Harleywood Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 ... my tonearm must be bent. Backstory, Bought a new Project Carbon from Needledoctor four years ago to take advantage of my record collection. Had my Epic 2s refurbished by Bob and found a replacement tweeter from a user here, thank you again! Bought a new Rotel Amp since my vintage Kenwood fried my XOs last power up in 2008. It all came together and I was reluctantly happy. It sounded hollow. Detail was outstanding but horn was harsh and it lacked warmth and richness in mids and very light on bass. Not how the epics should sound at all. Is it the new XOs from Bob? New Amp not paired right? New TT or cartridge issues? So many variables with all new gear to check. So eventually I got around to messing with tracking force without help from a scale, tried new platter mats, bought a sub and finally got it sounding somewhat good. Still not overwhelmed though. Fast forward four years, bought a digital scale and checked tracking force. Should be 1.8. It was 1.64. Dial on arm says 1.8. Balanced arm again and set dial to 1.8 again. Scale read 1.64 again. Set dial on arm to 2.0. Scale read 1.65. Moved dial to 2.2. Scale read 1.58. Dial 2.6, scale 1.4. The most tracking force I can get is 1.74 and dial is set on 1.6. When I screw the weight up the arm to add weight to stylus it actually lightens the tracking force. Something is not right but I can say gaining that 1/10 of a gram made a world of difference in sound. Mids are there and bass is deep and resonating and the harshness of the horns subdued. I can finally dial the tone controls up and give it some space between them. Since new I've never been able to set bass to 0 and treble to 3 or 4. To harsh. Now it sounds so much better. I've tried numerous times to get VTF correct and same story as above each try. Visually the arm where the weight attaches inclines slightly past the gimbal. That doesn't seem right and you can barely see it unless your looking for a reason. Needless to say I'm slightly overwhelmed now by sound quality but I know it can be better. Having the ability to change cartridges and set everything right is a necessity so the new 1200gr is ordered and should be here between tomorrow and 2024. Haha Lesson learned though,, never trust the dial on arm to set VTF. Invest in a digital scale. They are cheap and could have prevented me from keeping a TT that arrived defective not to mention the years of not quite right fidelity. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Invidiosulus Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 That’s great that you’ve figured it out for the most part. It’s always frustrating and yet a relief to realize that you fixed something that was off for a long period of time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Invidiosulus Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 Also, I read the thread title in the SpongeBob narrator voice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billybob Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 Cool and thanks! Happy New Years... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billybob Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 Remember when you got the Rotel integrated. After abit, it may be interesting to change the stylus. Cheers! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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