cedwhatev Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Alright guys, I've had my turntable set-up for a little while now, but have been noticing that maybe my Stylus may need improving. My set-up is as follows.. Pro-Ject Elemental Turntable w/ Ortofon OM 5E Cartridge Art DJ Pre II Phono Preamp Audioengine A2+ Powered Speakers Now.. it's not a bad set-up, and yeah, I am new at this stuff.. but I have one record in particular that I LOVE (Wintersleep's 1st album).. and it hasn't been playing as well as I'd like. First off, while I've had the LP for about 13 years, it wasn't played often (no more than 5-10 times) and when I first played it on my Pro-Ject, it skipped so bad that the needle knocked right off the record. So I gave it a good cleaning, played it again and it only skipped twice, but stayed in the groove. The record is in excellent shape, mind you.. but a friend suggested that I get a better stylus for it, as it may help.. so here I am... and no, I am not just replacing it to play this one album, that would be ridiculous. I actually have a $150.00 gift card from PlanetofSound, so the budget isn't an issue for me to pick up a new one. Just need a bit of advice.. 1) Will a higher quality stylus play better (yes, obviously) but more importantly, cause a record to skip less? 2) What kind of stylus/cartridge would you recommend for my type turntable? ($100-$300 range) 3) Or am I just crazy and need to clean the record again? lol Thanks in advance, guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidney Crosley Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 I'll let some of the other folks chime in as far as which cartridge/stylus would be best, but one thing I can tell you is that Planet of Sound, if you do buy a cartridge from them, will definitely set up your turntable to the proper specs. I have found that does so much for a TT (obviously beyond a decent clean). It's possible your tracking is off. In the $100-$300 range, there's no shortage of quality carts. Also, take a quick look on Planet of Sound's website. They have some used/consignment stuff available, and you may come across a pretty good deal on other equipment (and if you ended up trading in your Elemental for a second-hand better turntable with a better cart, you'd do even better for yourself in the long run). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedwhatev Posted March 25, 2016 Author Share Posted March 25, 2016 Thanks Sid the Kid.. but I'm nowhere near Toronto (NS to be exact, about an hour from where Crosby grew up).. I'd be ordering one online. Yeah, you can find some nice used stuff on there for sure, I actually bought the Art DJ preamp off of there. I will eventually just give this TT to my brother someday, but I actually like it so far, good starter. I'll grab a Rega somewhere down the road, without question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedwhatev Posted March 28, 2016 Author Share Posted March 28, 2016 Anyone else? lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
circuit bored records Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 An ortofon OM5e, while not the best cartridge out there, still will not skip on a record if it is set up proper and the record isn't damaged. It sounds like your tracking force is set up improperly. What scale did you use to set the weight of the tonearm and what weight is it set at - reference the owners manual for your turntable if the last sentence confused you. To your questions: 1) not if the tonearm still isn't set up properly. 2) many options out there, see the beginners thread of this forum 3) sure clean it again, but only after setting up your turntable properly this time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCF Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 An ortofon OM5e, while not the best cartridge out there, still will not skip on a record if it is set up proper and the record isn't damaged. It sounds like your tracking force is set up improperly. What scale did you use to set the weight of the tonearm and what weight is it set at - reference the owners manual for your turntable if the last sentence confused you. I second that. The stylus is probably the least of your concern when a record skips. Maybe the record is simply fucked up beyond repair. Maybe you can try the record on someone elses player? Otherwise check out you turntable setup. Is the platter perfectly level? Is the tracking force set up correctly? Is the antiskating set up correctly? While you are checking, you can try to set the tracking force and anti-skating to the upper limits of the recommended range, this should help at least a bit against skipping. I used a SL1200-clone for years which had a really crappy tonearm. It skipped every single time during the first track of the "Throwdown -.You dont have to be...." LP, even after being set up professionally and having a really nice cartridge (Vinylmaster RED) installed by an audio dealer. In the end it was a total waste of time and money. I know that even the cheapest Pro-Ject players should be better than this,but I still think that a fancy stylus on a very-entry level player is kinda wasted. Better start saving up for a Rega now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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