TURNTABLE SETUP Questions thread - don't start a new thread, ASK YOUR QUESTION HERE!

[analogsurviver]

Quote:

Thanks a lot analogsurviver, very insightful.
 
I have one more question, what about power conditioners? Will they help in conditioning the power fed into my vinyl setup? I'm asking because a friend of mine suggested that.
Also, are power conditioners the same as automatic voltage regulators (AVR)?
 
I'm worried the power extensions might have some minor shortages. I guess I should've mentioned this earlier.
When I was hooking up my plug extension, it was onto another extension. And I have another box-shaped socket splitter that splits one socket into three, and it has a little LED indicator light. When I had plugged it in without flipping the switch on, the LED lit up. Even before turning on the extension was already powered albeit maybe at small voltages.
 
I have no other power outlets here to test out whether my extension is faulty, or the extension I am plugging it into was faulty, or the wall socket itself.
 
On another note about cleaning records, a record seller told me to wash it under running water with a soft cloth, and do not use any chemicals on it. Now I have a few conflicting opinions. Wouldn't washing it under running water will soak the label? I'm worried the label might get washed off.

About power conditioning. Yes, but ONLY if entirely inescapable. That ONLY applies only in case that the power consumption of the device is too high for the use of batteries of one sort or another. You can go bankrupt with power conditioning and still not even meet let alone exceed the performance of batteries. Please send the link for the exact Project phono box you have - perhaps it can be reasonably powered off sealed lead acid battery instead from wall PS it is probably used originally - NO hum originating from preamp guaranteed. A $ 30-50 battery/charger setup can easily outperform power conditioning for incomparably more $$$.
 
Your TT is a direct drive model. Save for the very TOTL direct drives such as Technics SP 10 MKII and MKIII, which have power supplies in a separate box that is connected to the turntable with an umbilical chord, all more down to earth direct drives, yours included, have internal power supply. It contains power transformer - and this one WILL vibrate at the power frequency of the line feeding it - causing both mechanical as well as electrical hum. Even if the transformer itself is so quiet that you can not hear it - believe me, phono cartridge IS more than sensitive enough to reveal it. It is the greatest defect/ommision in most of direct drive designs, giving them far worse SQ than of which they are in fact really capable of. It is impossible to go back to internal transformer once you heard the veil lifted from the sound by eliminating the power transformer within the deck.
 
Once you sort out your phono hum problems etc, I might write a tutorial how you can modify the DD table to get that pesky power transformer out of the picture. A certain level of electrical knowledge and ability to solder required - SAFETY FIRST rule applies, as line voltage(s) is in question. There will be no photos regarding this - turntables vary wildly, so only general pointers with recommendations how it could be done will be published. A Service Manual for the table in question will be mandatory.
 
Phono CAN be made ( reasonably>very>totally inaudible ) hum free.
 
FORGET tap/running water. Distilled water in your local discount store is incomparably better solution to the problem - just buy the quantity with the lowest price per volume unit. You can add isopropyl alcohol to it > THERE ARE GODZILLIONS OF RECIPES ON THE WEB - it boils down to percentage of alcohol in distilled /deminaralized/reverse osmosis produced water plus some surface tension breaking agent, such as usually contained in dish hand washing liquids - a drop per litre of alco/water is all that is needed. And I do not think we will be exchanging Malaysian Dish Cleaner for Slovenian Dish Cleaner transporting them around the globe - only to find they are exactly the same ABC product by the same XYZ company ...
 
Some record labels are water/liquid proof - some are not. Treat them all as if they were not.

 

[penmarker]

Quote:

About power conditioning. Yes, but ONLY if entirely inescapable. That ONLY applies only in case that the power consumption of the device is too high for the use of batteries of one sort or another. You can go bankrupt with power conditioning and still not even meet let alone exceed the performance of batteries. Please send the link for the exact Project phono box you have - perhaps it can be reasonably powered off sealed lead acid battery instead from wall PS it is probably used originally - NO hum originating from preamp guaranteed. A $ 30-50 battery/charger setup can easily outperform power conditioning for incomparably more $$$.
 
