I just want to report back what I did.
I spent the past weekend readjusting everything of the JMW 10.5. I increased the tracking to 1.85g. I also tried 1.9g as suggested by VPI but I found the piano lost some of its resonance. I like it better at 1.85g. VTA was adjusted using the tube level method I described in another post. I twisted the arm wire counterclockwise two turns and warmed it with a hair dryer until it formed a nice smooth arc. I lowered the arm base so that the arm bearing barely touched the damping oil. To adjust the azimuth, I lowered the Helikon onto the back (glassy) side of a one-sided 45-rpm record, looked thought a 10x magnifying glass, and adjusted the azimuth ring until the reflection of the stylus and the stylus lined up.
So what was the result? Well, track 6 was as beautiful as before, very stable, pure tone, absolutely no problem. There was improvement on track 7. The right channel still buzz a little but the buzz faded in and out. It sounded like it was at the edge, almost sail through but not quite. It still jump track on 8, no change. I don’t know what else I can do to improve it. I am afraid this might be the tracking limit of the Helikon with the JMW.
Anyone got better results?
