate and require nimble fingers and knowledgeable handling. Nevertheless, if you are seasoned campaigner, should be a cake walk. For the newbies, listen to the music and observe your TT when it plays. People may laugh at you sitting and admiring your TT playing but that's a good way to learn. Watch how the stylus lands on the record, moves through the grooves, how it feels the record, how the tonearm moves, how the tonearm appears and the relevance of its adjustments (all you need is basic 8th or 9th standard science knowledge to understand this). Once you have a fair understanding of what you see, then read up some more theory and try to relate what you read to what you see. Then try to get a knowledgeable friend to show you the actual thing - changing a cart, wiring your headshell, calibrating your arm, etc. Then under supervision, try out a few of these by yourself. By the time you go through a few of these, you'll be a knowledgeable master :)
 
A good one but out of personal experience, I suggest only those who have some level of experience in TTs to go there. If you get the alignment wrong, then things will go from bad to worse. Carts are very delicate and require nimble fingers and knowledgeable handling. Nevertheless, if you are seasoned campaigner, should be a cake walk. For the newbies, listen to the music and observe your TT when it plays. People may laugh at you sitting and admiring your TT playing but that's a good way to learn. Watch how the stylus lands on the record, moves through the grooves, how it feels the record, how the tonearm moves, how the tonearm appears and the relevance of its adjustments (all you need is basic 8th or 9th standard science knowledge to understand this). Once you have a fair understanding of what you see, then read up some more theory and try to relate what you read to what you see. Then try to get a knowledgeable friend to show you the actual thing - changing a cart, wiring your headshell, calibrating your arm, etc. Then under supervision, try out a few of these by yourself. By the time you go through a few of these, you'll be a knowledgeable master :)


To add to the above, a lot of continuous reading, watching you tube videos and actual turntable observation really helps. I practically did this for quite a while which brought in a lot of confidence in me. In-fact I still remember I changed my first cartridge on my own without any help and it was actually not that difficult followed by all alignments. A lot of reading in this forum via historical threads was extremely helpful as well. I did so much reading that my first attempt of RCA soldering was on me Technics 1200 (I know I am crazy :D) and it was one hell of a job but successful....I guess beginners luck :). Actually now, it aint that complicated at all that's cauz I've done my time on the above....

Actually now, setting up a TT is quite alright but I tell you, cleaning your records is a back breaker and I just hate that part cauz no matter how much experience you have that my friend is a shocker and remains a shocker!!!
 
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the solution to this problem was an easy one for me - got a wife who helps with the cleaning :yahoo:

Aint that lovely. From the time we've gotten to know each other and also reading by your threads, I see that your whole family is passionate about music and equipment. Specifically to mentioned that the Mrs. has equal interest in all this as you. She knows her stuff too....from record players to phonostages :).

So is my familia but the Mrs. is allergic to dust and you can image how some of these old records reach us :sad: so its just me with the cleaning in some corner of the house :(
 
Rueben is planning to visit me in Feb and Mrs is also coming along. I will demo my record cleaning method to them and I am sure they are going to enjoy their music better if the method is adopted
 
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