DirtyErnie

Budget is kinda 'up against it' as far as buying new cartridges is concerned, and there's a surprising amount of options available for the ADC QLM series. Great threads are out there online, most agreeing tha tthe cartridge body itself can accept and work well with any of the 'better' ADC styli available. I think the limit may be more in what stylus compliance I can get away with on that turntable. My thought right now is to get a stylus like the one you linked to, do some measuring and listening, and maybe just roll with it. I If the system resonance works out, I might grab a Shibata-style higher-line ADC cartridge for ripping to digital. All EQ and RIAA comp will be done digitally.

I'll definitely check that out, thanks!

I did some MSDS cruising. Cyastat and the aerosol 'Static Guard' both claim to be using 'Quaternary Ammonium Compounds' to disperse static charge. The bulk of Static Guard being made up of 'alcohol', with single-digit percentages of the active ingredient. Does that help?

Still geeking on this. ADC QLM 34 MkIII stylus on it, looks like the body can accept almost any of the 'better' needles ADC made, and there's some aftermarket options as well. Right now I'm leaning towards a Shibata-type and doing a wood glue 'peel' of the vinyl before attempting to play it. Do it once, do it right, amiright? Likely there will be a 'load box' between the turntable and interface, to give the cartridge the 47Kohm and 250pf load it wants to see. Frequency correction (RIAA, ET.C) will be done digitally afterwards. Hopefully I can find the system resonance in the digital studio program. Might get a basic replacement needle and check that to calculate effective tonearm mass before blowing the better part of $Two-Hundo on a fancy stylus that might be totally incompatible.

Another vote for subs. Almost all the 'modern' Klipsch line are ported, which does increase efficiency and lower the F3, but they also push the lowest frequencies 360° late. My preference would be to get a sub with a very low F3 and cross that around an octave above your main speakers' F3. Most would be in the 70-100Hz range.

Compare that money against contemporary gold/Silver... I did that to my wage history, not recommended.

Probably the Garage Sale section? 😉

I will need to get a tracking force scale, which I think is recommended around 1.5 grams or somesuch. Tonearm effective weight works against stylus compliance to set the resonance of the system. Seems like most places say to put that in the 8-15Hz range.

I'm about to get my $60 PL-530 up and running, and run off a bunch of vinyl to digital. Right now I think it has an ADC 34MkIII cartridge in it, and it probably needs a new stylus. Might think about going for a new cartridge as well. Any thoughts about what would be a good way to go with this project? I'm not looking to upgrade anything more than the electrolytic caps inside the control board and the stylus or cartridge. Interwebs seems to think the effective tonearm mass is around 15g Thanks!

My problems with Firefox is it's always memory dumped on me after a couple days. I tend to keep a bunch of tabs open for days/weeks/months/years at a time. Firefox always crashes after a day or two. Chrome or Brave don't. I want to love Firefox, but it just won't let me.

A-series, of course. It was all downhill after that, at least for audio purposes.

So, if you can electrically bias your electrolytic caps to avoid their hysteresis, you should also be able to magnetically bias your iron-core inductors to avoid their hysteresis, right? This might only work with I-core inductors, where you can stick a magnet on the end...

If your crossovers aren't rebuilt on a slab of petrified wood using pure copper/silver/gold interconnects soldered with gold and tin alloyed into the lead/silver/indium metal of re-claimed WW2-veteran Pratt & Whitney R-2800 main bearings, it's not worth listening to and you should just stop trying. Unless you cryotreat everything and then do rituals in the 'sweet spot' listening position every lunar cycle. LOL IDK...

That's called "Changing your RingTone".

If the electrolytics are working, they shouldn't effect the sound. If they fail and go high-ESR, they'll change the behavior of the filter quite substantially, pushing it closer to a 1st order crossover. Speakers I've done where the low-pass shunt caps have been bad, the difference was quite obvious. Others I've done where those caps were still working, the differences were much more subtle.

that 'congested, hollow' sound will probably be sorted out by replacing the electrolytic caps in the crossovers. Ti tweeter diaphragms do pretty nicely at extending and 'sweetening' the treble. Crites kits are worth the money. Do one thing at a time to one speaker at a time, 'leapfrog' your changes from one side to the other and listen between. Then you'll KNOW what the differences are. I'll bet they won't be subtle.

I'd say you have a problem, but if this is wrong I don't wanna be right.

Cf2s parallel: head in a vice sweet spot CF2 toed in: very even sound across the listening area (two sofas in a small house) Not scientific, but kinda arranged so both horns can hit the whole area.

"Everybody Loves a Happy Ending" by Tears for Fears, "Random Access Memories" by Daft Punk. Two of the most well-done pop music albums I've ever heard. "Dare" by Gorillaz. Once you've heard this on a system that gets down to 20Hz, everything else sounds weak. Michael Gulezian, outstanding acoustic guitar work, very minimal & clean recordings. Hayseed Dixie. Old instruments, old microphones.

Update on my tweeter issues: Left tweeter was buzzing when a strong ~200hz tone got played. Picked up some replacements (doesn't matter what they is...) and that's buzzing as well. can make it buzz by tapping on the front baffle under the lower 8". (It also did the same crunching with a strong ~200 signal. The voices on MPR are really good at making it happen.) Brace the front baffle to the back? Is there something I should look for inside the horn itself? the new driver buzzed when i bumped it on the baffle while installing, saw that as kinda weird... Thanks.

I am very surprised that a dedicated motor-generator setup is not more prevalent in the audiophile circles.

^^ Cute Puppy.... 🤣

I second the recommendation to get the crossovers checked out. OP's description of his sounds like my KG2.5's when I got them. Crossover rebuild really woke them up.

Could try the Target Center trick, they needed more absorption than they had surface for, so they hung it vertically from the ceiling. Room looks great though, I am aware of my envy. 😉

Sidebar, Could either of you two post/pm some good Spice tutorials? Thanks!