allenh

You can just ground the TT to the amp casing using one of the fixing screws on the back. The ground symbol actually means ground/chassis It sounds like it originally used a dedicated TT that was possibly DC powered from the amp and then not needing a ground or if it was AC powered had a ground that came through the 3 pin plug dedicated to it.

worn arm bearings are more likely to damage a record than a worn stylus. As yanquiuxo says replace the stylus, check all the adjustments and see how you get on. if the adjustments yanquiuxo quotes above are available I would check them anyway as this can give the same symptoms. If you search about in these forums there are some great posts about this sort of thing and what to adjust and how.

Almost $60 to the UK

This is the problem with a conversation over the internet because you can't read the intended emotion. Your posts did come across as a little curt though, the subsequent ones with a few more words in are much better. You know what you are trying to say but the reader doesn't always read it how it was intended

Selling on line can be a pain on both sides. ebay though has become a nightmare for the seller where the buyer protection is too easy to abuse. I used to sell a lot of hifi on ebay but any I do now are listed as collection only and a cash deal now with a buy it now price. That way the buyer can come and test it and look it over to their hearts desire and if there is any wiggling to be done on the price it's done there and then and everybody leaves happy with everything out in the open. It might drop the price but it also drops the risk. I stopped buying and selling used vinyl on ebay a long time ago although I do still buy new there.

Simplest answer is to print a cartridge alignment protractor out but you need to make sure your printer prints out exactly as the the picture so 1:1. I haven't got any links saved on this PC so do a google search or hopefully someone can post some links.

You can quite often get a 220V supply in the US as you generally get two 110V phases and a nuetral as your supply into the house, you get 220V accross the two 110V phases but you would need to talk to an electrician if you haven't already got a 220V outlet in your house.

I'll be ordering a copy Mark so if you want to jump on my order we can split the shipping, but be warned it's usually expensive. PM me if you're interested.

I think the reason for a lot of the problems encountered arise because with online auctions you have the sellers description and any photographs to base your bid price on, you can not physically pick the thing up and look it over and once it goes into the post you are at the mercy of the carrier no matter how well the item is packed. Insurance with the post office is a lot better but with most couriers if the item is signed for it is accepted as being in good condition which gives no one any room for manoeuvre. What is mostly forgotten is that even with a large company buyer or seller you are dealing with a human being and in some cases a chain of human beings all of which are capable of being fallible, so a little bit of patience and common courtesy goes a long way to getting any problems resolved. But as someone who grew up around vehicle, salvage and house clearance type auctions there are three statements about all auctions that seem to have been forgotten now auctions are primarily online and of which two basically mean the same thing: Buyer beware Caveat Emptor ca·ve·at emp·tor ˈempˌtôr/ noun noun: caveat emptor 1. the principle that the buyer alone is responsible for checking the quality and suitability of goods before a purchase is made. early 16th cent.: Latin, literally ‘let the buyer beware.’ The third is "errors and omissions omitted" A lot of the above isn't relevant to online mail order purchases but the paragraph about human fallibility, patience and common courtesy certainly is.

I assume you never decline to pay for full value insurance and tracking on every mail order purchase?

Agreed on both and also the reason I've stopped selling anything on ebay unless it's cash on collection.

I like an autographed record jacket especially ones I have picked up from the artist and those I always get signed to me. A bit off topic but I do the same with motor racing stuff except I get it signed over to the wife, we have a big signed print of Stirling Moss in the hall that he signed "to Sharon all the best Stirling Moss" back to the subject HMV in London always used to put the 7" singles that didn't sell at band signings in the racks so I have picked up quite a few of those over years and recordstore.co.uk quite often sells autographed records as a marketing tool on release so if given the choice I buy the autographed one, I only ever sell or trade doubles of my records and it's unlikely I will get more than one signed copy of a record. Verifying them is always a problem so when buying a record that's signed it doesn't really add any monetary value to me and like some others have said unless it's signed in front of me I have no real proof.

