Have a look at QED cables on eBay. There are a few for around a tenner then try it between your source, be it CD player, tuner or streaming device and your amp. Speaker cables are widely available. Again, QED good value. Chord also great value. You can go as far as you want. My neighbour will spend thousands on a pair of cables, but as with everything it’s diminishing returns. The best value improvements are, in my view, from stock supplied as new to first tier specialist as I described earlier.
2 Likes
Following your post I started listening to that ‘Women in Jazz’ playlist. Certainly some great tracks unfortunately, when listening to Stormy Weather, I kept remembering that Morecambe and Wise sketch 
…
3 Likes
Morning everyone!
I recently posted about resonance being picked up (possibly) from the new AT-120 TT. I bought new speakers on stands, relocated their position. Placed some foam sound deadening material under the platter. Set up the TT properly and bought an acrylic platter mat too. All sounding great now so it could have been any one or all of those things that have improved and eliminated the resonance detected previously. I mentioned about fitting some 0 rings to the tone arm too? So I’ve just done that but not had chance to test yet. Heres pic’s of what I’ve done.
Thought it easier to illustrate them in a green colour, might swap for black colour.
Barrie
2 Likes
If you are worried about tone arm resonance, there is a simple test, the Tap Test. (Think of a guitar string.)
Raise the arm with the lifter as usual so nothing is touching it or the stylus, then tap it very gently with the shaft of a small light screwdriver while listening to the output from the speakers. If you can hear anything it is the arm resonating enough that the inertia of the stylus tip produces an output. I would expect nothing though.
A lot more careful now, rest the stylus on your tracking gauge or similar and again very, very gently tap the arm at different places along its length. If it is loudest in one spot (not nearest the pickup), that is the place to put a damper band or two. If no difference along its length other than steadily getting louder closer to the pickup, then the arm is not resonating.
But I would not expect the arm to resonate.
However, the turntable platter itself is another matter. Think of a saucepan lid, how much that can ring-ting-ting if it is a stainless one, and how much less an aluminium one does. The Tap test works here too, no stylus needed just the plastic handle of the small screwdriver! It should be dead, if you can hear a consistent ping or rumble it is probably those frequencies coming through the stylus as well.
The chassis is the other place, if it can flex or ring enough to introduce vibration between arm and turntable platter. Again it should sound dead, which is why high-density chipboard was so popular in the past when an SME arm (etc) was separate to the turntable system.
A mechanics stethoscope (long thin pointed Phirips screwdriver, handle in the ear) on the moving turntable and chassis can also pick up a lot of clues depending on where it is touching.
On my ancient 301 + SME system I used 1" engineered-wood board with cross bracing underneath. This board then sits on three battens bolted to the walls of the bay in a U shape, with a draft-excluder foam cushion between board and battens. It is very dead, only the biggest HGVs hitting a pothole at speed in the road outside come through, but then they shake the whole house as well.
Have fun!
4 Likes
Hi Richard, thank you for postingb those tips, I was just listening to some Sinatra when you posted.
My findings are;
Tone arm lifted, an even sound just getting slightly louder, the nearer to the cartridge end. Tapping the counterweight produced a much deeper tone though not part of this test.
I could hear the tap on the tone arm through the speakers when stylus resting.
Metallic sound from platter when tapped but very short lived. Not 'tinging’as such.
Haven’t tried the chassis but TBH, it appears, to my ears anyway, that resonance is now a distant Memory! I followed recommended positioning for the 0 rings on my tone arm from a couple of sites and it seems to be working 
Barrie
1 Like
A question for fellow audiophiles with record collections;
Can anyone recommend a web site or any other source whereby one can obtain the value of their LPs?
I have around 200 some of which I think / hope are rarities; I’ll probably not part with any as I still have a very good turntable and play one now and again,but would be interested to know their value.
Cheers
Darryl
2 Likes
Interesting question. I have about a thousand Lp’s that rarely get played. Selling on eBay seems to be one of two ways, sell in bulk for compromised prices, or sell individually with all the hassle involved. I have a lot of original 70’s rock vinyl that if in good nick seems to have some good value. I go through this through process every so often but then start to think about how personal my collection is, so it still sits there gathering dust…
2 Likes
Hi Darryl, I just did a quick search on FB marketplace, put in “records wanted” brought a load of companies and private ads, both local (to me) and national, advertising. If you put a prepopulated list of the ones you want valued, together with specific details, it would be easy to paste into a msg and send that list out and see what comes back? Just a suggestion and I’m sure you’d get lowballed by some but you’d certainly see who was interested!
