5:24
What not to do to a turntable
On YouTube this video is called Don't Do This to Your Vinyl Turntable if You Value Your Kit and Want It to Last!
What this lesson teaches
Five minutes of things not to do, and he grades them himself: some you might get away with, some mean you are insane, and some will break the deck over time.
Arm height set for looks
The tone-arm housing height is adjustable, and it is not a styling choice. Having it slammed flat or racked right up because it looks good is wrong in both directions.
It exists to match the thickness of your mat. A thin slip mat wants the housing low; a thick rubber mat wants it higher.
The sticking slip mat - and the hairdryer
A tip inside a tip. If your record is sticking to the slip mat instead of sliding freely, the mat may be damp.
Try a hairdryer on it. Felt absorbs moisture out of the air, and a damp mat grips.
Do not clip the arm down with the lever up
The same warning as the maintenance lesson, and it gets its own entry here because he calls it a big, big no.
Lift the arm with the cue lever, swing it to the rest, put the lever down, then clip it. Clipping it while the lever is still raised loads the lift mechanism and the arm fitting attached to it, continuously, for however long the deck sits there.
Do not drag the stylus on the slip mat
The distinction he makes here is worth getting right, because he does the "wrong" thing on camera to make it.
He lowers the needle onto the slip mat and leaves it there. Stationary, that is harmless - a diamond resting on felt.
Moving is the problem. Drag the stylus across a slip mat and you are running it through fabric and whatever dust the fabric holds, which blunts the tip and can bend the cantilever.
His rule: the only thing the needle should be on is a piece of vinyl.
So when you are cueing by hand and the needle comes off the record, lift it with the lever - do not slide it back on.
Do not put coins on the cartridge
The one he is most emphatic about, because it is the most common.
A dime, a penny, a 50p taped to the head shell to stop the needle skipping. Don't.
If your turntable came with a proper small weight designed for the head shell, that is different - but fit it knowing which cartridge it corresponds to, because weight and cartridge go together. The specification you are aiming for is a tracking force in grams, stated by the cartridge manufacturer.
His complaint is that people fit a cartridge, stick a weight on, and have no idea how many grams are now pressing on the groove. The result is ruined vinyl for no benefit - because, as the maintenance lesson says at length, skipping is cured by setting the arm up correctly.
Calibrate the deck properly and you can throw the coin away.
Do not put things on your decks
And he admits he has done it: the only things that belong on a turntable are a record, or the lid.
Not drinks, not a phone, not a laptop, not the record box. The plinth sits on compliant feet precisely so that vibration does not reach the stylus, and everything you stack on it is weight that defeats that - quite apart from what a spilled drink does to the electronics an inch below the platter.
Contents of the video
0:00 In other words, what you definitely must not do
Alright, I'm not sure how long this video will be but this is the don'ts with vinyl turntables. In other words, what you definitely must not do. Now there's levels here about, you know, well you might get away with it up to, you're insane, you're an idiot, if you do that you're going to break it over time. So, one of the first things is with most professional turntables you can increase or decrease the height of the tonearm housing. Now what you don't want to do is have it flat completely or way up high just because it looks good. Now the whole idea of using the height on the tonearm housing height adjustment is so you will adjust the height. According to the slip mat that you've got on your turntable. So in a way, if you're just using the likes of say a cuber butter rug then of course you want the housing quite low.
1:48 Sorry, what you do is you lift, you move over and then you lower
Alternatively, if you've got a whole school slippy slip mat that's really like a rubber mat, they're not that good most of them, to be quite honest, you're better off having the adjustment higher. But if you are finding very, a tip in a tip here, if you're finding that your piece of vinyl is sticking on your slip mat, just get a hairdryer and try drying it because it could be because it's moist, could be. All right so that's tip number one. Tip number two is simply this. This is a definite no. At the moment what I've done, I've lifted the tonearm using this little lever here. What you don't want to do is put the tonearm back over and then lock it in place. Okay, don't do that. That's a big, big no because what you're doing, you're putting pressure
Here on the part of the lever here that's elevating the tonearm. So what you're doing is you're putting unnecessary pressure on the arm, on the part that's connected to the lever and so on. So definitely don't. So of course let's imagine that the tonearm is there, it's ready to go and you don't like using your finger to put the needle on the record when the drum beat goes like this. Sorry, what you do is you lift, you move over and then you lower. Now you'll notice I've now got the needle on the slip mat. Don't ever do that! Why have I done it? Because I'm not moving it. It's stationary. All that's happened is the small needle, the diamond is just sitting on top of the slide. Now if I started to move it like that, that's of course when we'd get into trouble and that's
3:27 Sorry the head shell I beg your pardon
What you don't want to do. So do not, believe me, don't do it! Start moving the needle on the slip mat. In fact the only thing the needle should be on is a piece of vinyl. So I'm going to lift it up, I'm going to move it over, I'm going to put the armrest down and lock it in place. Sorted. Don't do this! If you've got a cartridge like that, do not start putting coins on there. Don't do it. Now you may have seen people in the past put like a dime, a penny and so on on there but don't do it. On the other hand if your turntable comes with something like that which is a small weight then before you place the weight onto the top of the cartridge, make sure you have the relevant cartridge itself. Sorry the head shell I beg your pardon. Put the weight on the head shell make sure you
Have the relevant cartridge that corresponds to the weight that you need because so many people I've seen as soon as they get the decks they put the cartridge onto the head shell and then they get a weight they put it on and they don't really know what pressure how many grams of pressure they're placing on the needle and before you know it you could be completely ruining your vinyl for the sake of nothing on the other hand go and check out a bunch of videos online where you can calibrate your deck correctly and you can just take that coin and throw it away i hope that makes sense to you all right so there you go there's a few tips on what you should and you shouldn't do now there are many more and one thing you shouldn't do is put coins on your decks the other thing you shouldn't do
Which i've done is over there put stuff on your deck why not well you just don't do it the only thing you should put on your deck and yes okay i've done it in the past i put stuff on my decks is a piece of vinyl or the lid practice and enjoy thank you
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
