My record player - noises

GetALife

Hello-ho!

I couldn't think of a better thread for this issue although I know that it's mainly focused on gear for your musical instruments.

I need some help with my record player and hope someone can help me out with his or hers expertise

For years vinyls have been interesting but not essential for me. I had a compact stereo with an included vinyl player and a few years back I bought a used record player which is ok IMO but not too fancy. It's a Garrard GT-35 P: http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/attachment.php…

I don't know why I discovered this now...probably because I listened to the "Trio" from King Crimson's latest vinyl release: The "Starless And Bible Black" reissue. The piece "Trio" is very quiet at the beginning. Listening to it, I got aware of a "bumping" noise that occurs regularly - probably a result of a mechanical interaction of the record and the arm. It is quite annoying. I don't know what exactly is happening there and if I can change it somehow.

I recorded a bit of it...the recording is rather hissy (probably due to the quality of the record player, cable and my ZOOM H2), so I emphasized the bass frequencies (which are actually louder) to make the "bumps" more recognizable. They occur at 00:03, 00:08 and 00:12 in the audio file I uploaded here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9cz4bjc3i…/kc_trio%20-%20bump.wav…

I appreciate you reading and listening and hope you can give me advice

Chris

dudeman

Sorry to hear about your troubles. The links you provided don't work for me but you have a couple easy things to check into for a possible solution.

First, you should rebalance your tonearm and set the tracking force to your stylus manufacturers' specs. While you're doing this, move the tonearm around very gently and try to feel for any resistance or rough spots in its movement. If you feel resistance, you likely have dirt or crud in your tonearm bearings.

Second, you may have a flat spot on the belt, especially if the turntable sat unused for a long time. If you can, remove the platter and slowly turn the motor by hand. Pay close attention to the way the belt goes around the motor pulley. You shouldn't see any play or movement in the belt.

Good luck!

rollings

Chompy sometimes would make humming/bumping/whirring sounds on records as they rotated around. I am not a record player mechanic, but I found that by removing the record and then slowly, gently, and methodically pressing down and turning the platform spinny thing a little bit here and a little bit there (like you know what you are doing) the problem was fixed!

I also blew on the stylus alot. I hope this helps!

DriftingByTheStorm

Re upload your file. Broken link.
In my humble experience, the most common causes of a regularly reoccurring off sound are either

1. a warp. warped record or the platter itself is not seated correctly.
2. a regularly reoccurring bass part that is causing feedback in the stylus due to poor placement of speakers and\or record stand being vibrated -- and in the worst of cases this actually mimics a scratch\skip.
3. the belt as mentioned before.

A warp and a bad belt are going to sound very similar. Slight decrease then re-increase in speed, at regular intervals.

The second one will just sound like distortion (primarily in the low end), and maybe a skip.

Completely noob ball shit here below,
but if you have never cleaned a record before playing it, or cleaned the stylus itself,
those would be good to accomplish too. lol. You said "bump" and a big chunk of dirt on the record would definitely cause a "bump" but i think we all probably assumed you knew that.

GetALife

Thanks for your replies so far!

This link hopefully works: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9cz4bjc3iqgwoml/kc_trio - bump.wav?dl=0

If it is the belt - would you recommend that I change it myself? Otherwise I'd give it to a repair service. There is a good one nearby.

dudeman

If you can determine that the belt is the problem, you can probably replace it yourself.

If you don't think that you can accurately diagnose the problem, then I would take it to a professional.

Good luck!