Your TT is a direct drive model. Save for the very TOTL direct drives such as Technics SP 10 MKII and MKIII, which have power supplies in a separate box that is connected to the turntable with an umbilical chord, all more down to earth direct drives, yours included, have internal power supply. It contains power transformer - and this one WILL vibrate at the power frequency of the line feeding it - causing both mechanical as well as electrical hum. Even if the transformer itself is so quiet that you can not hear it - believe me, phono cartridge IS more than sensitive enough to reveal it. It is the greatest defect/ommision in most of direct drive designs, giving them far worse SQ than of which they are in fact really capable of. It is impossible to go back to internal transformer once you heard the veil lifted from the sound by eliminating the power transformer within the deck.
 
Once you sort out your phono hum problems etc, I might write a tutorial how you can modify the DD table to get that pesky power transformer out of the picture. A certain level of electrical knowledge and ability to solder required - SAFETY FIRST rule applies, as line voltage(s) is in question. There will be no photos regarding this - turntables vary wildly, so only general pointers with recommendations how it could be done will be published. A Service Manual for the table in question will be mandatory.
 
Phono CAN be made ( reasonably>very>totally inaudible ) hum free.
 
FORGET tap/running water. Distilled water in your local discount store is incomparably better solution to the problem - just buy the quantity with the lowest price per volume unit. You can add isopropyl alcohol to it > THERE ARE GODZILLIONS OF RECIPES ON THE WEB - it boils down to percentage of alcohol in distilled /deminaralized/reverse osmosis produced water plus some surface tension breaking agent, such as usually contained in dish hand washing liquids - a drop per litre of alco/water is all that is needed. And I do not think we will be exchanging Malaysian Dish Cleaner for Slovenian Dish Cleaner transporting them around the globe - only to find they are exactly the same ABC product by the same XYZ company ...
 
Some record labels are water/liquid proof - some are not. Treat them all as if they were not.

This is my phono stage model.
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-gSsqzwIZntA/p_252PBMMB/Pro-Ject-Phono-Box-MM.html

It costs around $99USD and can be found aplenty. A battery would be a great solution, the audio store that I bought this from might have it. I saw some boxes with cables and plugs on them.
 
Please continue with the DD turntable modding. I might not be able to try it out but the information would still be invaluable nonetheless.

 

[MorbidToaster]

You might not be able to completely remove it. Is it next to other components? Poorly shielded phono stages (like mine and most cheap ones) will hum like crazy if next to the power supply of another component. That's how it was in my system with the Phono Stage's own PSU. Had to move them farther apart. 
 
Also, don't run them under tap water, and for the love of god don't just soak them. Labels will come off and tap water is no match for distilled water. 
 
I'd see if there are any record stores in your area with vacuum cleaners that they charge to use. My guy charges 2 bucks a record but that includes new inner and outer sleeves. He's also using a Loricraft so it doesn't get much better.
 
Quote:

Thanks a lot analogsurviver, very insightful.
 
I have one more question, what about power conditioners? Will they help in conditioning the power fed into my vinyl setup? I'm asking because a friend of mine suggested that.
Also, are power conditioners the same as automatic voltage regulators (AVR)?
 
I'm worried the power extensions might have some minor shortages. I guess I should've mentioned this earlier.
When I was hooking up my plug extension, it was onto another extension. And I have another box-shaped socket splitter that splits one socket into three, and it has a little LED indicator light. When I had plugged it in without flipping the switch on, the LED lit up. Even before turning on the extension was already powered albeit maybe at small voltages.
 
I have no other power outlets here to test out whether my extension is faulty, or the extension I am plugging it into was faulty, or the wall socket itself.
 
On another note about cleaning records, a record seller told me to wash it under running water with a soft cloth, and do not use any chemicals on it. Now I have a few conflicting opinions. Wouldn't washing it under running water will soak the label? I'm worried the label might get washed off.
 