Barrie
Suffered the same thing at work years ago. I had such a terrible time with static I got in the habit of using a pound coin to push the lift buttons to spare my fingers the inevitable zaps. Why was it only me who had this trouble? Changed my shoes and it went away like magic.
I still retain a couple of instinctive habits from that experience: I always touch some grounded metal before touching sensitive electronics (okay, that’s just a good idea anyway) and I still lean the back of my leg against the car’s sill as I step out.
1 Like
I sold my old trusty Rega ELA speakers yesterday, probably late 80’s or early 90’s vintage. Surprising how much tight, tuneful bass can be generated from a single 5" woofer coupled to a transmission line enclosure, I hadn’t used them for about 7 years, however on hooking them up so that i could demonstrate them working to the prospective buyer, I was in two minds whether I should actually let them go.
They came from the factory in a black vinyl wrap finish, however a few years ago i had my first and only experiment at doing some real wood veneering, i don’t think i did too bad even if i say so myself…
Got a pair of Rega Kytes in another box in the garage, I wonder how they sound these days…
4 Likes
If your garage is anything like mine, no heating or insulation, they’re probably deceased! Pity, Rega models are nice speakers.
1 Like
This tells me there are no resonances in the tone arm.
I gave you the clue with “Think guitar string” but carefully resisted the temptation to tell you to listen for harmonics, this as a “blind test”. If the arm had any resonances, then tapping it gently in the acoustic middle (likely also the physical middle) would have given you second harmonic on the fundamental resonance, a third of the way along, third harmonic, etc, just like on a guitar string.
But since the only different tone you heard was on the weight, it showed you were aware of different tones, and since there were none there from the arm it is a “Good Result.” 
An S shaped arm has a slightly longer mechanical length than the distance from stylus to pivot, so is effectively tuned slightly off-resonance.
My old SP25 arms were straight, and Garrard made great play in the advert for the balance weight being rubber mounted with elasticity carefully tuned to damp out resonances. I never noticed one way or the other, but the rumble was truly awful, and I fixed them with grade 5 precision caged thrust bearings instead of the rough old things they were supplied with.
1 Like
Sounds like I got something right! it’s all a learning curve really, not the same as slapping a few 45’s on the Dansette! 
I’m really enjoying it all at the moment.
Had some Diana Krall on earlier, I could really hear her breathing on the songs 
Barrie
1 Like
Thanks for the replies, Bettabuilda and Dotshill Dave
Looks like my next step (during lockdown Mk2?) is to catalogue my collection and photograph each cover then put out some “feelers”. Then I’ll tackle on my cassette and MiniDisc collections!
Cheers
Darryl
1 Like
Hi guys,
Been following the thread with interest, as I was pretty keen myself at one time.Which brings me on nicely to my big sell.I still have some
“old, vintage, whatever it’s known as” gear that may be interest.
- Dual 505-2 belt drive deck.
2.Technics compact disc player.
3.Rotel RA -820BX amp
4.Rotel RT - 850C tuner
5.Yamaha K 220 cassette player.
6 Mordaunt- Short speakers x2
7 Yamaha free standing hi fi unit.
It’s currently just sitting in a back room, unused, and might just be of use to someone. I’m not looking for a kings ransom for it.Have photos if you want me to forward them.
Regards,
Mike…
1 Like
Good of you to give a heads up! Whereabouts are you Mike (roughly)? Might help anyone that is interested hope this isn’t against forum rules? There is a non mx5 items for sale section, don’t want you getting into bother!
Barrie
Just had this notification for those with deep pockets!
Barrie
1 Like
Like a moth to a flame for Bettabuilda, he doesn’t need any encouragement. 
1 Like
Hi Barrie,
We are in Chesterfield area. Easy access via Juction 29 M1.
Pretty flexible time wise too if that helps.
Regards,
Mike.
1 Like
I saw one of those Beogram 4000 pre-release in Bristol at a big hi-fi show in the very early 1970s. They demonstrated the amazing tracking by tilting the whole thing onto its side so the record was almost vertical. The claim was it would work upside down if they stuck the record down, etc (but really?) I guess it was a response to the Technics SL10 which could actually do it by using the lid to hold the record in place, or maybe Technics got it right after B&O missed the mark - memory weak.
And they were playing the Decca Zubin Mehta Also Sprach Zarathustra with the Maas Row Carillon featured (I still have the LP). That was my favourite tracking test because in a couple of places on the record the bass is so heavy you can see the wide spaced grooves. Some cartridges cannot cope with it.
That specific record was why I gave up on the SP25 and invested in a 301 and SME.
Now have a look at someone repairing that tone arm mech (4002/4 but still the same in essence)
1 Like