I been having this problem for a while... I have been trying to record a set onto my computer, I noticed a problem I was having alittle when just listening to tracks normally but more so when I was recording. I am getting tearing in sound on hihats mostly and fast snare build ups. I have tried different mixers, needles and carts and even amps. I believe it is somehow the decks I have, these are technics 1200 mk3's, I bought them from the states on the net and shipped them here to New Zealand. I think somehow cause we use a far higher wattage maybe it somehow got damaged, I am using a small transformer because of the obvious watt difference and socket size/shape difference. I am not sure if many of you out there are familiar with decks and things but any help would be great to figure out why I may have this tearing on my sound.

this happens when you play the music out of your amp directly too? hmm.. I know old/cheap carts can cause this sound.. which ones do you have, and have tried out?

I have tried going from the turntables directly into my amp... sounded somewhat the same no bass coming through, but I will try it again now.

I have tried the stanton 500's and am currently using the goovemaster rm 2's.

Do you use 230/240V mains electricity in NZ? If so, you really shouldn't have bought 1200's from the US, because they use 110V and the 1200 does not have a voltage selector switch. You need to get hold of a step-down transformer from 230/240V to 110V so that the TT's run properly. You should be able to get this from a hardware store or electronics store.

But this is irrelevant, because this is *not* the problem with your sound quality. The turntable does not affect the sound in this way. If you take the plug on the turntable out of the wall socket, and spin the platter with your finger, you still get the same output into the mixer as with the TT plugged in.

When Chrono said about playing the music directly out of the amp, he didn't mean connect the TT directly to the amp. He meant via the mixer. Does it still sound bad quality when the computer is not involved? Or is it just when playing back from the computer that it sounds awful?

I actually do use stepdown transformers, the plugs are too different to plug in so even if I wanted to I couldn't plug them into the plugs without the stepdown transformer.

This awful sound is when I record to my PC, when I play through my amp through my speakers and the problem still occurs when I change mixers. So basically everything

I have been chatting to the 1200s.com technics support technicians about my problem. They say that problems could occur because of a bad transformer and also because of the needles I use (groovemaster rm 2). One thing I found interesting was single mount needles (banna syle thingee needles) are not recommend to use with curved arms on technics decks and are known to damage the tone arm! I haven't got to the bottom of the problem yet but I am getting there. even so I have still had this problem when changing needles, so I have no idea whats going I am gonna try some things but these things gonna cost me abit