Any audiophiles in the room?

I've recently found myself interested in vinyl again (thanks to you know who for that renewed interest) and decided to get one of my many turntables up and running. I'm in need of a 5 pin din connector for it. Any suggestions? Does gold plating and silver wire make that much difference? Should I go for one of these hand wound things you see on ebay?

I also have a Pioneer tube receiver to connect to. It's pretty good but when listening to FM Stereo I find it full of static...why is this?

I need some good speakers now....been looking for a set of Dynaco's...just missed a set for cheap at last years Ottawa South porch sale! Darn that pissed me off!

Check for proper grounding......some of the older equipment is very sensitive to grounding.

With all the new electronic gear these days, dimmer switches in houses, CF bulbs...there often is harmonic feedback on the lines.

So.....

1. ensure you have aproper ground...by that make sure you have a metal rod and copper line from your panel into the ground or a good connection to the copper water line in the house from your pannel....

2. turn off all dimmers and CF bulbs.....

3. also...turn off cell phones...blackbery.....devices when close to the older system.

I recommend you call or visit

Centek

2285 St Laurent Blvd, Ottawa, ON

(613) 738-8787‎

The best time is Saturday 10 to 2 when you can talk to Barry or Bao.

They are experts in turntables and tube equipment. They do quality work and are very reasonably priced.

BB

Excellent, thanks guys. I do know a guy that services electronics from his home and is good with older tube stuff. Maybe just an inspection of my receiver would be a good idea.

I also have some "Phantom" speaker wire, pretty expensive stuff that I got in a deal...it's very heavy gauge like maybe 12 or 10 gauge. Once I find that set of Dynaco's or something similar, I'm going to use that stuff.

How can you tell if a stylus is worn out by looking at it?

Capitalman, here is the set I have in my basement, I have had it for years (since teenage days) Pioneer Receiver Model sx-636, Pioneer turntable (needs repairs as well) and a set kick ass Akai St-20's speakers that can really push out the voloume.

I listen down stairs in the basement just cranking the tunes on FM stations with no issue with static.

The guage wiring for the speakers is 10 gauge! Now the old vinyl's are stacked, and put away, but it would be nice to listen to those old tunes again.

I just looked at them, and LMAO I have the Cheech and Chong Wedding album, "Wings", BTO well you know 70's music.

I am no expert (and don't use turntables myself) but I am pretty sure you should change the needle before you can actually physically see problems with it ;)

I would think you would hear a problem way before you could see one. Logic says a worn needle would make the sound very dull (Low) as it would not be able to pick up the high frequencies properly ... also would it not track bad? (skip)

I always wondered if a worn out needle would wear a record?

Also do high quality needles really make a difference for regular listening?

I know the DJ's who scratch and abuse the records to death use very expensive cartridges (I remember having to replace them all the time when I ran a club with 1200's in the booth - about every 3 / 4 months it would cost us a few hundred dollars for new stylus's) - the tips of the worn stylus's were often burnt looking but these dj's who scratch probably cause a lot of that burnt look.

Do new needles wear records at all? I would think the needle over time would wear the records right out... but old records still seam to play and it always surprises me.

I remember spending hours and hours converting records to mp3's and filtering out all the scratches and pops... now people want that sound back! :P LOL

New needles are fantastic BUT.. you always have to make sure that the balance on the tone arm is perfect. Too light and the stylus makes brand new grooves where no grooves should exist, too heavy and you will be buying your 8th copy of Santana "Abraxas" (I met Carlos Santana a few years back and he was the one to tell me that my tone arm was too heavy and was eating his masterpiece.)

Best advice? If you want your audio equipment running at its peak, let the pros set it up and then don't mess with it!!!! Better to pay an extra c note for a professional than ruin your priceless vinyl!!

There's a place on Bank rigth by 7th heaven futon (near cooper) where they sell and repair exclusively "vintage" equipment. I was there recently to buy vinyl record cleaning equipment. The owner told me they did turntable tune-ups as well. The website take five audio has plenty of turntable stuff ranging from a few stylus to tweaks. I added a seperate turntable preamp to my setup. It helps.

Silver cables are good (silver being a better conductor) but is more expensive than copper wiring. I now use a tube headphone pre-amp myself. It does sound better than a standard headphone jack.

I tend to agree with olddog on making ajustments on a turntable, unless you are very comfortable in doing so... and there some sweet turntables being manufactured out there....