Possible Problems:
• Noise in the system: a hum or buzz:
o The answer is to ground the motor and system properly. A line filter that floats the grounds will not
allow proper grounding of the phono system, the phono system must be grounded! Phono is not like
a CD player and if this is your first table or your return to vinyl after a decade or so you must remember
that phono amplification can be 1,000 times higher than CD or streaming so any noise that gets into
the system will be amplified much more. Kill the noise with proper grounding and your system will
sound better.
• A pop on motor turn on or turn off:
o In some systems the phono section is not well shielded and will pick up the EMF created by the switch
opening to turn off the turntable. If your system is like that you can get into the habit of muting (the
preferred method as you should really do that) or you can experiment with capacitors across the on-
off switch. We supply the table with a .001 microfarad cap, you can change it to a .01 microfarad cap
and it may eliminate to lower the problem to a tolerable level. A judicious grounding will many times
solve this problem also.
• Distortion in left channel:
o Too much anti-skate.
• Distortion in right channel:
o Too little anti-skate.
• Noise at startup:
o If you get a screeching sound on startup, simply powder the drive belt with talc powder and the noise
will dissipate.
• Sibilance and distortion in both channels:
o Azimuth not set correctly or diamond stylus misaligned on cartridge. This is usually a setup or cartridge
issue, not a tonearm issue. It can also be caused by a tracking force that is too light even if it reads
correctly. Tracking force needed is determined by the temperature in the room, below 70 degrees
requires greater tracking force. We have found almost all cartridges work and sound best at 72
degrees.
o A 60-watt light put above a turntable in a cold room will heat up the cartridge just enough to make it
much more compliant and track better.
o Before going crazy try a slightly higher tracking force, it usually solves all the problems and zero in on
the azimuth adjustment.
o Another possibility is probably not as bad as the next photo but will definitely cause distortion and
sibilance even in small amounts.
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