New to the Forum - System Upgrades?*

G'day from Australia.

I'm new to this forum. I started collecting vinyl in 1981 with KISS 'Dynasty'. Through Iron Maiden and NWOBHM, to Thrash and Death Metal. I've mellowed over the years and now listen to a wide range, but still focussing on Heavy and Powerful Music. My tastes should become evident through other threads.

I have a decent vinyl collection of just over 400 albums.

My system is a Sharp 'Optonica', TT RP-5100, Amp SM5100, Speakers CP-5100X
OMB Cartridge, Ortofon 5 stylus.

I don't run the system speakers, I run two Harman/Logan H30 floor speakers, with two old, bulky Technics SB-2755 200W

I also have a 'Rotel' RP-5300, which I almost threw away last week, requiring minor repairs.

I don't really have any friends with the same passion, and don't have any other systems to compare it with. It sounds great to me, and that's what counts.

I'm interested in refining my system on a very low budget, Starting with an upgrade to Ortofon 10 stylus.

Is there anyone out there who is familiar with my set up, who could offer any advice, links and anything else they would like to share.

I let vinyl fade from my life. I recently turned 50, picked up a nice batch of paper squares, and thought I should buy an album to play while in the mood. I have a local music store with a small selection of used vinyl, He had a very nice copy of King Crimson 'USA', which was absolutely perfect. When it finished I was buzzing, and had trouble selecting what to play after. I put on Talking Heads 'Remain In Light', which slotted in nicely. It should, Adrian Belew plays on it.

That's how I got back into vinyl.

I'm listening and hearing again. I'm being re-absorbed into music and really getting into forum discussions, where I can share my passion with like minded HEADS.

Cheers, Big Ears.

 

Welcome to the forum, seems you have a nifty jam there, with good upgrades. Buy some records and enjoy.
Cheers! Smoke stack from way back

 

That is what I was going to suggest. Get a record cleaning brush and fluid if you don't have it already. Keeping your records clean is the best thing that you can do for Lp playback. It'll also keep your stylus clean.
-Bill

 

Onzow Zerodust is what you need. Use it every time you finish listening to records. It may seem pricey for such a small item, but it will keep your stylus clean.

 

Welcome and great taste you have in music!

 

Welcome! Hope yous tay a while. You should also take a look at this group in your neck of the woods.
Member Location

 

Hey mate. Yeah stylus and record cleaners.
Consider going to a stylus 20 on the ortofon if you can swing it.

 

Nice, thanks.

I'm new to the social side of the net. and two months ago I made my first internet purchase, excluding air tickets. It was Ozzy 'Blizzard...' & Megadeth 'Rust in Piece', from importcds-au. Can anyone suggest any other sites to check out for vinyl and equipment, apart from ebay. I would rather go direct to the companies.

Thanks again. This is just a quick visit. Will respond to you all over the week end.

Cheers, Big Ears.

 

The most cost effective / highest impact tweaks you can do are to the listening space. Just moving speakers around makes a huge impact on sound. Get a cheap SPL meter and download some test tracks off of the internet, or buy a test CD designed for dialing in room acoustics, and play around with your listening setup until it's dialed in properly.

After that, look at possible room treatments. You can build a DIY bass trap pretty easily if it's too boom-y or rattle-y. If you have one, get under your listening room and make sure the cross-supports in your floor joists are hammered in and solid. If there is a lot of bare wall in your listening room, hang up some pictures to diffuse the sound, or hang up a rug or drapes to absorb the sound. If you have hardwood floors try a rug somewhere between you and the speakers.

Lastly, for rock music you want a lot of bass. Problem is the best speaker placement for the treble/midrange in speakers is usually the worst place for bass, so you might want to try a subwoofer.

Other budget / DIY tweaks:

- Replace the power outlet your gear plugs into with new ones. If, for no other reason, for safety. You're drawing a lot of power for your amplifiers, and old outlets can get corroded and may not grab your AC plugs as well as the newer ones. Don't bother with the "audiophile" outlets, just get a good quality name-brand outlet from your hardware store.

- Get the Caig electronics cleaning kit, and use it to clean the audio plugs and jacks on all of your gear. If you have an older preamp, the pot and switch cleaner can fix up scratchy volume controls.

