How do I set my Technic SL1200 for best performance...

[SLL]

Hi,

As an old DJ (not scratch DJ, just normal club DJ), I'm thinking much of how to play back my vinyl records with least wear and pressure. I'm using a Ortofone Concorde Nightclub E pickup, and a Technic SL1200 player.

I'm using the original SL1200 rubber recordsmate, for optimal performance.

My questions:
1.
How do I set (level out) the tonearm hight, for best performance usage, so that I get least wear on my records (I'm not spinning my records backward or scatch with them!)?.

2.
What should I set the pickup weight at, to get best sound, and least wear?

3.
The anti-scating knob, should it be set as the same as the pickup weight?

Regards,
SLL

[Forrrce]

The arm should really be as horizontal as possible. A lot of DJ carts are designed with Technics' arm-height adjustment set at 3 in mind. Not all carts adhere to his rule, of course, so experiment a little. Neither end of the arm should point up, nor down.

To adjust the weight, suspend the arm (with cartridge fitted) in a level, free-floating position, by carefully adjusting the counterweight at the back. Make sure this free-floating arm looks as level as possible...then turn the numbered dial in front of the counterweight to zero. Turn the counterweight to your desired setting, but don't touch the numbered dial - it's linked to the counterweight and will move with it.

Concordes aren't particularly high compliance carts, so they have to be set quite high for decent club tracking. Of course, you know what you can get away with where you play, but I would recommend a starter weight of 3.5g for club play (3g for home). If you aren't affected by vibration and feedback at your club, 3-4g should really be enough.
The anti-skate level should always match the counterweight in setting.

I reckon you probably know all this already, but maybe someone else will find this of use.

[SLL]

Hey Forrrce,

Thanks, yeah some of what you have told, I allready know :-)
But many of the things you said, also confirmed my doubt about how I should set it for home use. As an old club DJ, I know about resonans and vibration problems regarding the pickup weight and the stabillity ground under the player. But now I'm using it at home, so this isn't much of a problem anymore :-)
And yes, I have also heard before, that the tonearm should be as horizontal leveled ad possible, when the pickup in down playing. So I have adjusted the tonearm height, so that the arm is in nearly perfect horizontal level. The arm-height is set to "0" on the scale, then it is perfect horizontal when playing back a record.

Hopefully this is the right was to set things :-)

Thanks, SLL

[Mixmachine]

If you are retired from DeeJaying and want to preserve your precious vinyl (or transfer the best vinyl sound possible to CD) I'd recommend investing in a better cart that requires less tracking force, 3 Grams is not needed any longer.

A tracking weight tool is best for more accurate adjustments, especially when tracking low.(1 gram)

The bottom of the cart housing should be paralell to the vinyl, making sure your rubber pad is on the platter, (or slip pads) pause your TT and carefully place the needle on the vinyl, check bottom of cart and adjust arm height accordinly, may need to repeat until it is as paralell to the vinyl as possible, every cart is different, so if you change carts (or add/remove second/different slip pad) you need to adjust it again.

When facing the 'HeadShell' make sure it is not tilting to any one side, it should be straight across. Check cart too, you may need to insert plastic spacers between the cart and head shell, they are usually included in cart kit.

It is also very important to align the cart correctly on the head shell, there is a tool available to do this (one/two point aligment tool), but some TT provide a white 'Dot' mark on the original 7" adapter that works fine, (don't remember if yours does) the tip of your needle should rest exactly on the dot, if not move/adjust your cart screws on the shell forward/back until you reach the correct spot. You should do this step first, so you wont have to re-align everything else again! :lol:

Ain't this fun... :P

[SLL]

Hey MixMachine,

Nice with more info here :-)
But I'm starting to get a little confused about how to set things up.

First of all, the Ortofon Concorde is a little different, than normal housing pickups, where you mount your pickup on a house with two small screws. The Concorde Nightclub E, is an integrated pickup, where everything (needle, house) - is integrated in one piece. So I don't quite understand the housing thing, where the house need to be parallel with the record surface, this won't work the same way with an integrated pickup!

But "Forrrce" also said what I know of, that the hole tonearm should be parallel to the record surface, not only the pickup house?!

Hmm.... I'm a little confused, also about the tonearm height, how to set this the right way?!

About the pickup trackingforce, then I know, that smaller weight = better and less wear on your records. So maybe I do have a look for a better needle. My Concorde nightclub E model is good, in fact I think that the "E" model have the best sound quality. But no doubt, that you can get a better sounding one :-)

Thanks, SLL

Regards,
SLL

[BrunoRepublic]

Originally Posted by SLL

About the pickup trackingforce, then I know, that smaller weight = better and less wear on your records. So maybe I do have a look for a better needle. My Concorde nightclub E model is good, in fact I think that the "E" model have the best sound quality. But no doubt, that you can get a better sounding one :-)

You can get much better sounding ones, but you likely won't find them at a DJ store. And they will cost more too. Unfortunately, good sound and durability are mutually exclusive when it comes to phono cartridges. Good listening cartridges are fragile (you need to be very gentle when lowering tonearm and NEVER back-cue) and tricky to properly set up (you'll need a protractor to get the right offset). But they will reveal far more detail and clarity than even the best DJ cart.

There was a recent thread on what cartridges people favoured, and most were responding in the context of home listening.

[Mixmachine]

Sll, you are right , I should have stated that not all carts are the same, in your case use the arm as reference.

My old Stanton 680 EL carts housing are attached to the shell at an angle, so i used the needles plastic edge as reference which is exactly paralell to the headshell's edge, for me , it's easier to adjust paralell surfaces when they are closer to each others, but using the arm is fine too.Check out this links that explains it better that I ever could.

http://www.audiophilia.com/features/cartridge_setup.htm

http://www.shure.com/sfg2.html

[Sami M]

Just crossed my mind... do you check and set the tracking angle when you play out?

I encounterd a well used tech deck at a gig, and as I'm somewhat protecting towards my vinyl I was not pleased to notice that it's tracking angle was anything but allright. I didn't have time then to screw it in the right position, becouse there was other things that took all extra time, since I had never been in that booth before. Just guess was I eager to play my vinyl... :evil: - well it was a cd orientated booth anyway.

[Forrrce]

Just found this:

http://music.hyperreal.org/dj/sl1200.html

[Sami M]

Very informative link that one Forrrce :D

Well, I guess the deck I used would be in the need of some tonearm reassembling, becouse I had my own cart/headshell with me and the angle stayed wrong :roll:

The adjusting of tech decks seems to be hobby for some, changing pitch values etc. I wouldn't dare to bother myself.