@oldrooney Any joy with trying different turntable placement?
Rumble showed up on NEW record???
So I bought my first new record in years, in fact I bought several of them at once at my local Cracker Barrel. (Doesn’t everybody buy records at Cracker Barrel?) What caught my eye was the newly re-mastered Revolution album, and there was Abbey Road by the same crew, and Thriller by Michael Jackson, an Eagle’s Double Album. When I got them home, and had the time, I dropped the Revolution album on, but two things were immediately obvious: (1) There was a terrible rumble preventing me from getting much volume at all out of the speakers, (2) The anti-skate was much two strong; I couldn’t even get it to play the last two tracks on side 1, the stylus pulled out of the groove and slid back toward track 1.
I pulled the phono leads out of my pre-amp phono inputs and inserted my ELAC phono stage into the chain into a line input on the pre-amp. The ELAC had a rumble filter, but it had no effect.
I don’t use my turntable often, but it has a new Sumiko high-output moving coil cartridge installed, the Songbird, and it doesn’t have many miles on it yet. It was professionally installed for me, and until my experience with the Revolution album, it worked just fine. I was very pleased. The anti-skate, however, is not easily adjustable: just a small weight on a very fine piece of fishing line. I could add weight easily, but taking it off would require disassembly, replacement of the weight, and reassembly. Frankly I found the antI-skate the most difficult part of the setup the Music Hall 5.3.
The only change to the system that might contribute to the rumble is the installation of the new (to me) Bowers & Wilkins 801 Series 2 speakers. There is a lot more sound pressure in the room when those babies fire up. The turntable is mounted on top of the Yggdrasil DAC, next to the Madrigal PDT3 on a shelf fastened securely to an internal wall.
I bought the Music Hall turntable because I couldn’t get my older Numark PTT-1 DJ table quiet. It tumbled too when I had it on top of my Cerwin-Vega floor standers. Moving the turntable away from the speakers, even a little bit, solved that rumble problem.
Anyway, interested in your suggestions and thoughts on the issue(s) described above. The record is still on the table, I just got discouraged and left it there.
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@noromance Not yet. We are ‘in the process’ right now. I dug the existing turntable out of its hole atop the DAC, adjusted the VTA (think it did come with an adjustment tool, but I used a ball-end 3mm Allen key). I removed the ELAC phono stage. The turntable came with high-quality, directional, and short, RCA cables, so remotely locating on the current main system isn’t what I want to do right now. I’ve been dealing with a case of poison ivy, so, in a couple of days I expect to get it swapped out. |
Update: Modified a standard 3mm hex key such that the ‘key’ end would fit in a 1/2 inch slot and was able to adjust the VTA properly without marring the mounting cup. Whatever height you set the VTA you still have to cope with the inset cup which puts the socket head screw below the main deck height. I thought I had the original tool in the packaging in which I received the turn table, but that was not the case. Still have to spin the disk which brought the issue to my attention, but I am confident that I now have the tools to deal with it. Looking forward to equipping my all-analog system with a new set of speakers and a suitable amp in the near future. May look into a single-ended triode, or repurpose my Rogue Audio Stereo 100. |
To wrap this thread up, @noromance I found there wasn’t a problem money couldn’t solve. I bought a Pangea Vulcan turntable stand from Audio Advice. It arrived two days later, assembled easily, and seems quite stable. Added a 2nd shelf for storing records, so I have room for 200 in all, which pretty much my entire collection. The turntable is now installed on my system upstairs. The ‘Revolver’ album played flawlessly, warp and all; as did Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. I miss the phono stage on my MC100 downstairs, and I hear a faint hiss from the speakers with the Freya+ in control, but the new (to me) XRT20s a singing a sweet, mellow, and full sound. There is an annoying hum when I touch the tone arm, but I touch the Freya while I’m doing anything, and it subsides to an acceptable level. I am enjoying the easy access the upstairs system affords me. And I’m using my Oppo BDP-105D to its full potential, playing CDs, streaming (Pandora for now), and as. DAC for my phone or other sources as needed. @ghdprentice you were right about the VTA tool shipping with the unit, it’s listed in the User Manual I finally got around to printing out. I wound up fashioning my own by grinding the short end of a 3mm Allen key down even shorter. The length has to be exactly right: small enough to slip into the mounting ‘cup’ and long enough to fully seat itself. I stopped grinding when the OD got to 1/2”. Taped it unobtrusively to plinth. |
Good to hear, @oldrooney There's always a solution. |
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