- Get some cans of compressed air and clean out your amplifier / preamp / everything. Dust traps heat. If you know what you are doing you can take the covers off and clean the insides thoroughly. Just don't touch anything in there.

- Make sure your record player is level. Download and print out a cartridge protractor to make sure your cartridge is aligned properly. If it isn't physically heavy, that means it probably isn't built with decent dampening. Buy a couple small slabs of marble, throw some cork on it and put your record player on that to try to dampen it a bit. There are endless tweaks for dampening record players.

 

G'day jbmcb,

Wow!!! thanks for taking the time to give some great advice. Would you believe I started moving things around two nights ago, and it made a huge difference.
Firstly, I should point out that I live in a huge tin box. The shed on my boss' property, fitted out when they built the house. The only good thing is the concrete slab.

It is open plan, except for the bathroom, laundry. I have curtains on the walls and a few pieces of old carpet hanging vertically from the roof, so it doesn't sound too bad. I do get a bit of rattle in the panels when I pump it up a bit, and have thought about tightening every nut and bolt; there are quite a few. Maybe.

My speaker cables are not that long, so my deck is only 1 metre from the nearest cabinet. I do have a panel of glass standing between them, as some drummers use live, but it's not that big.

I have an old stereo system, maybe 20/25 years. I have never really tried surround sound, making a decision a long time ago that stereo was just fine for me. So I can't support 5.1, or a subwoofer. My Technics have a lovely bottom end. I have four of them, two have been stripped for cabinet re-builds, as they are probably around the same age. I'm questioning whether to slightly modify the dimensions to incorporate the pi ratio, or another sacred geometry measure. Any thoughts there?

I clean all plugs with micro fibre cloths. I clean my records by boiling de-mineralised water, collecting the steam and again, using micro fibre cloths. I have a small, stamp or coin micro-scope, which allows me to have a pretty close look, it seems to be quite effective. I only use new cloths, and for a few records each.

My amp had some minor repairs not long ago and was fully cleaned. I live semi-rural, but have a local technician who does my work. I plan to have the TT cleaned by him. Do you think it is something I could do properly?
He is familiar with my amp, and very helpful, but not a vinyl enthusiast.

I haven't been able to work out how to upload pics yet. There are two dials for the anti skate, one on the base, and one on the weight. The one on the weight has two dials, one moving the weight, and another smaller one with the numbers. I have watched a tutorial on setting everything, but the smaller, numbered dial doesn't seem to fix into any position. When I turn it, it makes a click, then keeps turning. I'm not really sure how it works.

I have everything level, made a simple protractor. The deck has a nice glass lid and nice weight. I bought it from an Op Shop, when I saw it, I picked it up straight away, it was nice and heavy and I got the whole system for $80, including the speakers.

I have noticed that I cant seem to fully align the needle. Is it a matter of setting it in the centre of the playing groove on the platter? I always seems to notice just the smallest distortion through the last track on a side.

I'm getting back into vinyl after time away. Deeper than ever before, learning as much as I can about pressings and the technology of the needle, and the history of the turntable.
Thanks for your input man, much appreciated. I intend to be a prolific member here and vinylengine.

What are you listening too?

 

Since you are on vinyl engine have a look for your table in the database. There may be a user manual to help with the setup.
The dial near the weight will be for setting the tracking weight after you balance the arm with the main weight. I seriously doubt it's a second anti skate.
Instead of catching boiled steam a 2ltr bottle of distilled water is a couple of bucks at BigW (& no doubt elsewhere ).

 

Hey E.Baba, thanks for the help man, much appreciated. Will check for the manual for sure, it's these sort of tips that are really teaching me. I am new to the audiophile side of things and you guys are building my knowledge and fine tuning my ears.

When I tried to buy distilled water, I went to five different places, supermarket, Target, chemist and two auto shops. Not carried or out of stock everywhere. Will have to remind myself to keep an eye out.

I'm only just learning about my gear, Thanks for all the help.

I've gotta head out for a while, but will send you a message to introduce ourselves today or tomorrow.

Thanks mate.

I'm into powerful, heavy, non-aggressive music. But have a wide spectrum.

 

G'day Manimal, I sent you a pretty long message, or I 'thought' I did. I'm on a steep learning curve here. Could you let me know if I didn't link it to you? I would like to hook up and start connecting.