Akai 306C vintage turntable cartridge upgrade to Bias 2 - headshell problem?

[PieterB]

Hi,

 

I just started listening (and rescuing) my father's nice vinyl collection, after I got the Akai 306C from my father-in-law.

 

I decided to upgrade the old cartridge with a Bias 2... however, the height of the cartridge is way less then the old RS-100....  and doesn't touch the vinyl after adjustment.

 

Do I need a special cartridge for the Rega Bias?

Or a thicker cork platter?

 

This seems so stupid :-) 

 

It's a TT like on this site, but without the new parts (for now....)

http://www.retrotronics.co.nz/detail&id=596

[ajxd]

You have to adjust the VTA.

[allenh]

You may not be able to adjust the VTA on that Akai, if you can there will be one or two set screws in the collar in the housing where the tonearm swing pivots, undoing these allows you to lift or lower the tonearm at the pivot point to allow for the different cartridge heights.

If you can't adjust it which I suspect you can't you will either need to fit a spacer in the head shell to lower the cartridge, you will need to make sure the spacer is very light though ortherwise you might find it difficult to re adjust the tracking force and bias correctly. The other option is an additional or thicker platter mat, you can get acrylic ones in different thicknesses.

For both the spacer and platter mat options you will need to be pretty accurate thickness wise otherwise it might end up sounding terrible as VTA can have quite an effect on tonal balance, place both carts stylus up on a flat surface and see if you can measure the difference between the two

[PieterB]

Hi, thanks for the tips.

I cross-posted to vinylengine.com where someone told me how to adjust the height of the arm lift on this model.

 

Both sites are just wonderful for vinyl lovers it seems :-)

 

I've still some noise during playback... but hope to solve that.