allenh

Are the turntable and cartridge set up properly?

If the receivers are AV ones, i.e they have more than 2 channels then avoid them for hifi use as that's not what they were made for and hifi would always be a compromise for them.

 

Your idea of an integrated amp is always the best choice as this is what it's intended for and receivers having a tuner built in can induce noise that isn't present in something that's job is just to amplify an audio signal.

 

Going vintage can be good and bad, there is a lot of very good and in its day very good vintage kit out there for not a lot of money but unless you know it's been very well looked after and is electronically in very good condition do not pay over the odds. I personally buy and try a lot of vintage kit but have the luxury of being able to repair and service most of it.

 

Above all the golden rule is buy with your ears.

Probably needs some lubrication, lots of mechanics in there, those BSR decks might not have been the latest word in sonic excellence but they were pretty bullet proof.

 

Be very careful handling it without the base on as there is lots of mains electricity in there and it will be quite exposed and easy to catch with a stray finger.

 

There may well be a switch that has to be made to return the arm or it may be a mechanical process, if you have a glass table run it on that with the base off so you can look underneath and see what is or isn't going on.

 

Mind you I bet it still sounds better than a lot of the plastic crap about today and looks a lot better as well.

I just scooped a fabulous piece of turntable history. A Sears Electronics multi changer made by BSR, just like the one I used to stack KISS records on in the mid-late 70's. Came armed with the classic 'Genuine Diamond LP stylus' and works great… except for one thing: the auto return doesn't automatically return because the needle doesn't lock into that inner return groove of most records. Tips would be greatly appreciated...

 

This is for stacking up crap vinyl for extended sonic ambience… 

 

Probably needs some lubrication, lots of mechanics in there, those BSR decks might not have been the latest word in sonic excellence but they were pretty bullet proof.

 

Mind you I bet it still sounds better than a lot of the plastic crap about today and looks a lot better as well.

Theres another post mentioning this turntable. $75 it may be but it will still wreck records over time and sound average at best.

 

It should be brown to match its quality.

 

Everything about it is poor and it's true value is more like $5.

 

A turntable does not have to cost lots to do a decent job but it has to do better than this sort of thing.

 

There are quite a few of these things about with different names on. Be wary of buying just by brand, just because a company makes some good items does not mean everything they put thier name on is good, a lot of these companies put thier name on all sorts of plastic rubbish thinking that thier good reputation will sell them but quite often it just lowers that good reputation.

should be brown to match its quality.

 

Be wary of buying just by brand, just because a company makes some good items does not mean everything they put thier name on is good, a lot of these companies put thier name on all sorts of plastic rubbish thinking that thier good reputation will sell them but quite often it just lowers that good reputation.

There's bucket loads of choice for a proper hifi one both new and old and someone in the US is probabaly best placed as what is good value here in England isn't always the same in the US. Have a look at the local thrift stores and yes weight is always a good sign even with your HK, it means that the power supply is big enough for the job. for vintage The usual made in Japan Pioneer, Technics, Sansui, Yamaha, Rotel etc. Will work.

 

The great thing about the internet is you can stand in front of an amp in a store and with a smart phone google it or even look at what they have sold for on ebay to give you an idea.

 

That HK will work perfectly well for now and allow you some time do some research, Like all AV amps it's intended for making the bangs in a movie big and not the finer deatils of music sound good so you are not using it for it's intended purpose and it will always be a compromise for hifi use.

Hard to say for sure without seeing it in the flesh but it looks like a good buy and fully auto for a novice is always good. I would still haggle the price down as much as possible

 

He mentions low output though and this can be either he has it plugged into the wrong input on his amplifer, it has a low output MC cartridge or the cartridge/stylus are knackered. Worst case there is you need a new cart which for a cheap one is not a lot of money and again as a novice a cheap one is probably advisable, you would of course need someone to set it up for you.

Much more British sounding then? It does seem that in the US and Japanse markets Punch was and is much more important than musicality, I like a system to be able to reproduce bass in more than just a force but musicality and all the detail to be available at low volume have always been what I look for, I had seem the Sansui's from that period and always liked the look of them but have never heard one, on your description I shall keep my eyes open.