**edit:
This is weird, I tried moving the phono stage around and playing with the connections and now the hum subsided (to a lower level though, I cannot completely remove it really).

 

[penmarker]

Quote:

You might not be able to completely remove it. Is it next to other components? Poorly shielded phono stages (like mine and most cheap ones) will hum like crazy if next to the power supply of another component. That's how it was in my system with the Phono Stage's own PSU. Had to move them farther apart. 
 
Also, don't run them under tap water, and for the love of god don't just soak them. Labels will come off and tap water is no match for distilled water. 
 
I'd see if there are any record stores in your area with vacuum cleaners that they charge to use. My guy charges 2 bucks a record but that includes new inner and outer sleeves. He's also using a Loricraft so it doesn't get much better.
 

Stores that provide cleaning service? That's super neato! I'll try asking around.
 
I know, I know, I shouldn't let water even touch the labels. I haven't cleaned anything yet because of that fear, save for a gentle sweep using a very good quality microfiber fabric just to remove visible dust from the record.
 
The phono stage is very near to other components. Here is my current setup picture.
 

 
The glowing bit is the Aune T1, my tube amp. The phono stage is underneath the tube amp (now I have the phono beside it instead of under it). Under the table you can see my computer's system box, the power supply for the tube amp is on the system box. I don't have long enough cables to isolate everything from each other.
 
Under the table there is a power extension with 5 sockets, one socket has a 3 way splitter with the monitor and computer power supply sharing it. the rest is occupied by the tube amp, phono, and turntable plugs.

 

[MorbidToaster]

Yeah I'd definitely try it without your PC and stuff plugged in and see if that fixes it. 
 
Also try moving the phono stage and amp apart. Or just listening for changes while you move the phono stage around.

 

[penmarker]

No noticeable reduction in humming after moving them apart as far as the cable can. My body does make a better grounding than the grounding terminal (LOL?) when I touch the screws on the phono and the grounding wire.
 
I tried playing with the computer off and unplugged, almost total quiet and silence. Only noticeable humming at higher volumes. Now with my computer turned on the sound is worse, not just humming but there's this "krrrtrtrtrtrtrtrt" sound along.
 
I guess the power source really is the major culprit here. This is a rather unserviced house, I presume the wiring had gone bad.
 
Oh wow just now I touched the stylus handle and I can feel a small current is running through it. Definitely need to unplug my computer peripherals.

 

[penmarker]

AWWW YEAH.
 
Found out the culprit. Was my 3 way splitter all along.
 

 
I took it out and now my computer and monitor are plugged directly into the extension. Now the phono is virtually noiseless. If you crank up the volume you will hear the humming, but at listening level the hum is virtually nonexistent.
(BTW "ROSAK" means "broken" in Malay, I labeled it so that my other housemates wouldn't use it accidentally)

 

[audiopunk]

Hi All,
 
I have just bought the Audio Technica LP-120, it's my first TT and seemed to be the best value for money here in Australia - for a beginner anyway. At this stage that is all I have except for about 50 brand new records that I am hanging out to listen too...
 
Anyway, I need to buy an amp and I am looking for suggestions.... I have read further back in this thread about buying a vintage receiver with a PHONO input. My confusion is that the LP-120 has a built in preamp so I should be able to plug it straight into any old contemporary receiver right? Is the PHONO input better SQ wise or is the suggestion of a vintage receiver based on it being a good cheap alternative?
 
Thanks in advance for your advice - much appreciated by someone just getting started.......

 

[analogsurviver]

Quote:

AWWW YEAH.
 
Found out the culprit. Was my 3 way splitter all along.
 

 
I took it out and now my computer and monitor are plugged directly into the extension. Now the phono is virtually noiseless. If you crank up the volume you will hear the humming, but at listening level the hum is virtually nonexistent.
(BTW "ROSAK" means "broken" in Malay, I labeled it so that my other housemates wouldn't use it accidentally)

I've decided to go to bed as I should have been doing instead of "moonlighting" on head-fi and only now saw you were able to find out the culprit. Learned my first Malay word in the process, too !
 
