allenh

It'll need a few hours before it will give of its best so don't be too hasty, it might be that you just prefer the Grado though, certainly on paper the profile of the 8MZ should be better than the AT but that is only true if you like the Grado

Leave it for a bit and go back to it, you're probably over thinking it.

Pick a colour Project don't use, it will make it that bit more unique

You've either not grounded something properly (chassis or motor) or made a bad connection. Surprising though that it hums without the TT powered on so does it do it without the TT connected? if so the problems not in the TT

You can buy a tracking force gauge but it won't fix the fundamental problems with the table and your problem might not be tracking force anyway as these things usually track heavy not light, it could well just be poorly set arm bearings, quality control or build quality are not usually associated with these tables. @Thomas³ is right unfortunately if it's not working take it back where you bought it and get your money back or throw it away, all it will do is ruin your records.

Ok thanks for that, a bit far north of the Watford Gap for me that.

Go 2nd hand, chances are you'll pick up something infinitely better on your local Craigslist or on ebay or in a flea market or at an estate sale or similar. If you want something all in one then get what used to be called a music centre in the 70's or just get a turntable, amplifier/receiver and a pair of speakers. Make sure you can hear it work or are able to take it back unless you are paying pennies for it. The new options really as a minimum are something of the quality of an AudioTechnica AT-120 or above and a pair of powered speakers (or amplifier/receiver and pair of passive speakers if you can afford it)

Unfortunately it's a Crosleyalike so chances are the OP would need power tools and destructive force to do that. Because it's an all in one of cheap construction and design the only real option in the long term is replacement with something of a bit better quality. That said if it's speaker induced rather than just being down to a very poor turntable and tonearm then that nice Mr Savage could be onto something if this particular Crosleyalike has some form of line out because then the OP could use some powered speakers which I would think would be a big improvement all round, this would only work if the internal speakers could be turned off though. I suspect though that you've got the odd Crosleyalike that actually has low rather than high tracking force which is causing the skipping and if they are skipping that much I expect the surface of those records will resemble the 10th green at Royal St Georges after I've been at it with the 3 wood post a rather liquid lunch.

Where was that? Unsurprisingly I still have a couple of laserdisc players

I expect its just MDF under the finish so I doubt there's a lot to stain

Laserdiscs my good man Laserdiscs

They're not that big when you take them apart so you can get them in a surprisingly small car if you need to

There's a George Harrison one that looks as bad if not worse. You've got options, you could strip it down and spray paint it or even get some iron on wood veneer. They're not hard to take apart and there aren't many bits in reality so I'd buy it and have it as a spring project, a nice deep Mahogany would look rather fetching with the acrylic platter I feel

It's quite possible that this was pressed at different places around the world to meet demand so it's again quite possible for there to be batches that are absolutely fine and batches that skip like a double dutch. If you got both yours from the same shop or from different shops that are getting their stock from the same distributor the chances are both your copies are from the same batch. There's usually nothing wrong with the AT120 in itself so if it doesn't happen with other records blame the record not the machine.

Same here, can't see the point of having it if it hasn't got everything on it, I want to play the thing in its entirety.

That looks absolutely fine but it is easier to clean the stylus in situ with the method you are using.

I got into vinyl records at the tender age of 9 in 1977 in the forlorn but laudable hope I could in later life bore the living shit out of people at parties about the subject once vinyl records were no longer fashionable, all went fine with this cunning plan all through the 1990's where I could hold an air of unfounded superiority at social gatherings ad infinitum, in fact as boring the shit out of people went I was the man right up until the early 2000's and then some cock womble decided to make vinyl records cool again with the facial topiary single speed bicycle riding types and there I was cast out into the fashionable herd once again. I've been in stunned silence on the subject ever since around 2006 and I've never really recovered, do you think there is some support group I could talk to about this?

How often you need to clean your stylus is directly linked to how clean your records are and how often you clean them as you're finding out. If you're buying and playing a lot of 2nd hand records you might want to invest in some form of wet and preferably vacuum cleaner then you won't need to clean your stylus anywhere near as much. You'll probably also find that the stylus on your old player was conical and the new one elliptical or at least a better angled conical so it's going deeper in the grooves and digging up all the crap down there, this also has an effect on stylus life so I'd bear that in mind as well.

I loved Our Earthly Pleasures, quite liked A Certain Trigger and absolutely love them live as they never disappoint and that's probably why I'm not such a fan of A Certain Trigger because they do those tracks so much better live. Of the albums after Our Earthly pleasures I have Quicken The Heart and Too Much Information and neither have had much of a play probably becasue they didn't grab me as much as the 1st two so I'll have to remedy that and pick up The National Health somewhere. Either way £15 for this is a steal so I'm giving it a go, as context on pricing much as I love everything Paul Weller produces the current represses of his S/T and Wild wood currently retail for £34.99 which is daylight robbery and makes me all the more glad I bought the originals.

£15 for a signed clear album ltd to 750, didn't take a lot of thinking about that one. Most albums here now are at least £19.99 if not easily over £20 plus postage. Also I have heard one track from it already and liked it so that made the decision easier.

It got locked and nobody told me? I'm really disappointed now

There will be break in (or burn in depending on what you want to call it) on it as there is with anything that contains passive components for that matter so I would give it a little more time to give you of it's best but I still don't think you will be happy with it's best although you may become used to it. This is becasue you're right that big difference is all about valves vs solid state so if you are one of those that likes the valve sound then there is no alternative, there are those who don't of course but then they are deluded. And again you're right that difference is hard to explain and whenever I get someone who refuses to grasp it and has never heard valves if I can I just sit them in front of mine, put on something I know they know well and say just sit, shut the F up and listen, it doesn't usually take long. It doesn't work on everyone but so far it's been about 8 to 1 in favor. My explanation is usually along the lines of it puts the life back also. The way I've had the valve sound explained to me by those much more qualified to do so is that the sweetness in the sound is about minuscule distortions in the attack and delay of the sounds that your ears miss with the faster more accurate switching of solid state but the placement in space of the sound is a different matter that no one has really explained to me properly The basic circuit of the ARC will have been better I expect but the Chinese bargains are out there, as I say you do need to know what they were trying to copy and look very hard at the quality and values of the components used and pretty much replace the valves virtually every time but I've got some here that absolute stunner's after a bit of work that I use to upset the hifi snobs.

I'm deeply upset that no one informed me of the existence of this thread. If you would all now focus on the image of a disappointed Dad face my work here is done.

This

If you are at all technical you can look at some of the cheap Chinese ones, the price you pay has no bearing on sound or build quality so you have to do some research by trying to work out what they've copied and be prepared to get the soldering iron out but if you do there are some absolute bargains out there.