AT VM540ML Unusable

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Rattlin' Bones, Sep 6, 2021.

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  1. IRG

    IRG Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ithaca, NY
    Looked like this. I would try it again, just don’t need it though.
     
  2. csgreene

    csgreene Forum Resident

    Location:
    Idaho, USA
    If that's the brush you had, yours is the first post I ever recall reading about it shedding all over your records.
     
    Ingenieur likes this.
  3. IRG

    IRG Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ithaca, NY
    Lucky me. It's $20, not a big deal. Maybe it was user error, maybe it was defective. I liked it when first used, maybe it got over-saturated, don't recall now.
     
  4. Ingenieur

    Ingenieur Just a dog looking for a home...

    Location:
    Back in PA
    That AT brush is one of the few things that get a pretty much unanimous positive consensus.

    It's not the end all, be all, but it is easy to use and works well. I had one of these for decades and can't find it. Similar concept. Worked well.
    Little bottle fit within the brush.



    [​IMG]
     
  5. macster

    macster Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Diego, Ca. USA
    Facts

    At the least we know how to deal with it.

    M~
     
  6. macster

    macster Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Diego, Ca. USA
    Count me as one of those who does this, even on LP's that are >$50.00.

    M~
     
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  7. macster

    macster Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Diego, Ca. USA
    Hats off to you. You are seriously being classy about this. I can learn from this.

    M~
     
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  8. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore

    Bottom line, the stylus is picking up dirt because there is dirt to be picked up. A Spin Clean is pretty good but has its limitations, as does sink-washing. The only way to clean records effectively is with a vacuum-equipped record cleaning machine, there's just no way around that.

    I buy a LOT of filthy thrift store records, and have zero problem with crud building up on the stylus of my VM-750SH.
     
  9. Mario Umpiérrez

    Mario Umpiérrez Forum Resident

    My AT-440MLa will surely and literally drill down the grooves of a dirty record. I clean all of my records, both new (the majority of mine I must say arr new) and the very few I buy used, which are NM or EX graded. As said, I have both a Spin Clean (which produced good results) and an ultrasonic cleaner built out of a cavitation machine and a CleanerVinyl setup. I long gave up buying records with lower gradings. So clean your records people! There really isn’t any fun in playing dirty records really…
     
  10. Ingenieur

    Ingenieur Just a dog looking for a home...

    Location:
    Back in PA
    I'll give it a trial run later

    [​IMG]
     
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  11. Ingenieur

    Ingenieur Just a dog looking for a home...

    Location:
    Back in PA
    It's later :)
    Bobby Hutcherson Oblique

    worked fine, seems very quiet (was pretty much before)

    putting drops in the holes, a few
    Put a few on the brush itself too

    I like it, easy, effective
     
    bluemooze likes this.
  12. Phil Thien

    Phil Thien Forum Resident

    Location:
    Milwaukee, WI
    I've worn one down quite a bit already. I've been using a combination of 2/3 iso alcohol and 1/3 distilled white vinegar with a makeup brush to deep clean records, then I use the 6012 pad to mop all the fluid off.

    THEN, before play, I've been using cheap carbon fiber brushes for about five spins and lift the brush straight up. This leaves a line of the finest powder that was left in the grooves.

    Finally I hold the carbon fiber brush so the bristles are pointing away from me and I mist them with an atomizer with distilled water. A single pump. I now use the misted brush for two spins to picked this super fine powder and kill any static and I'm ready for ultra-quiet play.

    I listen LOUD sometimes so my vinyl has got to be clean.
     
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  13. csgreene

    csgreene Forum Resident

    Location:
    Idaho, USA
    My VM540 arrived today and looks good. If I'm not too bleary later, I'll install it. Otherwise over the weekend. As it's mounted on an AT shell (like my VM95ML), I'm curious what adjustments I might need to make other than with the overhang gauge. I believe it's slightly heavier (+.5g) than the 95.
     
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  14. Ingenieur

    Ingenieur Just a dog looking for a home...

    Location:
    Back in PA
    Do it, trust me :agree:

    It is heavier, so TF will need calibrated.
    But not much in your case. Mine was oem and the AT is 2.4 gm heavier.


    Not sure about overhang, I aligned mine with my Cart-Align, it seemed close to the Technics jig, I had to move it up ~ 3 mm.
     
  15. csgreene

    csgreene Forum Resident

    Location:
    Idaho, USA
    Got the cart installed this morning without drama. Other than adjusting the cart overhang on the AT shell, I had to rebalance the arm and make a small tweak to arm height. Is it better than the VM95ML? A little bit. Seems to have a touch more detail and a little more separation. Is it worth the $80 premium? Maybe, maybe not. Depends on your system, whether you plug into a separate phono stage, etc. If I could demo an exact side by side comparison with the 540 vs the 95ML, I don't know which I'd pick as the 95 is that good. One non-issue for me is what the OP complained about regarding picking up dust, etc. but I knew that wasn't a general issue, rather one specific to him.

