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I apologize for the threadcrap that I'm about to drop, but...
Speaking as someone who used MiniDiscs for a number of years, I can't understand why anyone would choose the format today. They were ideal in the mid-90s as a replacement for cassettes, before CDRs and cheap hard disks came along. Today there's absolutely no benefit aside from portable recording, and even that is rapidly being eliminated by portable hard disk recorders. The MD format is lossy, proprietary, copy-protected, and certainly doomed if not already dead. I would expect that in a few short years, it will be all but impossible to get media for it or repairs for the units. A few years back Sony finally came out with 1GB discs and added lossless recording, but it was too little too late. The format simply has no future now.
Computer-based recording is where it's at now. Computers (PC or Mac) can record at any number of sample rates and bit depths, which can later be converted to whatever format comes into vogue. You can adjust volume, EQ, make fades, separate tracks, etc., all within the computer. You can make lossless hi-res needle-drops for archiving, and then downsample and compress the files to MP3/AAC for iPod convenience. None of this is possible with MD. Hard disks now are absurdly cheap: you can get 500GB external drives for about $200, which will hold about 3500 regular MDs worth of material, or 500 of the later 1GB models. And that hard drive can easily be backed up to inexpensive DVD-Rs or another hard drive.
I'm sorry if I'm being a wet blanket, but I really don't think MD is a wise investment of time or money these days.
Anyway, to answer your questions:
"Now, my first question is about the recording level I should use. "
with MD (and all digital formats), you NEVER EVER want the recording levels to go above 0. It's not like analog, where the headroom depends on what kind of tape you're using. In the digital world, 0 is the absolute limit. Above that and you will have very nasty crackling and distortion, which is much nastier than the harmonic distortion that you get with analog. Some consumer equipment has built-in limiters to minimize digital clipping. Some does not.
"A Technics SL-BD3 with a generic stylus and a Technics P30 cartridge (I think) that I have always used, and I got as a xmas gift from my brother a very seldom used Technics SL-1210MK2 turntable with a cartridge that I can read is Ortofon E/Ortofon Concorde (do you need more info, it's all I can see written). I hope that's the cartridge, I mean, I cannot see how to get the stylus out of there, and wonder also if once the stylus breaks or needs replacement I'm gonna have to change all the thing? Anyway, what is the best cartridge I should get to minimise the sound distortion?"
When people say "cartridge", 99% of the time they mean the cartridge and the stylus, since usually they aren't interchangeable, although there are some exceptions (like certain Ortofon models).
I'm not familiar with the SL-BD3, but I suspect it may take a "p-mount" cartridge as many later Japanese consumer tables do. This is important to note as p-mount tonearms have a different connection than standard cartridges, and there aren't many p-mount cartridges being made today (and even fewer good ones). Now, P-mount wasn't a bad idea, for it made the tricky task of setting up a cartridge very simple. Unfortunately, it came along too late in the game, being around only for the last few years of when vinyl was the most widely-used format. So, most cartridges now are the old standard mount, which requires you to fiddle with tiny wires, and use a protractor to position it in the headshell to ensure that the stylus hits the groove at the correct angle. The one exception to this is, again, certain Ortofon cartridges aimed at DJs. Same concept as P-mount but a different implementation: it replaces the headshell on the Technics 1200 (which normally uses standard mount), so you just screw it on to the tonearm, set the tracking force and anti-skate, and you're done. The catch is that they can only work on 1200s.
The "Concorde" cartridges are aimed at DJs: they're rugged and durable, but they won't sound very good. I don't know this for sure, but I'm told that you can replace the stylus (not the whole cartridge) with one from Ortofon's OM-series, which are "listening" carts. In order from worst to best, they offer the OM5, 10, 20, 30, 40... but in my experience, don't bother with anything less than a 20.
"There are 6 tracks on each side and each side runs for about 15-20 minutes, so very tight grooves and anyway, I know, not the best example as it's already with a foot in the grave once pressed.
There is some distortion in occasional sections of one side of one record, but most of all, one side of the record is totally noise-laden and the high frequencies are distorted. There is really no visible wear and no different than the other sides."
15-20 minutes per side isn't too tight, especially if it's not bass-heavy music. Actually, you'll get lower tracking distortion on quieter records (but more surface noise, obviously). What often happens with used records is that if the previous owner had a turntable with a cheap nasty stylus, and played at a really high tracking force (like many typical consumer systems of yesteryear), this will gradually shred the grooves. The more they played it, the worse it will be.
"Can rubbing of the records on inner sleeves etc result in the record sounding noisy?"
Yes. I always replace paper sleeves with plastic ones.
"Someone mentioned playing a record after just washing it improves the quality of the playback?"
Only if the record was dirty to begin with! But yes, play a record all the way through once after cleaning it. That will help the stylus push out some of the remaining gunk.
"Bottom line for now, spending an above-average amount of money on a cartridge for my MK2 what do you guys recommend?"
In terms of sound quality for money, the current champion is the Audio Technica AT440MLa. It can be had for ~$100 USD from various online retailers (amazon.com, lpgear, probably a few others). However, I see that you're in Switzerland, and pricing for these things vary a lot by region (plus shipping and duty charges, if any). I'm told that Ortofon and Denon cartridges are a lot more affordable in Europe. Ortofon recently put out a series called the "2M" which are supposed to be quite good, but I haven't heard them myself. Ben Liebrand swears by the Denon DL-160. I'm using an Audio-Technica AT150MLX myself, which I got for about $270 USD, but I picked that up from a store called J & R when I was in NYC. Last time I checked, Bernie used an Audio-Technica OC-9 which sells for about the same as the 150MLX, but it's what they call a "moving coil" cartridge that requires a step-up transformer (you can't just plug it into a regular phono input).
Above and beyond this, you start to get into the stratosphere of audiophile circles, where people will spend thousands on their turntables/tonearms/cartridges/phono stages, and argue endlessly over minute aspects of sound quality, tossing around terms like "soundstage", "warmth", "openness", "slam" and so on. That's well past the point of "diminishing returns" for me though.
"... how do you track etc the arm? "
I'm not quite sure what you mean by this. How much tracking force or anti-skate? Depends on the cartridge. I use a simple method for anti-skate, although not everyone agrees with it: I put on a blank, grooveless record (like some of those 1-sided Casablanca 12"s), put the tonearm on the middle, and adjust the anti-skate until it doesn't slide in either direction.
How to align the cartridge? That's trickier; you need what's called a protractor, which you put on the turntable and line the cartridge up with it at one end, then move to the other end and see if it's still in alignment and adjust if it's not, and then repeat...
Originally Written by Graham_Start
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