Morbid Toaster gave some quite correct advice, you must have overlooked my mentioning record cleaning service offered to the clients of the shop  due to the "walls" of text I tend to post, I guess !
 
@ EVERYBODY In short - if you touch with finger any turntable metal part, especially the tonearm, and "feel" vibration, that is a 100% indication there
is nonexistant / broken grounding wire or contact "someplace" - and phono WILL hum under such circumstances. I only hope you will not find out that "someplace" to be in - the walls of your brand new apartement (!) - because some "clever" guy decided the best way to save cost in the building is by skimping on the ground wire "no one will notice anyway ". Anything else is well within your power and should be possible to be solved with the minimum in costs - like a "ROSAK" splitter in this case. 
 
The same "touch vibration" applies to audio in general. If the equipment is not properly grounded, even if say CD with its high output and therefore low gain in electronics will not audibly hum, it is still not performing optimally and you should find a perceptible improvement with proper grounding. In case that your ""ground" is heavily polluted with other equipment connected to it ( computers are again the most likely culprit ), it might happen that the SQ will degrade if you ground your audio. PROPER GROUNDING ( a copper plate burried in ground, connected with heavy gauge wire well protected from "elements" leading directly to your audio AC plug and NOT grounded to anything but audio system ) always does the trick - but only few can or are able and willing to do it.
 
Moving phono preamp away from "anything" is ALWAYS a good idea.... it is the most sensitive electronics with the highest gain in your system ( only FM tuner has higher gain, but it is susceptible to other things, not hum ), likely to be susceptible to hum
 
How can you tell a properly positioned phono equipment/cables that offer minimum of hum from the one that hums ? The first, good sounding one will look AWFUL - components standing on edges, upside down, at oddest and aesthetically totally incomprehensible angles/logic, CAREFULLY POSITIONED cables flying around like in some booby trap device - the second one will be neat to look at. As with anything in life, some reasonable compromise is in order. In reasonable time, you should find it - it is "early in the day" for you so to speak, and you have made more progress since asking which table to get on this forum than many are able to accomplish with phono in their entire life. Not bad at all - keep up the good work !

 

[analogsurviver]

Quote:

Hi All,
 
I have just bought the Audio Technica LP-120, it's my first TT and seemed to be the best value for money here in Australia - for a beginner anyway. At this stage that is all I have except for about 50 brand new records that I am hanging out to listen too...
 
Anyway, I need to buy an amp and I am looking for suggestions.... I have read further back in this thread about buying a vintage receiver with a PHONO input. My confusion is that the LP-120 has a built in preamp so I should be able to plug it straight into any old contemporary receiver right? Is the PHONO input better SQ wise or is the suggestion of a vintage receiver based on it being a good cheap alternative?
 
Thanks in advance for your advice - much appreciated by someone just getting started.......

Tough question. Why? Because the quality of "vintage receiver" can vary - from quite poor to the level that is hard to top even with very good electronics today. Not familiar wit LP-120, but based on what money like that buys you today I tend to believe a phono input of decent vintage receiver might be better. If you can try before you buy that "vintage receiver" with your LP-120, all you will need is about couple of minutes - try LP-120 connected through its phono preamp to AUX input on receiver, then play the same music ( select your better/best sounding LPs for this test ) with the preamp in LP-120 bypassed and connected to PHONO input of the receiver under test. If the phono input of the receiver bests the one from the LP-120
and receiver does not cost an arm and a leg - what are you waiting for ?
 