    The weight difference between the 95 and 540 is only .3g, not the .5g I posted yesterday. However, the AT headshell is about 3 grams heavier than the Technics. Easy to compensate for, no aux. weight required. Tracking at 2g with anti-skate slightly below that number based on my experimenting with the 95.
     
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  16. csgreene

    csgreene Forum Resident

    Location:
    Idaho, USA
    As I play through more albums, I think I do notice the higher degree of separation creating a slightly wider soundstage. Also, dialed back the anti-skate by half (to 1). One other thing, the 540 seems louder at the same volume settings. Not by much. Is it a higher output cart with the different engine?
     
  17. Spin Doctor

    Spin Doctor Forum Resident

    As always in this hobby, every experience is system dependent. I would think a good, separate phone stage would be a requirement in order to have any real value judgment. If you like the 95 that's cool. Nobody's going to be mad at you
     
  18. csgreene

    csgreene Forum Resident

    Location:
    Idaho, USA
    Why would you think a separate phono stage is a requirement to hear differences using the very good one in the Yamaha? The differences are the differences. The 540 is a little better all around but I'd guess most people (like AT said to me) will find the differences subtle. Thanks for letting me know "it's cool" if I also like the 95 and that people won't be mad at me...
     
  19. Ingenieur

    Ingenieur Just a dog looking for a home...

    Location:
    Back in PA
    Yes 3.5 mV vs 4 mV
    I noticed it too, just a bit
     
  20. csgreene

    csgreene Forum Resident

    Location:
    Idaho, USA
    Just looked it up, I didn't want to think I was imagining things. ;)

    Want to add that after a few sides of various records (Sports, Pancho and Lefty, Swiss Movement, Stampede, That's the Way of the World) the 540 has settled in nicely. I'd noticed that about the 95ML when I first installed it almost two years ago. Seems like 1-2 hours to have the stylus settle in.
     
    Ingenieur likes this.
  21. csgreene

    csgreene Forum Resident

    Location:
    Idaho, USA
    One thing that's improved the soundstage aside from the 540's better separation was me slightly tweaking my speakers again. I had moved them a bit inward for a recent movie we watched. I was reminded they needed to be placed further apart again. I swear, speaker placement is the biggest audio bang for the buck out there. Anyway, I'm liking the 540 very much and wonder if I made a mistake buying two spare VM95MLs this past year knowing I was always going to end up trying the 540? I can use one on my Denon DP-23F but it's currently running a Stanton 680EE with an NOS Stereohedron stylus and it sounds remarkably good for such an inexpensive table.
     
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  22. csgreene

    csgreene Forum Resident

    Location:
    Idaho, USA
    I figured I should add a photo of the 540 in use. Playing "Thick As A Brick", my favorite Jethro Tull album. Just an iPhone photo:
    [​IMG]
     
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  23. Angry_Panda

    Angry_Panda Pipe as shown, slippers not pictured

    @csgreene - if I can make a suggestion, take a second look at the anti-skating in a few days and see what you think. I went back and forth with mine considerably (on a 1200 with the KAB damper), because different methods of determining where that should be were giving wildly different results. Test discs were fine across the entire scale, using a good mono disc to fine-tune channel balance and distortion sounded best at about 1, and the Peter Ledermann method was giving me a value off the top of the scale. However, both extremes wound up imparting skew to the cantilever when the arm was up after about a hundred hours, so I eventually spent half an hour watching the cantilever as I dropped into a groove and settled on 2.5 as the point that split minimal visible deflection to each side. That's served me well on the last two styli - no skew to either side on those.

    YMMV, of course. Happy listening!
     
  24. csgreene

    csgreene Forum Resident

    Location:
    Idaho, USA
    I did that quite a bit with the VM95ML. I'll likely do the same here. Seems I end up settling on the manufacturer's suggestion median. In this case, 2 and 2. I don't own test records so anything I do is based on knowing my albums and how I think they should sound. When I went to install the 540 this morning, I was 2 and 2 after fiddling with tracking and anti-skate over the past year. The stylus on the 95 still looked pretty dead center. IOW, there wasn't a noticeable skew I could see. I'd guess it has between 200-300 hours (I don't keep track).
     
    Last edited: Sep 11, 2021
    Angry_Panda likes this.
  25. Ingenieur

    Ingenieur Just a dog looking for a home...

    Location:
    Back in PA
    I measured my anti-skate and plotted it against the measured force. It was spot on.
    I set it at mfgs. point and look to see when raising slowly if it flicks in out out.


    [​IMG]
     
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