At the outset, i want to thank mpw for selling me this beautiful TT. I have now been using this for almost 2 years now with mixed results about its SQ. This made me to explore more as this particular TT did not seem that bad as it sounded. In the past 2 weeks, i did a bit of research on what tweak parameters would have a significant impact on the SQ and tried to address them one by one by doing nothing fancy but try my luck.
1. Turntable Mats: I found out that felt, rubber, cork and leather mats are used in most turntables. Since i had some leather at home, i DIY a mat out of that. The leather mat had a profound impact on the sound stage with increased bass, more clarity and detail and low noise. The leather mat also helps in reduced static built-up. The leather portion sits on the platter and the record sits on the smooth surface. The leather mat also helped in aligning the tonearm with the record as its thickness is around 2 mm less than the rubber mat.
https://ibb.co/gYZeGa
2. Disk stabilizer: I had some glass crystal candle holders with me, which i am now using as a disk stabilizer. This weighs around 205 grams and sits snugly on top of the record. The disk stabilizer helps to grip the record firmly with the platter and in turn helps to reduce resonance. FMs who wish to DIY can try using some kind of a porcelain bowl fit to size if they wish to experiment.
The SQ improvement is very subtle and cannot be distinguished with and without the disk stabilizer. Maybe on wrapped records it will perform better with the disk stabilizer.
3. Isolators: Removing the isolation spike from the bottom of the Technics TT and putting them on a plywood and then placing the Techincs TT on the plywood. By this i get the spiked isolation and also the original rubber + spring isolation from the TT. This also helped in improving resonance property of the TT and overall SQ improvement. Also balanced the TT using a spirit level.
https://ibb.co/jMm4hF
4. Phono Pre-amp: The Phono pre-amp had a power supply hum though barely audible was driving me nuts when the tracks changed. With music it was not audible but nevertheless present. I added 2 Serson 3300 mfd capacitor at the powersupply +/- rail and fine tuned the DC offset of the PSU and the hum completely vanished.
To conclude these minor tweaks along with cleaning of some of my record collection with soap/ water and carefully storing them in the record sleeve provided by FM Shafic ensured good enjoyment of Vinyls again.
Now, i will require to download one of the cartridge alignment protractor from vinylengine.com to align the cartridge azimuth once again.
Thanks for looking!
1. Turntable Mats: I found out that felt, rubber, cork and leather mats are used in most turntables. Since i had some leather at home, i DIY a mat out of that. The leather mat had a profound impact on the sound stage with increased bass, more clarity and detail and low noise. The leather mat also helps in reduced static built-up. The leather portion sits on the platter and the record sits on the smooth surface. The leather mat also helped in aligning the tonearm with the record as its thickness is around 2 mm less than the rubber mat.
https://ibb.co/gYZeGa
2. Disk stabilizer: I had some glass crystal candle holders with me, which i am now using as a disk stabilizer. This weighs around 205 grams and sits snugly on top of the record. The disk stabilizer helps to grip the record firmly with the platter and in turn helps to reduce resonance. FMs who wish to DIY can try using some kind of a porcelain bowl fit to size if they wish to experiment.
The SQ improvement is very subtle and cannot be distinguished with and without the disk stabilizer. Maybe on wrapped records it will perform better with the disk stabilizer.
3. Isolators: Removing the isolation spike from the bottom of the Technics TT and putting them on a plywood and then placing the Techincs TT on the plywood. By this i get the spiked isolation and also the original rubber + spring isolation from the TT. This also helped in improving resonance property of the TT and overall SQ improvement. Also balanced the TT using a spirit level.
https://ibb.co/jMm4hF
4. Phono Pre-amp: The Phono pre-amp had a power supply hum though barely audible was driving me nuts when the tracks changed. With music it was not audible but nevertheless present. I added 2 Serson 3300 mfd capacitor at the powersupply +/- rail and fine tuned the DC offset of the PSU and the hum completely vanished.
To conclude these minor tweaks along with cleaning of some of my record collection with soap/ water and carefully storing them in the record sleeve provided by FM Shafic ensured good enjoyment of Vinyls again.
Now, i will require to download one of the cartridge alignment protractor from vinylengine.com to align the cartridge azimuth once again.
Thanks for looking!
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