It's The Little Things!

CAREFUL INSPECTION OF TURNTABLES - AUGUST 2022

When servicing turntables, it rarely is a matter of plug and play. Careful inspection is required. In scale, the diamond stylus in a groove is like a bolder being held by you while speeding along at 60 miles per hour with a pivot point nearly 3 miles away.

Precision is everything and any error will likely result in distortion through mistracking. Loose parts or misalignments are not your friend.

Likewise, it is essential, particularly with old turntables, to carefully inspect with wires between the cartridge and the tonearm itself. These are called cartridge tags or leads. Sometimes, you discover amazing things. Today I worked on an Linn LP12 and discovered that the 20 year old audiophile upgrade silver leads had deteriorated badly (see photo above!) Notwithstanding the connectors were gold and the wire silver, it appeared as if the plastic insulation and heat shrink had actually started to break down. The residue leached onto adjoining surfaces. Given the very low electrical output of either moving coil or moving magnet cartridges, this was definitely causing a significant downgrade in performance. I replaced them immediately.

So, do I recommend buying expensive upgrade cartridge tags? Not really. The sonic results are very much a case by case basis and not always good. One of the common problems with such aftermarket products is that they often do not properly fit on the male plugs of either the tonearm or the cartridge or even both! So, even with new cables, poor contacts result in degraded sound from what could have been achieved with cheaper proper fitting leads.

Oh, just one more thing. When buying a used table inspect the metal tags themselves for repair work. I have seen too many tags soldered by Itchy and Scratchy. It may sorta work but you are not paying with sorta money. Either pass on the table or accept that you will need to replace them as part of the purchase price.

Happy Listening as always.

Lou

Don't Blow It...Safety First! - July 2022

REPLACING BLOWN FUSES!

If fuses in your components (i.e. amplifiers) need to be replaced, they must ONLY be replaced with the exact rated value and type. Slo-blow fuses should never be used unless the product specifically requires their use. The use of either higher values or the inappropriate use of slo-blows risks further damage to the product, potential fire and potential damage to your bodily organs.

Let's deep dive on fuses a bit further. The reason slo-blow fuses exist is that the circuitry has an initial higher draw at turn on only and not during normal use. Therefore, the slo-blow is designed (and there are different ratings even here for the amount of time it will handle the draw surge) to deal with that. Quick blows are just that! If you exceed the draw level at any time, it burns. Over the past 20 years or so, you may have noticed that you don't see glass fuses but, rather, ceramic ones that you can not visually check. The reason for this is that the EEOC required the use of ceramic fuses to prevent the sparking burn of a glass fuse from cracking the container resulting in an uncontrolled spark inside the product and the potential for a fire. The only way to check ceramic fuses is to pull them from the circuit (the product being unplugged) and using a multimeter to check for continuity. If your product has a ceramic fuse, that's what must be used. Actually, it's not a bad thing to replace glass fuses with ceramic ones as a matter of safety. It's not required to do so, but it is a good practice.

One final point: If you suspect an issue with your component, just keep it simple by calling or emailing us! Lou