Hello, I have over the past few months started buying alot of music on vinyl. I have occassionally bought really special albums on vinyl in the past but it wasnt until recently that I started getting into record collecting and I am now wondering if my hi hi equipment could be due for a little upgrade. It is all old stuff mostly from the early-mid 90's so its not very high tech.

What I have:
Rega Planar 2 (old school ) With a fairly recently fitted Ortofon Mk II 510
Rotel RA-930AX Intergrated Amplifier

Not the classiest of set ups but it sounds awesome

Now I was thinking I dont want to be doing any damage to my records as they are not so readily replaceable as CD's. Any hifi experts about that could give me some basic guidance about what I could be doing? The sound is fantastic, I couldn't fault it but I am just worried about any damage I could be doing. Will a new higher spec cartridge be sufficient to decrease the risk or should I opt for a new turntable all together? If so what would you suggest?

Thanks
Thomas

EDIT: Also, I want to start backing up my Vinyl using FLAC but most guides I have seen sugest hooking the phono pre-amp up to the line in. Since I have intergrated amplifier what way would you suggest to do this? Or am I completely wrong about phono preamp, is it built into my turntable?

I am no hifi techie as you might realise, the equipment was given to me when my dad bought new stuff.

Most such amplifiers have a tape loop. Record from the tape out, the same way you would record to a tape deck. This is the phono preamp output.

The three major considerations for reducing vinyl wear are being clean, being aligned, and stylus condition.

LPs always come with some amount of muck already on them and they will pick up dust and what-not every time they are handled thereafter. There is a tremondous amount of information on proper cleaning available, no doubt no small amount on this forum. Try to ignore those people content with using their washcloth, or something similar, and rinsing under the faucet.

A good wet cleaning, with vacuuming or otherwise, generally only has to be done once in the life of the average LP when followed by intelligent handling and storing. Do an occasional dusting with a carbon fiber brush. Look at http://discdoc.com/ for instruction on proper cleaning procedure without a vacuum cleaner. You can get good results following those instructions with less expensive ingredients.

Cleaning the stylus frequently is also important. It is quite difficult to gauge stylus wear unless you know exactly what to look for and have about 1000X of magnification. You mainly have to go by hours of usage, the allowable number of which increase markedly with good cleaning practices.

There are also a number of web sites with detailed information about cartridge alignment. Proper alignment markedly reduces wear and especially uneven, distortion producing wear.

I'd just like to add a couple of points to what Andy has already said....


Agreed. Vacuum cleaning is by far the most effective method. The best device is the Keith Monks machine, but these cost thousands. It's not practical for the home user to have one of these. Some vinyl-enthusiastic HiFi stores have them and will clean LPs for a small fee.

Vacuum based machines that the home user can contemplate buying are the Nitty-Gritty, VPI, and Moth machines. I use a Moth myself, and it works well. All of these machines cost a few hundred dollars/pounds/euros.


I'd like to re-emphasise how important this is. The most damaging thing that can happen to an LP in normal use is mistracking by the cartridge. This is when the stylus loses contact with the groove wall and bounces around in the groove, carving chunks off the sidewalls. The three things most likely to lead to mistracking are incorrect alignment, inadequate tracking force, and improper antiskating setting. Always run your cartridge at or close to the *maximum* recommended tracking force (but don't exceed it). It's natural to think that lowering the tracking force will cause less wear, but if by doing so you cause mistracking, the damage caused is potentially catastrophic. Antiskating is best set by ear: if you hear distortion only on the left channel, reduce the antiskating; if the distortion is only on the right, increase antiskating. Antiskating should be adjusted once the cartridge is properly aligned and the tracking force correctly set.

And finally, the Rega Planar 2 is a fine turntable, capable of very nice playback. To improve significantly on it you'd have to be thinking about quite expensive turntables such as Mitchell, Roksan, Oracle, and of course the ubiquitous Linn LP12.

Thanks to both replies, very useful. I was just wondering if you have any tips on setting the alignment, tracking force and antiskating? Or could point me to a guide that is easy to read? I had a look over at google and alot of them reccommend me to buy guages etc to correctly set the alignment and weight. I have no experience with doing this kind of thing at all so any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

First, you need to get the cartridge alignment correct. With a pivoted arm (such as on the Rega), this is achieved when the cartridge is parallel to the grooves at two specific points, which are about 70mm and 126mm from the centre of the record. Getting it right at these two points gives the best compromise for mimimal tracking angle error across the full extent of the LP. The easiest way to set this up is to use an "alignment protractor", which is just a piece of card with the two points marked and reference lines to help you get the cartridge body parallel. I've attached a PDF file of such a protractor (which I got from EnjoyTheMusic.com). Just print it out onto reasonably heavy paper or card. Make sure when you print it that it's printed at the proper size ("print as image").