 

It's amazing how much good kit was around at the time and because the advertising budgets were not as high as in some brands it can be had for a good price too.

Fair enough.  I can't protest to know how well the wood glue method works because i've never done it. How long does that overall process take?  I saw someone said you have to give it time to dry sufficiently, that's gotta take at least a few hours.  I suppose in cases of a really really dirty record that I wanted to be clean, I'd give it a shot if it worked better than a vacuum cleaner.  I guess I just made the assumption that this was the only method you guys were using without considering that you also have other cleaners for smaller jobs, like cleaning a newly pressed record for example.

When I first read about it, it fell into the realm of things you read that you have to check it wasn't written on April 1st but the more I read the more it made sense.

 

Like all methods it suits certain tasks. It takes a while so I only use it on really dirty records or ones that the vacuum cleaner just can't get done. For new records or just normally dirty records it is overkill and on scratched records in extreme case it can make them worse as it pulls all the dirt out of a scratch that when filled with dirt the needle will pass over with noise rather than a jump.

 

Most of the time I use my Vacuum machines and try to keep all my vinyl as clean as possible (I buy Art Du Son in bulk usually) but for things I pick up that have had the dirt pushed right into the grooves nothing works better than glue. I picked up an expensive coloured LP recently that looked fine but played with loads of noise and pops and clicks that several long runs on the Vacuum machine just would not shift, one go with the wood glue and it sounds like new.

 

I usually let them dry overnight and peel the mask off in the morning and getting it to work took a little research, I read up on it and practised on records I didn't care about first. There are some good tutorials and video's dotted about on the net that give a good insight into getting the best results and the glue you use will make a difference to how easy the mask comes off, the amount of static and in some cases whether you get reaction induced warping. The warping if it does happen from what I have read seems to sort it self out and I have only had it happen on one really thin LP which did indeed sort itself out but as with everything in life there are no guarantees.

 

If you are in the US the Titebond range is well thought of and over here in the UK I have found Barrettine Trade to be the best. The biggest problem is if there isn't enough elasticity in the formula it comes off in flakes but with the right glue it comes of in one playable mask.

 

I use the okki nokki to turn the record to apply it and a plastic spreader to even it out, I then just let it dry over night so it's completely clear and then peel it off in the morning, and then repeat for the other side so a complete LP takes 24 hours most of which is the drying time.

the limit to how many sides you can do is how much room you have to lay them out glue side up.

 

The cost of the glue seems to have no bearing on how elastic it is either, I tried 3 or 4 before I hit on the Barrettine but I expect there are quite a few others that work well, Cheap pound shop stuff wasn't bad but Wurth and Evo Stik flaked badly, don't panic if you use the wrong glue as after you get off what you can the record washer gets off the little bits that are left but you have to flush the machine through

No offense, but I've been seeing this wood glue method mentioned quite a few times here and, while I'm sure it works out good, it just sounds like a dumbass way to clean your records.  Seriously, if some folks on here that are using this wood glue method are only doing it because they can't afford a proper cleaning machine, if you'd stop buying media for a month or so, you could easily afford a KAB EV-1 and I promise you'd never go back to wood glue again.

 

I've had some pretty awful, noisy records come my way and the EV-1 works fantastic to clean them up and get rid of most, if not all, of the surface noise.

The wood glue method is used by the BBC in the UK who know a thing or two about sound reproduction, I don't think they pioneered it but they certainly use it to good effect and have been doing so for many many years.

I have a couple of vacuum cleaning machines as well, I have an Okki Nokki and a Keith Monks, use Art Du Son cleaning fluid, have many years experience with them and own a lot of vinyl.

 

As with most things in audio just because something costs more it doesn't necessarily make it more effective. I am lucky enough to be able to afford all this but when I need to I use wood glue through choice and for really dirty records its unbeatable

Those Big Sansui's are a nice thing, I had an earlier one, can't remember the model number now but one of those I wished I had not sold.

That period of Japanese manufacture produced some rubbish but also some very nice equipment where there was a good level of competition between them all, nice to see one properly refurbished.