One receiver that is tough to beat for quality, let alone price/performance, is http://www.google.si/imgres?imgurl=http://www.soundsgoodtomehouston.com/sansui/g5500/g5500_face.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.soundsgoodtomehouston.com/invrec.htm&h=506&w=1000&sz=81&tbnid=0RR0U-Zp3pmctM:&tbnh=61&tbnw=120&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsansui%2Breceiver%2Bg5500%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=sansui+receiver+g5500&usg=__t2wgw-Zv0p9FyER5K0Mo2vB9abA=&docid=CIUlbIk-jmIrtM&sa=X&ei=8eHrUMuLOIXMtAaQyICIBg&ved=0CD4Q9QEwAQ&dur=4670ž
 
The first hit from Google pictures search for "Sansui receiver" - no affiliation with anybody/anything. A friend has this one since new and apart from pilot lamp change(s) no issues - still sounds georgeous. It will co$$t you a great amount of $$$ to apreciably improve upon the SQ of this little giant.

 

[penmarker]

Quote:

I've decided to go to bed as I should have been doing instead of "moonlighting" on head-fi and only now saw you were able to find out the culprit. Learned my first Malay word in the process, too !
 
Morbid Toaster gave some quite correct advice, you must have overlooked my mentioning record cleaning service offered to the clients of the shop  due to the "walls" of text I tend to post, I guess !
 
@ EVERYBODY In short - if you touch with finger any turntable metal part, especially the tonearm, and "feel" vibration, that is a 100% indication there
is nonexistant / broken grounding wire or contact "someplace" - and phono WILL hum under such circumstances. I only hope you will not find out that "someplace" to be in - the walls of your brand new apartement (!) - because some "clever" guy decided the best way to save cost in the building is by skimping on the ground wire "no one will notice anyway ". Anything else is well within your power and should be possible to be solved with the minimum in costs - like a "ROSAK" splitter in this case. 
 
The same "touch vibration" applies to audio in general. If the equipment is not properly grounded, even if say CD with its high output and therefore low gain in electronics will not audibly hum, it is still not performing optimally and you should find a perceptible improvement with proper grounding. In case that your ""ground" is heavily polluted with other equipment connected to it ( computers are again the most likely culprit ), it might happen that the SQ will degrade if you ground your audio. PROPER GROUNDING ( a copper plate burried in ground, connected with heavy gauge wire well protected from "elements" leading directly to your audio AC plug and NOT grounded to anything but audio system ) always does the trick - but only few can or are able and willing to do it.
 
Moving phono preamp away from "anything" is ALWAYS a good idea.... it is the most sensitive electronics with the highest gain in your system ( only FM tuner has higher gain, but it is susceptible to other things, not hum ), likely to be susceptible to hum
 
How can you tell a properly positioned phono equipment/cables that offer minimum of hum from the one that hums ? The first, good sounding one will look AWFUL - components standing on edges, upside down, at oddest and aesthetically totally incomprehensible angles/logic, CAREFULLY POSITIONED cables flying around like in some booby trap device - the second one will be neat to look at. As with anything in life, some reasonable compromise is in order. In reasonable time, you should find it - it is "early in the day" for you so to speak, and you have made more progress since asking which table to get on this forum than many are able to accomplish with phono in their entire life. Not bad at all - keep up the good work !

Ah, haha, no no I've read your suggestion about stores that provide LP cleaning services, it had just slipped out of my mind. morbidtoaster reminded me of that. I've asked a local forummer about it, and he confirms that there is one at the mall I've been talking about. Pretty cheap too at RM2 per record, but he didn't specify which store was it. I think I have a guess which one is the store because the first turntable store I went in has that wet vacuum machine that was featured here a few pages back. I think in a few weeks before my semester break I will go there to clean my records. There is this one by Roadrunner Records that looks very pale and not shiny, I guess it was the chemical residue from an incomplete washing session previously by the previous owner.
 
Oh yeah even though I've removed the faulty part within the electrical components, the hum will still be there if I plug in my computer. I guess there's no escape to that. and now my arrangement is very messy with the phono stage on one corner of the desk, the turntable at another, the power supply for the amp is somewhere on the floor at the far left as far as the cable can go. But the hum subsided a little, I guess that's all that matters.
 
