Do you have ways to ease use of vinyl?


The reason for this post is to help some of the older guys here who recently said they gave up on vinyl because of its physical challenges. And at 66, I could not agree more. I used to have a two shelves rack for my turntable, which placed the top of the platter above knee height, at 25". To flip vinyl was either bend over and hurt my back, or doing it and one knee and hurt those.
Well, NO MORE.
Late last year I purchased a 4 shelves rack which puts the top of the platter at my belly button height, 40". Btw, I am of average height, 5'10".
What a difference! My back and knees will be forever thankful.
Here is another thing that greatly eased my vinyl experience.
I use an outer ring, center weight and brush my vinyl for each play. This was the process it entailed: Put on the center weight before brushing because I play my vinyl on a bare aluminum platter. Wait until the brushing was done before putting on the outer ring because I brushed the conventional way, finishing by dragging the brush outward to get rid of the dust. Once brushed, removed the center weight so I could install the outer ring and then reinstall the center weight and I finally could drop the needle. Ouf!
NO MORE!
Now I put on the outer ring first, then brush the record taking the brush INWARD instead, leaving the minute dust on the label (and I found out it does a much better job of brushing since the brush moves in the direction of the grooves, inward). Once brushed, simply put on the center weight and drop the needle. Voila!
Easier ten fold.
Another important pointer, the center weight, brush AND OUTER RING must be near the TT and at the SAME HEIGHT. Your back will thank you.
Those changes took me over 50 years to figure out and they have literally made my listening to vinyl experience a dream instead of dreading to flip those vinyl. 
Please share any tip you may have to ease up the physical burden that some older folks here may have about using vinyl. Thanks.

128x128baylinor

Showing 2 responses by mijostyn

Like others I have always kept my turntable at 42" and I am 5'7" Aside from not having to bend over it puts the table at a great height for visualizing set up, etc. In terms of convenience I'm afraid peripheral rings are a PITA and an accident waiting to happen. IMHO the two best clamping methods are of either the SME reflex scheme or vacuum type.
I never use a hand held brush. I use a conductive sweep arm which collects incidental dust and discharges the record keeping static and dust collection to a minimum. I always use a dust cover during play and have found that a dust cover that is isolated from the platter and tonearm improves playback. Mark Dohmann has also found this to be true and is working on an isolated dust cover for the Helix tables. 
I also use an Audio Technica tonearm lift which IMHO is a must. It removes the stress of having to get to the table to stop the Ka-thunking.
A word of warning. There is one auto lift on the market that uses a metal lift platform. DO NOT get that one!!! The metal has no grip. The antiskating force slowly pulls the arm backwards off the lift dumping it on the record then blocking the tonearms progress causing a permanent skip in the record. The Audio Technica lift has a hard rubber lift platform which has more grip but even so I had to grind a little depression in the platform where it contacts the tonearm to hold the arm in place.  
The Integrity Tru Lift has one serious flaw, it's lift bar is solid metal and slippery. The anti skating force can cause the tonearm to slide back off the lift bar and bounce on the record. You will have to do something like pad the upper surface of the bar with Velcro or something else that will keep the arm from slipping off.