Not Enjoying My Turntable


I purchased a u-turn orbit plus six months back to get into the experience of vinyl and collecting again. So far I have enjoyed the process of album buying and the tactile experience of vinyl. However, I just am not happy with the sound. Generally I have always enjoyed playing music with the treble turned up. Maybe because of some hearing loss I don't know. Also, I have had some problems with the turntable. The needle skips and to me the sound is muffled.

I am sure I could fix some of these problems with a equalizer and some troubleshooting with the turntable but am I just chasing the dragon here? In short am I doing something wrong.
128x128brimel1974

Showing 2 responses by inna

Skips and muffled sound suggest dirty stylus, very dirty even.
Too much tracking force can also cause skips, but not muffled sound, I guess. I played with anti-skate with my set up, from min. to max. Sound was changing significantly but there were no skips.
Aligning cartridge by ear is theoretically possible but would take a lot of time unless you got very lucky. I thought about it but abandoned this idea.
If someone doesn't tolerate ticks and pops and crackles and scraping and whatever at all, better not go into vinyl. The best sounding pressings I have are not in best condition, but I prefer listening to them to other copies that I have that sound worse, even slightly worse.
I don't really enjoy vinyl routine but I do what must be done, besides, I am a tape man not vinyl man. Records do feel better than tape, though.