.
I wouldn’t. I just bought a vintage technics turntable that had a Stanton on it and was going to do the same thing but I really dislike Stanton’s and they aren’t made anymore. They are kinda thin sounding. Your stylus looks bent but could be the image I was going to reco the Ortofon blue - I have it on both my turntables and love it.
Do you have a stylus brush and do you clean it after every side? This is important. Cleaning styli and records is another rabbit hole etc. I use this:
I do have a stylus brush and have used it as well as cleaning the LPs themselves. Some did some better than other but even a brand new LP sounded like trash. It does look bent to me as well…
I can’t tell from the pics how the cart mounts and how you adjust. You can probably look up the manual online to see. There are some basic adjustments needed after install. What I can’t tell is how you install the Blue on this headshell or if you need a new headshell. If he’s selling you the cart and the headshell for that price and setting it up it’s a good deal. If not, he’s charging you a lot to do the steps below.
A stylus protractor is used to set the overall length of time arm and where the stylus hits the record. The cart comes with a paper one which works fine.
The same protractor is used to set the left/right/centered-ness so the stylus tracks well across the record.
Tracking force is set via a counterweight system (hard to see yours). You can eyeball this or pick up a cheap gauge (see below). You don’t need the gauge but comes in handy over time.
Antiskate - lots of people say leave this alone, that’s what I do lol.
This guy is pretty good.
Neoteck Digital Turntable Stylus Force Scale Gauge 0.01g/5.00g Blue LCD Backlight for Tonearm Phono Cartridge Amazon.com
Progress has been made! I didn’t want to spring for the Ortofon since I was skeptical of the other functions of the turntable so I went with an Audio Technica AT95VM-e. Installation was a bit of a trifle trying to line up the screws in such a small space! Even when using a tiny screwdriver I wish I had another inch of clearance.
I watched the video above and he had some really great advice. I leveled the table first, then I noticed after removing the old cart that the mounting holes were static and I would not be able to adjust the new one, just mount it to the existing holes. Once that was done, I wiped off a record and gave it a go!
HOLY SOUND FIDELITY BATMAN!!! It sounds 1000% better! I might need to re-solder the RCA plugs as the left one seems a bit fragile and the left side will cut out sometimes. It could be the HiFi system doing this so I plan to grab a mid-2000s era Sony Amp that I have and test with that one as well.
For now I’m super happy with this progress! Thanks a bunch @John_E for sharing that video with me. One thing of note is the website he mentions does not accept new forum members so I could not get the free protractor diagram that way.
