Robert Brook runs a blog called The Broken Record, with a subtitle explaining that the aim of his blog is to serve as:
A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE
We know of none better, outside of our own humble attempt to enlighten that portion of the audiophile community who love hearing music reproduced with the highest fidelity and are willing to go the extra mile to make that happen.
A customer of ours writes about finally getting his turntable, arm and cartridge set up properly, thanks to Robert’s inspiration.
After reading Robert’s blogs, I got the courage to do it. Never messed with that stuff before.
Never again will I let someone else do the setup. Holy crap!
The cartridge was snug on the headshell so I left that alone. Checked azimuth to the best I could with a mirror and a lighted magnifying glass.
The stylus and reflection appeared to line up vertically. Left it alone.
l reset the balance of the tonearm, zeroed out the counterweight, set VTF to 2 grams on the counterweight and used a digital scale to measure VTF. Set it at 2.00. Recommended by manufacturer.
Set the anti-skating to match VTF. They matched up beautifully.
OK, feeling good about what I am doing.
The outfit that set up my turntable had the VTF set to heavy and the anti-skating set on the wrong setting.
Ready to test my handiwork…. Put a Hot Stamper on the turntable, turned up the volume a bit and sat down in my sweet spot.
Needle dropped onto record. Holy Smokes! I could not believe how much better the sonic quality was right off the bat.
The overall soundfield, bottom to top, midrange area, the 3-D effect of everything was so much more brilliant, alive and absolutely amazing.
Jackpot! The adjustment worked and taught me to learn to do it myself.
Thank you Tom and Robert!
Mike
Mike, that’s great to hear. Now all your records will sound better, and it didn’t cost you a dime to make that happen.
Thanks for writing,
TP
Robert’s Approach
Robert has methodically and carefully — one might even say scientifically — approached the various problems he’s encountered in this hobby by doing the following:
- Improving his equipment,
- Teaching himself how to do a better job of dialing in his turntable setup.
- Learning how to do controlled shootouts for his favorite albums, and, most importantly,
- Being open to listening to someone who has been doing the above three for decades.
Further Reading