Derick, got the TT up and running...

[organ]

I was too lazy to get it running again until today. As I was paying for my CD's at HMV, I took a look all the way down the room and at a distant something caught my eye, WOW!, a vinyl section!. And then my guts hit the floor. My fav brand, Cradle of Filth(Damnation and a Day) was proudly standind up on display. After paying fo my CD's, I walked over and picked it up. I browsed through their selection and found Nightwish(Century Child)!!!WAAAAA!?!? Now that's 2 of my fav bands, **** it was the last copy too. I bought both. I'm so happy!!!. They also had many other black metal stuff I already own. Gotta buy those albums again, especially the new Lacuna Coil album. I just started playing around with the TT and found that the records stops skippig at 0.75g, so I increased it to 1g. I don't want to go too heavy. My records might get eaten up:).

Now it sounds fantastic! Very natural, not harsh at all and great detail. I can't say it sounds better than my CD player but I'm very impressed. Let's just say it's different. I'm using my NAD pre for the phono section and my new Antique Sound Lab tube pre for pre-amplification. Speakers are being powered by the NAD. I'm still waiting for my quad capacitor to come in so I can get the Dynaco running again. Now I know why you're a vinyl freak:). Well thanks for reading, just wanted to share my adventure.

Maurice

[madmax]

Not that you asked or I know or anyone cares but... I've heard that too light is almost as bad as too heavy. If it is too light the arm bounces, even though the needle stays in contact, causing the force to change. This bouncing causes degregation of the lp fairly quickly because it always bounces at the same place. (right after a small warp). Don't know much about it, just read it somewhere. I set mine a about 1.75g now.
madmax

[dcarlson]

Man, you lucky bastard. New vinyl of 2 bands I've never heard of. It all starts now buddy. :D

I'm pretty sure every cartridge has it's own weighting. Mine's 1.5 grams. What I think is pretty cool, is when you switch to a "thinner" tipped and more expensive stylus, it gets deeper into the grove and you can play lightly scratched albums with no cracking or poping or background noise.

You should try and find the recommended stylus pressure for your cart.

Another thing that I'm finding is, isolation is absolutely important. Have some sort of vibration and it will be transmitted to the cart.

You've just got started. It's not a CD player, it needs work to sound it's best. I've only started and love the results. My friends love it too. ;) But, I have a long way to go to tweak my turntable and take full advantage of it.

Way to go man. :D

Derick.

[organ]

If it wasn't for this forum, I don't think I would ever have thought about vinyl. Thanx guys! I will try to find out how much weight I should use. Tonight, I increased it to 1.5g just to be safer and noticed an improvement. Not too much but enough to be able to hear adifference.

I really need to save up for some more albums. They have a whole bunch of vinyls that I already own on CD's. I have to get them again:). The vinyl section is much larger than it was before and I see it as a very good thing.

Maurice

[organ]

[madmax]

Don't forget ebay. Search under "sealed lp" or "Sealed lp xxxxxxx" where xxxxxxx is a band or album title. Many are older but I find a lot of still sealed stuff I like for $3 to $15. As for shipping if they ship media mail it only costs about $2.75 although I've paid a little more on occasion. I also always look at sellers other items because most of them will send 2 or 3 lp's at the same shipping price. One other thing to watch out for is the condition if you buy any used lp's. NM means near mint. This means it has been played but is still quiet with minimal pops. Unless it is M mint or NM you may not be happy. Down from that is excellent or VG (very good). Even excellent is noisy. Stick with NM. (hopefully the seller knows how to grade and is honest).
madmax

[dcarlson]

I can't attest to the sound quality of your B&O, they make nice looking stuff. If there's no suspension you'll have to really isolate it.

Which HVM did you go to? Downtown T.O.? I picked up most of vinyl at that record show and some more off ebay (some sealed, some not)

I got into vinyl because my buddy had an old Dual given to him. One listen and I was hooked. Before that, I totally wrote vinyl off. I had this bad memory of hisses and pops when I was a kid.

[organ]

Thanks for the info guys. I will check e-bay for some vinyls.

Derick, I only shop at HMV because I can't find my stuff anywhere else except the on the net. Yeah, it's the downtown HMV.

After doing a lot of research I found out my table will only accept B&O carts. Replacing them won't be a problem because you just plug it in. The replacement carts are a little pricey because they're NOS.

Oh yeah, the TT is suspended.


Maurice

[dcarlson]

Good to hear. I found the prices at HMV downtown were a little high. But at least you can get stuff. I picked up the new Radiohead at HMV St. Catharines. $30.

[organ]

Is that the vinyl or CD you picked up? I think all the vinyls at HMV are $30. It's nice to see they still care about records.

I find the prices OK here. I pay between $25-$30 for each CD because they're imports from Finland, England, Sweden, Norway, etc. My most expensive CD is Dimmu Borgir "Spiritual Black Dimensions". I paid $60 for it because it was a Japanese import of a Norwegian band. It had one extra track. Why do the Japanese always get extra tracks?:(

Maurice

[dcarlson]

Sorry, it was on Vinyl. Not much selection there though. White Stripes, Beatles and Elvis, that's it. All behind the counter, they didn't have a section for vinyl. I still jumped on it, I was pretty lucky they had it.

HMV used to have vinyl on their website until they merged with damn amazon. I actually bought a bunch from there too. Sent them an email asking why, I guess there wasn't enough demand.

$60 yaouch. ;)