Looking for Advice

[VinylSwiftLover]

I am looking for advice, as I have recently started collecting vinyl, and love it, but am having some frustrations. I have a Victrola portable suitcase table, which was working fine, and playing my new records. Lately, new records have been skipping and unplayable right out of the package/new from the shop. I have cleaned the records, checked the machine, and have looked up as much as I could online. I am not sure what to do. Is it the machine itself? I do plan to upgrade but do not want to throw money away if this is an easy fix at the moment. Any help and advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

[mitchard]

It's the turntable. The suitcase players are notorious for causing skipping issues, among many other problems with general quality (materials and sound). A solution which you'll likely find online will be the old school "fix" for this, which involves putting a penny on the head shell area, though I don't recommend this at all due to the unspecific amount of tracking force (pressure from the needle onto the vinyl) you are adding. This can cause unnecessary wear on your records.

Realistically, you need a turntable that allows you to adjust the tracking force with a counterweight on the back end of the arm. 

Edited January 25, 2022 by mitchard

[hoytis]

I highly recommend stopping use of the Victrola. It's most likely damaging your vinyl.  Upgrading to a regular turntable, amp, speakers is definitely not throwing your money away. You (and your records) will be thankful you did it.