At this stage, you've got the horizontal alignment sorted. Some people will now suggest that you also get the vertical alignment adjusted, but since the Rega arm doesn't have any height adjustment, that's a bit difficult :-) As long as the arm tube is pretty much parallel to the record surface, that's OK. The issue of vertical tracking angle seems to attract much more interest in the States than here in the UK. No doubt some of our US contributors will step in here to give more detailed advice on this point.

Next, you need to set the tracking force. First, set the antiskating (also known as "bias") to zero. Then screw the counterweight back or forward so that the cartridge just "floats" a mm or two above the surface of the record. That gets the tracking force set to 0. Now rotate the counterweight to dial in the desired tracking force. Each full turn of the counterweight gives 2g tracking force. You should set the tracking force to the maximum recommended for the cartridge, which for the Ortofon 510 I believe is 1.75g, which would be 7/8ths of a turn of the counterweight.

Finally, set the antiskating (aka bias). Start off initially with it set to the same as the tracking weight (ie. 1.75 in your case). This may very well be just right - it certainly shouldn't be too far off. If you feel that there is more distortion in one channel, adjust the antiskating accordingly: increase it to reduce distortion in the right channel, reduce it to decrease distortion in the left channel.

Some people will advise you to set antiskating using a "blank disc" or the piece of "land" at the centre of a record where there are no grooves. This does NOT work: the centripedal force that antiskating balances out is caused by the force vectors operating on the stylus *when it is tracing a groove*.

Thanks cliveb, thats really useful, I hope I've done it right, the cartridge already seemed perfectly parallel with the lines. Thats great, thanks again
Thomas

That's not surprising. Anyone who has a Rega will have bought it from a reputable dealer who would know how to install a cartridge, and/or it will be owned by someone who cares about quality and will have made sure the cartridge was properly aligned. (I'm sort of assuming that you acquired the Rega secondhand?). Basically, to find a Rega with an incorrectly aligned cartridge means that someone has fiddled with it without knowing what they're doing - it wouldn't arrive from the dealer that way.

I bought the KAB EV-1 a few weeks ago for $150 new and so far I'm happy with it. It is without question the cheapest vacuum cleaner you will find. (Some assembly required though)

I disciplined myself into regular cleaning of the stylus itself ... I use cleaning fluid from Audio Technica which comes in a small bottle with a smooth brush.

Cleaning after every LP (which might be a bit exaggerated) can help to avoid dust/dirt/vinyl particles sticking to the stylus tip and thus altering it's shape (and sound).

If you have a properly aligned turntable (get yourself a water balance for that), a properly aligned cartridge with an intact stylus, a proper turntable decoupling, the proper antiskating setting (which is difficult to be exactly determined unless you have access to a test LP and a 2-channel oscilloscope) and the proper tonearm mass (which must match the stylus' compliance and can be easily determined with a cheap tonearm balance), the five basic parameters for best-possible vinyl playback are present.

I agree that Rega does indeed produce some decent turntables with adequate tonearms ... if you ever need a replacement and are on a tight budget, you could take a look at the Pro-Ject series ... they offer some very affordable and well-designed turntables.

Good tips already. I'd like to add a link to the archive of setup posts on Vinyl Asylum:

Vinyl Asylum FAQ

So, in addition to getting the alignment absolutely right, at minimum you should have a carbon fibre brush and a stylus brush for gentle dry cleaning before each play. If you have no idea how old the stylus on your cartridge is, it might be a good idea to replace it -- you never know what it's been through. The 510 can (AFAIK) take an upgraded stylus up to the line contact used in the 540 mk II, that would be the best upgrade path for your setup.

Thanks for all the tips
Unfortunately today went to put a record on and the stylus snapped off so it cant have been in very good condition.
How do I find out which stylus I need to buy? I have Ortofon Mk II 510
I only had the turntable a week or so... it was my Dads before but he hasnt used it for months and that was a rare occassion.
Thanks

Are you sure your tracking force was set correctly?

There are a number of places that sell replacement styli. This is a good one
http://www.needledoctor.com/

@Axon, I am pretty sure the tracking force was set correctly. I followed the all the instructions and it seemed fine to me (although I am no expert obviously). It should have been set well enough for the stylus not to snap off so I don't know. It looked fine but i ran my finger across the tip lightly to make sure it wasn't loose or anything, and it was just dangling loosely and then fell off when i took my finger away.

Thanks for the site AndyH-ha

You could check out Ortofon's website for the specs. The 500 series styli are interchangeable, so you could upgrade to the 520, 530 or 540 mk II stylus. 510 and 520 are ellipticals, 530 and 540 line contacts. Legend has it that the 540mkII is one of the best tracking cartridges available, right up there with Shure V15 Type V.

Cheers for the help people, I guess I might go into the hifi shop and get someone to help me there cause I am pretty lost. It will probably all be obvious once I have done it once, but for now I am going to have to ask in a shop I think. I don't want to end up buying the wrong thing through misunderstanding someones advice but thanks fo all the help anyway.
Thomas