I'm stumped and yes I'd be a tad miffed too, all I can say is those pops and cracks must be physical damage rather than dirt. The point of the glue method is that it gets deep into the grooves and when you peel it of it takes the dirt with it, but it can only remove dirt not physical damage.

oh man, decided to venture in to this part of the forum as i've known i needed to get rid of this player i have now.

but this seems overwhelming so far, especially the price tags on the recommended players. i guess i'll have to save up

If price is an issue do some research and go vintage

That looks a nice bit of kit, would love to know if it sounds as good as it looks.

I have to be honest, I find all the comments suggesting immediate upgrades a bit weird. In that case, why not just buy a more expensive table in the first place? Upgrades can only go so far, and the whole idea of them is spending less in the beginning and adding more down the line when the funds allow. There's really no point to buying a cheaper table together with upgrades that cost almost as much.

Agreed, that way lies the LP12 route.

 

Upgrading a cheap or 2nd hand turntable as a bit of fun to see how far you can take it has always appealed and i've done a few over the years, but upgrading an expensive new turntable that should be the pinnacle of what the maker can do at that price doesn't make a lot of sense to me, I would much rather sell that turntable on and use the money as an upgrade path to try something new, or when funds allow in the case or the Rega line keep the arm, sell the rest of it and use the arm on something different.

Good news, 50/50 chance and my money was on the speakers PSU but it had to be one of them, anyway welcome to the wonderful wallet emptying world of hifi upgrading.

 

Is the HK receiver a 2 channel (left & right) one or a multi channel (Left/Right/Front/Back/Centre/-sub woofer) one for AV? If it's AV it probably won't be great at 2 channel for hifi use as they seldom are but it's free and will do a job until you can get a proper hifi one but if it's an older 2 channel one it might not be the height of high fidelity but will do a perfectly good job for you.

To be honest if it's because it's a crap PSU it will be the one in the speakers and getting rid of them will be the most cost effective way of getting rid of the hum.

 

Get some speakers for the receiver you've been given and things should sound a lot better.

Do you also use headphones perhaps? Because if you do, a cool idea might be buying a headphone amplifier that also works as a standalone volume control. 

If you use the TT with the pre amp on there are plenty of valve/tube buffer and pre amps on ebay and the web in general that will work as a headphone amp and volume control between the TT and the active speakers which would make a neat little system.

I've tried the wood glue method on a few records and even though there's not really a way to do it wrong, I'm starting to think that somehow I AM doing something wrong haha. It seemed to do next to nothing on the few records I tried it on. 

 Are you actually letting it dry and taking it back off? Or were the records even dirty in the first place?

You only get humming from crap power supplies and bad grounding usually so you shouldn't get any humming.

 

Get some speakers and try it, either way it should sound a lot better than your computer speakers and you can always upgrade from there. Also make sure you use decent cables and speaker wire, they don't need to be expensive just decent. For now work with what you have but try and get some decent stuff in the future, there are a few threads on here that mention cheap decent cables.

As said above there should be two adjustment screws, one for 33 and one for 45, are you adjusting the right one?

This may seem like a silly question, but after cleaning records is it really detrimental to put them back in the same sleeve? I have some new sleeves on the way since I assume it would basically reverse the cleaning but maybe it's not as bad as I think it'd be

Unless you live in a clean room or a lab it's a bit over the top but it depends how much dirt is in your sleeves and how dirty the record was in the first place, generally it's a logical conclusion to come to but all things are relative.

 

If you wash a record and put it back into a sleeve that contians dirt them you are going to speed up the need to clean that record again. So If you pick up a very dirty records 2nd hand then yes I would always change the inner after cleaning but if it's one you've had from new and was only slightly dirty replacing the sleeve for only that reason is a little extravagant.

I've always found when you get to a certain level things tend to sound different rather than better or worse and yes it is definitely a case of personal preference and suitability within a system so I'm not saying anything against AT carts, I have a few MM and MC AT's that I very much like but as a very general rule I have found their sound to be a tad brighter than an equivalent Dynavector. 

 

That said although I don't have any in use at present my main system suits the AT sound more than the Dynavector which is probably why I don't have any Dynavector carts at the mo

 

My comment was more about whether the AT sound may not be for you if the Dynavector sound is your preference.  

Wow indeed

 

Be careful now don't want to read in the papers about the man buried under a cassette avalanche.