Turntable Overview

So far, in a couple weeks, I feel that I have learned a lot about turntables.  Certainly, I have learned a lot more than I ever knew before.

Being honest, I didn't really know anything.

The first thing I learned, and probably as good as any place to start, was learning all the parts.  Like showing a kid his nose, mouth, eyes, etc. I learned all the parts that make up the turntable, at least on the outside.  The guts of a turntable will have to wait for a few posts down the road, as I am nowhere near tinkering with that.

When you first look at the TT, you notice it has really two or three distinct parts.  The round thing the record sits on, called the platter (on top of which is a mat of some kind) is the first thing you notice.  The next would be the arm that you put on the record to make it play.  My TT is semi-automatic, which means that I have to manually put it down, but it will automatically come off the record.  Fully automatic does both, and fully manual, you have to do both.

When you look more carefully at the arm, or tone arm, you see a lot of different things that I didn't know about.  The end piece that goes on the record is the stylus, which is attached to the cartridge, which is attached to the headshell by multi-coloured tiny wires.  I have a standard mount cartridge, and there is also a P-mount kind, but I don't know what that is yet.  At the back end of the tone arm is a weight, as well as some kind of mechanism used for anti-skating, which is just another weight applying a different force.

The first weight is used for applying a downward force on the stylus, called a tracking force, usually 1.5 - 2g.  The second force, or anti-skating is an outward force, sort of pulling the arm back from centre, so it doesn't just skate across the record.

Pretty quickly, I found that these two forces should be balanced, and they are fairly delicate.  You can buy tools to balance them properly, and should definitely do so when/if you upgrade your cartridge.  I have not taken this step yet, but from what I have read, it is important to set it up properly for optimal improvement in sound.

I'm sure I am missing something, and the insides are for another day, but at least you didn't go too long before you found out WTF anti-skate was.