Talking about SQ degradation, my setup sounds quite bright. The bass had became shy and a little less, the highs however is kinda unbearable in some recordings. Metallica's Black Album has very bad sibilance, cymbals, and guitar high notes.
My setup is supposed to have a netural frequency response. Currently I'm using my Goldring DR150 headphones with the Aune T1 tube amp. I can't EQ because there is none lol.
Another friend told me it lies in my speaker and amp combination, I thought it has something to do with the cartridge/stylus which might have added a certain colorization to the sound. Any opinions on this?
 
I cannot feel the power leak anymore, but my body is still doing a better work grounding than the grounding terminals. I suppose that's normal as well.

 

[analogsurviver]

Quote:

Ah, haha, no no I've read your suggestion about stores that provide LP cleaning services, it had just slipped out of my mind. morbidtoaster reminded me of that. I've asked a local forummer about it, and he confirms that there is one at the mall I've been talking about. Pretty cheap too at RM2 per record, but he didn't specify which store was it. I think I have a guess which one is the store because the first turntable store I went in has that wet vacuum machine that was featured here a few pages back. I think in a few weeks before my semester break I will go there to clean my records. There is this one by Roadrunner Records that looks very pale and not shiny, I guess it was the chemical residue from an incomplete washing session previously by the previous owner.
 
Oh yeah even though I've removed the faulty part within the electrical components, the hum will still be there if I plug in my computer. I guess there's no escape to that. and now my arrangement is very messy with the phono stage on one corner of the desk, the turntable at another, the power supply for the amp is somewhere on the floor at the far left as far as the cable can go. But the hum subsided a little, I guess that's all that matters.
 
Talking about SQ degradation, my setup sounds quite bright. The bass had became shy and a little less, the highs however is kinda unbearable in some recordings. Metallica's Black Album has very bad sibilance, cymbals, and guitar high notes.
My setup is supposed to have a netural frequency response. Currently I'm using my Goldring DR150 headphones with the Aune T1 tube amp. I can't EQ because there is none lol.
Another friend told me it lies in my speaker and amp combination, I thought it has something to do with the cartridge/stylus which might have added a certain colorization to the sound. Any opinions on this?
 
I cannot feel the power leak anymore, but my body is still doing a better work grounding than the grounding terminals. I suppose that's normal as well.

Back in the BCD ( before CD ) days, every ad for phono cartridges stressed one point: sound can be nowhere better than at the source - and stylus/cartridge IS/WAS the only source for most people (from) back then.
 
What you describe in sound smells like stylus/cartridge trouble - either it is worn, not adjusted properly, both of these, input imedance of the preamp not optimal for the cartridge used, record demaged - any of these can produce sound like described. Please take a pic of your cart either on TT or better with headshell detached from the arm/TT so that can be photographed better. It might be something a better stylus for reasonable price is available for.
 
There are cartridges costing 30000 $. No, you read those 4 zeroes behind  the first digit just right - 30K is correct. I would not enter a discussion whether such things are normal/worthwhile etc. But analog below certain point just does not make any sense. Be prepared to spend for a decent stylus/cart about the sum you paid for your TT. If you have no means of checking the styli for wear etc prior to purchase - avoid buying used as pleague. I am  not saying all sellers of used phono carts are crooks - but more likely than not, a stylus/cartridge nearing its end gets dumped on ebay and although you still may be able to use it, the hours left in it will likely to be quite low, making you to pay per hour of play far more than you would with the brand new stylus/cart. To be blunt - an old lady that still looks good enough to make you wonder how she might have looked in her prime is still not an equivalent for the real thing. I buy used only if and when there are either pictures of the diamond tip in the description of  the auction, seller offers reasonable return policy, deal is so good it is worth the gamble or the thing is so rare one simply can not afford to be too fussy about condition.
Unless you have (access to ) the microscope and take a crash dive course in stylus tip profile polishing types and learn what to look for the signs of wear in a diamond stylus, provided you can check used stylus before purchasing it or it is backed by reasonable return policy, buying new or NOS is the safest bet.

