2. analog
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I was sitting here....

listening to a few albums, and I had the feeling something was not quite right. So, I got out the level first, and found that somehow, I was quite a bit off. So, I leveled the Teres up, again. Still sounded a little funny. So, I put the level on the arm board. Perfect side-to-side, but way out front-to-back. So, I adjusted the cones, and tried it again. Well, then I realized that I forgot to make sure that the VTF & VTA were ok, so I checked and fixed that too.

Some of you may know that a group of us are waiting on delivery of one of Wally's finest tools. So, I have not even played the HFN test record yet, wanting to see how close I can get it by ear. I figured once "the tool" gets around to me, I'll have everything dialed in by ear, so I can test my hearing and set-up skills.

You also might know that I have a rather unconventional arm board on my Teres, that allows adjustment in EVERY direction. That's what the cones allow. If you haven't seen it, look at my system pics or my site @ jphii.com.

Where all of this is going is here: I put on Dire Straits "Brothers In Arms" an album that I keep finding new sounds in the background every time I play it. Well, I put it on after all of this screwing around and almost s*&t myself!

IT HAS NEVER SOUNDED THIS GOOD! PERIOD!

I was really amazed at the level of clarity and detail I found. Did I hear kettle drums in the background? Crickets? Rain? Wow. I knew that I wasn't getting that final bit out of my TT. But this just floored me. It is amazing what you can do with a level and a $20 Shure stylus force gauge. I can't wait to get "the tool" so I can put the finishing touch on it.

The moral of the story here is:

THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR NOT HAVING YOUR TABLE SET UP PROPERLY

A $20 gauge, a $5 level. Even when I moved the arm board around I did it by eye (I didn't really move it, I think, so I didn't take the arm off and use the template to reset it).

SO, before you do anything else, if you are worried about why your TT doesn't sound quite up to par, CHECK THE BASICS.
Learn from my mistakes, not yours!
jphii

Showing 1 response by scottht

scottht
398 posts
 
Here was my problem. A month or two ago I bought the Vpi HW19jr TT. I was using a Rogue Magnum M120/99 combo. Everything sounded real good. I got a bug up my ass to sell the 99 and I did. I bought a Blue Circle BC3.
Well, the BC3 took a day or two to get used too. Everything was going good until I started to crank the volume. The sound would just fall apart. So I was driving to work this morning and thinking about last night. I was sitting there listening to some tunes with the pre set at about 9 o'clock position and I had a water bottle in my hand. I could feel the water bottle vibrating in my hand.
The BC3 is much higher gain than my Rogue was, and I knew that was an issue. So I brought home from work these nice springs that would fit directly over the feet of the Vpi. Well, everything is good again. The sound doesn't break up anymore. Of course It is very hard to make volume changes with the TT on springs because the BC3 has dual volume controls that take a little effort to move.
So it looks like my day off tomorrow will be building a platform for my TT.
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