tonearm, cartridges and balancing..

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-- tonearm, cartridges and balancing..

Posted by Scottaculous on Mar-25-2002 20:26:

tonearm, cartridges and balancing..

this is the only thing bugging me about my tables.

I have 1210s and ortofon nightclub cartridges.

I followed everything to try and balance the weight on my tonearm yet despite all of that one of my tables has an off-balance weight. The right channel is always slightly louder than my left channel. It's not much but anything less than perfect is irritating for me. ;-)

Anyone have a clue what might be wrong?

Posted by blighty on Mar-25-2002 22:56:

Hi,

Check out this page:

http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/user/T.J.Shapcott

Greetings,
Blighty

Posted by Scottaculous on Mar-26-2002 00:00:

thanks for the link. i followed all the instructions but when I get to the part where it says after I balanced the tonearm to add addition weight for cartridges. in my case it's a 3 for ortofon. the thing is i can only move it to 2. it's as far as it goes...

anyone else have had this problem?

Posted by j_spot on Mar-26-2002 07:11:

I bet your problem is you have the Aux weight on the back of the tonearm right?

that little extra screwy weight thing...ya, for use w/ nightclubs, take it off. Then it should work (I had the same problem when I got my tables)

Posted by capricorn15 on Mar-26-2002 11:31:

yea , if you read the manual for the cartridge and for the turntalbes, i think it tells you how to do it, its ntto hard idont think

Posted by Tony Morello on Mar-26-2002 16:17:

to deal with the differences in volume, check to make sure your trim/gain is adjusted properly

if that doesn't work, check your cartridge connections

Posted by Great Outdoors on Mar-26-2002 18:18:

I think left/right volumes doesn't really have to do with counterweights. I think the counterweight will weigh the whole thing down, does it not? So either you get sound or no sound at all. Maybe you should check your needles..

Posted by DJTJ on Mar-26-2002 21:27:

quote:
Originally posted by blighty
Hi,

Check out this page:

http://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/user/T.J.Shapcott

Greetings,
Blighty

Posted by DJTJ on Mar-26-2002 21:32:

quote:
Originally posted by Great Outdoors
I think left/right volumes doesn't really have to do with counterweights. I think the counterweight will weigh the whole thing down, does it not? So either you get sound or no sound at all. Maybe you should check your needles..

He's right. The weight setting doesn't really affect the volume of the record. What you have to realise is; no two cartridges/styli are ever going to be identical. One will always produce slightly louder sound than the other. What has probably happened is that you have just been unfortunate enough to get two that are a fair distance apart in terms of volume. This isn't to say that either of them is a bad stylus/needle, they probably just came from a different manufacturing batch or something.

Posted by JohnSmith on Jun-11-2002 04:12:

Re: tonearm, cartridges and balancing..

quote:
Originally posted by Scottaculous
this is the only thing bugging me about my tables.

I have 1210s and ortofon nightclub cartridges.

I followed everything to try and balance the weight on my tonearm yet despite all of that one of my tables has an off-balance weight. The right channel is always slightly louder than my left channel. It's not much but anything less than perfect is irritating for me. ;-)

Anyone have a clue what might be wrong?

HEY! that's EXACTLY what is happening to ME! and i bought your mixer! am i seeing a similarity here?

Posted by DJ LIQUID on Jun-11-2002 04:23:

quote:
Originally posted by j_spot
I bet your problem is you have the Aux weight on the back of the tonearm right?

that little extra screwy weight thing...ya, for use w/ nightclubs, take it off. Then it should work (I had the same problem when I got my tables)

I had those on mine...then my friend (who is a top notch DJ) came over to spin...he told me about that...he yanked them off and set up the carts/tonarms perfectly

havent skipped since

Posted by JohnSmith on Jun-11-2002 04:27:

actually, mine is the same for BOTH tables. it's also like that for a CD, I tested all 6 line inputs, and all 3 phono inputs.

the right channel is just a bit louder, just the slightest bit, one light louder at most points.

I tried different weight settings, different tone arm heights, switched my slipmatts, everything. no difference at all, the right channel is just louder, period.

all the knobs on the mixer are set at exactly 12 o clock.

and you know what? it doesn't SOUND like one speaker is louder.

I think maybe, its just that mixer, one VU light is slightly more sensitive than the other.

Posted by DJ-Kuza on Jun-11-2002 13:56:

I have the same problem. Can't seem to fix it. It's either my amp or my mixers' amp.

Posted by JohnSmith on Jun-11-2002 14:19:

quote:
Originally posted by DJ-Kuza
I have the same problem. Can't seem to fix it. It's either my amp or my mixers' amp.

well, mine is definitely the mixer. the levels are bouncing on the mixer, not on the amp.

do you have a vestax PCV 275 maybe?

i even tried switching needles last nigtht, no difference.

Posted by DJ-Kuza on Jun-11-2002 15:06:

nope, but a lot of people have the same problem. If it's that noticable, take it back and have the check it. You can get it switched for a new one if you complaine enough.

Posted by JohnSmith on Jun-11-2002 17:07:

well.. it's not all that noticeable. and i am certainly not going to ship it back to scottaculous just for this. i can live with it.

Posted by Dj Flesch on Jun-11-2002 20:07:

I had an american dj mixer and now I have a DJm-600 and one channel has always been louder than the other. I think it's inherent in all mixers from all of these stories!