 

[penmarker]

Yes I don't intend to buy any used stylus or cartridge as I consider them as perishables. Things that has life expectancy and degrades over time such as the stylus tips shouldn't be bought used in my book.

I'll take a picture of it with a better camera later when I have access to it. I've googled some more solutions and a lot of them really suggested that it has something to do with the alignment, overhang, azimuth, and VTA of the tonearm and cartridge. Luckily, 2 days ago I found a store that sells the alignment disc, but I didn't see any tracking force gauges. They should have it judging by the store's equipments.

Do you have suggestions on what cartridge I should get? A local online store is selling Goldring Electra for an acceptable price, along with the other more expensive counterparts.

 

[analogsurviver]

Quote:

Yes I don't intend to buy any used stylus or cartridge as I consider them as perishables. Things that has life expectancy and degrades over time such as the stylus tips shouldn't be bought used in my book.
I'll take a picture of it with a better camera later when I have access to it. I've googled some more solutions and a lot of them really suggested that it has something to do with the alignment, overhang, azimuth, and VTA of the tonearm and cartridge. Luckily, 2 days ago I found a store that sells the alignment disc, but I didn't see any tracking force gauges. They should have it judging by the store's equipments.
Do you have suggestions on what cartridge I should get? A local online store is selling Goldring Electra for an acceptable price, along with the other more expensive counterparts.

Hold your horses - you are buying things faster than I can recommend them - lol !
 
FIRST comes alignment. google "tonearm geometry setup demystified" and you can download  a pdf from www.dixaudio.rs or go to the http://www.vinylengine.com/cartridge-alignment-protractors.shtml . Even if you draw your own protractor, with all the imperfections that might creep in, you should be still capable of verifying whether the seller of yourv table adjusted the thing right for real on in words only. You will find out thre are many different alignments - do not pay too much attention to this, as the real world tolerances of cartridges/styli IS greater than the difference among various alignments that are correct at two points only anyway with any pivoted arm. Cart might well appear quite crooked in headshell/tonearm with the correct alignment after any of these protractors - NORMAL - as almost any Japanese arm in existance specifies an overhang of 15 mm, regardless of its effective lenght , offset angle , etc. That is the same as saying all people wear shoes of the same size. In general, it will mean pushing the cart as forward/away from the arm bearings and crooking it in angle towards the platter bearing/spindle. It does look odd - but is correct from technical point of view.You might even find out you will have to change the headshell in some cases to phisically allow for the correct geometry .
 
Vertical Tracking Force is best adjusted with the test record - although I own one of thev very best stylus scales in history, the Transcriptors Stylus Scales, I use it only to establish starting point (lowest VTF recommended by the manufacturer ) and measure the actual value after the cart has been optimally adjusted using a battery of test records both for measuring and listening. There ARE carts that are so precisely made to specify a VTF as 2.0 g +/- 0.05 g ( Transcriptors SS accurately shows 0.01 g ) - but I doubt you will have any of those any time soon - $$$ ! For now, if the dial built in your pick up arm counterweight kind of works, should be accurate enough to establish your VTF. 
 
Only IF the problem with sound ( on new or record tested to be good on another turntable ) after you attended to above persists, would I start looking for another stylus and/or cartridge ( Do not take seriously a guy with more vinyl grinders any sane person would still consider reasonable admittting to posess ...). Want to kind of protect you from the Chain Upgraditis Problem !

 

[penmarker]

Thanks for the link with the massive protractor library. I'll try printing some and apply the alignment to this tonearm. I also found videos on youtube showing how to use them as well. Will be useful in the future. As for now, I'm going to have to get some rest since it's really late.
 
Yeah one of the prominent distortion I face is the record sounding worse as it goes nearer to the center. I really hope things will turn for the better with the alignment done.
Thanks a lot analogsurviver, you've been a great teacher to us.