Looks like a turntable to me

Very True, never assume

If you're looking at bi amping go the whole hog and go active, it's quite a leap in information detail and image, I did it when I was using two way speakers and miss it now so will probably rebuild my crossover as three way when I can pick up another couple of monoblocks. The only downside is removing the crossovers from your speakers if you are worried about the resale value

I know the chasing a fault syndrome well, I had a high end Italian integrated that I can't remember the name of a few years ago and I chased a similar problem for a few months before I sent it into a proper repair shop, he chased it for another 8 months then admitted defeat, it ended up on ebay with a long description of this tale of woe and hopefully the buyer got it going but I expect not. On the subject of that Marantz and it's value/ability paradox, unfortunately there's quite a few in the hifi world like that, I've tried a few, been underwhelmed and moved them on pretty quick and bought something that I actually liked. That said it's all about perception but some really are the emperors new clothes.

Nice looking kit Slinch, I have always been a fan of those Dali speakers, are you using the Marantz as a power amp or something? Or just swapping between amps?

This all depends on how long it has been doing this and I am assuming you bought all this new. If it was all fine before and it's come on recently or gradually its most likely a dirty or worm stylus. But if it's done it all the time from new it's more likely a cartridge alignment issue, a cartridge being out in any way will produce all sorts of problems so check all of the alignment in every direction at least twice. One clue with alignment can be if it does it more at either end of a side, cartridge alignment is always a compromise and you are looking for the happy middle. If you are absolutely certain the cartridge is correctly aligned in every direction, all the weights are correct and everything is clean and not worn then it would be a mismatch or limitation in the components you are using so that would be a call back to who supplied it and depends on how long you have owned it whether you have any redress there. That list of components does include everything in the chain including the interconnects etc.

Have you fully read the Audiokarma thread that bearchuck sent you the link to? That covers a lot of the potential problems very well. It seems there a two faults and both are pretty common, to be honest the mechanism faults are common to most auto turntables of this vintage and the speed ones also with turntables with electronic speed control from this era. Grease going sticky, potentiometers getting dirty and caps dying are quite often the result of a long period of inaction for any electronics from this era so I think there is enough to go on in that thread but there are points in there about whether you would be comfortable with the amount of disassembly and working with small parts required to properly clean and lubricate the mechanism and also familiarity with soldering and electrolytic capacitors. Those turntables are a good example of the breed and have enough value to make repairs viable so the choice is yours as to whether you get the tools out and your hands dirty.

They are quite often expensive over here in the UK but if I can get them for the right price I will probably go for Cold War Kids, Foals, Brendan Benson, Jack Johnson, Nirvana and QOTSA in that order. I'm a bit non committed on the Nirvana and QOTSA for lots of the reasons already expressed earlier in the thread.

As Yanquiuxo says you need to pin down which item is at fault. that is the art with all fault finding so you need to be methodical to weed out the items that are ok You know the other amp inputs are ok so plug the TT and pre amp into one of them, if it's still there it's in the TT so cartridge and cables and pre amp. If it goes away then that input to the amp is at fault. Also can you use the cable that goes between the pre amp and amp on another source and it's normal input to test that cable? Also do you get a hum from the channel that isn't working? This can indicate a short somewhere. The inputs to the amp and pre amp can be popped with shorts but it's more likely a cable issue. You can also try moving cables and connections around when you have it all running, if you have a loose connection this will show it up but don't do it with the cartridge leads for obvious reasons. The contacts in the RCA sockets can relax and loose contact but that is very rare, if it's cable or connector related it's more likely a break or bad joint.

That's good to hear, glad you like them and yes pictures would be good

Sorry all, tried to quote without re posting the original video and failed miserably

The one where he gets a record player is even funnier, plus it's shorter

Very very true. All the parts have to complement each other and just throwing money at any question is rarely an answer. I've heard plenty of systems that fall into the emperors new clothes category, technically and aesthetically beautiful but musically flat and its the music that I want to hear and feel so the musicality is the most important part to me. I expect it was one or maybe two items in that system that just didn't fit, but chasing it around would have been an expensive nightmare.