Old Stylus New Vinyl

So my kid buys new vinyl and we placed some of it
on my older vintage 1970s equipment and the results
were hiss. My guess is the newer pressings are not
compatible with older styluses or even the styluses
that currently mate with older turntables. I know
because I just bought one new and no difference.

Reason for question? I'd like to give her one of the
old turntables as an alternative to her iPod and have
something for her records. Kinda dumb to buy a new
turntable when the old ones still work. Well kinda.

Suggestions? Thanks.

 

I use an older turntable. My stylus is new, cartridge is old. My collection is about half new/half old. Old equipment has no problem playing new records or old records as long as we're talking standard vinyl and not something oddball. Re: styli, styli wear out over time. Even NOS styli often end up with dried out rubber suspensions and such.

 

Fit a new cartridge . At95e £30 will bring a smile to you.
Next up is how good is your pre/ phono stage.
Vinyl is vinyl.old or new turntables should perform well.

 

The older turntable may not your problem. Look at your amp next. There were plenty of great turntables in the 70's, but there were some pretty bad ones too. What kind of turntable do you have? Did you replace just the stylus or the whole cartridge? What did you buy? I've seen the quality of replacement stylii go downhill, especially the aftermarket ones. I've found that an original brand replacement stylus is best.
There's nothing wrong with many of the light-tracking vintage turntables. The turntable I use with my home theater system is a mid-70's Accutrac +6 and it is fitted with one of the best reasonably priced cartridges, the Shure M97Xe.

 

Thanks for the replies, gang. The turntable
is one of those rather generic Technics DC
Servos and the stylus a new Shure, dunno
the cartridge. So, cartridge is suspect?

 

No shure cartridges are fine. What make stylus? Jico are superb.bring sa smile to your face .

 

Something wrong here. Is 'hiss' really an accurate description of what you were hearing?

Are you saying that old, used vinyl does not produce hiss?

When was the last time you used your turntable?

 

Its difficult without hearing what you are experiencing. As long as stylus is genuine , and not substandard replacement . All should be well. A test record ie Hi-fi news, is always a good idea as you can test your turntable and if necessary optimise it.
Phono connectors can become seriously tarnished over the years. The fuses and pins on mains plugs also. I regularly clean mine and it can make a huge difference !

 

I'm pretty certain there has been no significant change made in stylus profiles since the days of your vintage 1970s equipment. The equipment used to cut modern records is pretty much the same as well - with one exception being DMM cutting, which is used a lot these days in Europe.

 

If you don't know the cartridge make/model, how do you know you've got the right stylus?

 

My system is half-decent; a McIntosh tuner and amp from The Early '80s
mixed with some crap. Updating as I go. Turntable is an old Technics, a
Shure needle, unknown cartridge, can't get to it easily as it's stacked.

Connected the Technics to her system, a real crappy hand-me-down Hitachi
all-in-one cheapie, grounded.

No matter which system is used, her vinyl has a trebly hiss with less bottom,
whereas my old vinyl plays fine no matter what. More than one of her copies
does this. Yet hers plays fine on one of those cheap new compacts, as does
mine. Odd, I know.

 

I replaced what was in there, a Shure, with same. Never changed the original cartridge.

 

Can you name a few of her LPs that don't play correctly on your old turntable? Are they thicker than your old LPs and maybe the cartridge body is scraping the record and distorting the sound? Because your old LPs are cut with the same microgroove as modern LPs. I have hundreds of LPs cut from the 1950s up until now and they all play fine on the same equipment. The microgroove has been the standard LP groove since 1948.

What was the model number of the stylus you purchased?

 

"Hi it's me I'm back! This is The Central Scruuuuuuuutinizer!"

"Hiss": Treble distortion. Bottom seems fine. Almost sounds as if needle isn't in groove.
I've managed to do this in the past; the needle quickly corrects and falls into groove.
The "hiss" here, however, ONLY occurs with her vinyl. Not a contacts issue.
I've replicated this phenom on two turntables. Weird, I know.

Turntable Use: Very infrequent.

Stylus: Shure, unknown Model
Cartridge: Technics P23
LPs: Of Monsters and Men, "My Head Is an Animal"; Arctic Monkeys, "Suck It and See" ( oh dear. )

The vinyl is thicker than some of my LPs but the cartridge is not "dragging".

Thanks for the responses.

 

you plugged the turntable into "a crappy all-in-one Hitachi..."
Line input or Phono input?
Phono input is correct, in this case...

Line input would give a trebly hiss with no low end, as you describe...

 

Make sure that you are plugging the TT into a phono input on the amp. Plugging it into line level will create what you are describing along with the need to really crank the volume to get any appreciable loudness out of the speakers.

 

That was my thought , is there a phono input on this setup ?

 

Nah I didn't do something THAT dumb but thanks for the responses.

As I said, I also tried her stuff out on our system downstairs which does
have some high-end components AND I've read around here about issues
with newer vinyl. It doesn't explain why they play fine on the USB TT and
not the Hitachi and downstairs systems. Further, my old vinyl played fine
on her USB TT too.

Yeah ... scratching my dome too! I tried doing a good thing and bumped
into this odd problem.

 

The 'odd' problem is something simple. It's the way you have described it that is confusing. Likely a cartridge issue but is the USB TT damaging the vinyl so it is noisy on other TT's I wonder? Need more information (exact makes of TTs / cartridges and what connected to). New vinyl should play fine!

 

Try your 1970s turntable in your newer modern system.
2 results .
The hiss is gone and its sounds really good.
The hiss is still there.
simple really.
you pre( phono stage) has developed s fault, and equalization is wrong.
Or cartridge/stylus faulty.
new or old, records should play
perfectly.

 

You could have something there. The USB is a cheapie, as most are.

Sure, the cartridge could be faulty. But that doesn't explain why both
systems play incorrectly. Strange.

I'll keep diggin'.

 

What's the model number of your old Technics turntable?

 

I know it's a stupid question (and extra apologies if it's already been asked and I didn't spot it), but do your older LPs still sound okay when played on the system?

 

Technic SL-BD20

 

Yep! Odd, I know.