EMT 948 w/ 929 tonearm.

Can you provide a little more detail for those who are not familiar with the 948 or the 929? What is set at 250g, for example. And etc.

Perhaps I am not understanding you. What is the VTF ( vertical tracking force as measured at the stylus in grams )?

250g. Also checked with a digital scale & it's on the money. 

250g seems a strange number. 2.5g ?

2.5. I stand corrected.

How new or old is the cartridge.  Have you inspected the stylus?

Brand new. Less then 12 hrs on it.

Speak to Benjamin at Dusch Studiotechnik- he’s very helpful- also there’s an EMT page called ‘EMT turntables’ (original I know). Also have you a full set of 948 instructions? If my 950 instructions are anything to go by I bet they are comprehensive 

For what cartridge are you setting VTF at 2.5g?

Have you checked that there is nothing to prevent the tonearm from making a full, unimpeded sweep across the surface of an LP?  Very often, the tonearm wiring can be an impediment.  Also check to see that the arm wand is not scraping against the surface of the cuing device.

I have EMT 948 with 929 tonearm.

At first you need to check tonearm lift pad. It shouldn’t interfere to tonearm to go down and to the cartridge needle to reach record surface.

The second is a dynamic VTF setup. You need remove antiskating and set VTF spring scale to zero, then to setup counterweight to hold tonearm in zero balance. Tonearm should to balance like a mechanical scales and the needle should be on the level of record surface. When it is done you can setup VTF by set spring scale to 2.5g. Then double check VTF with electronic or mechanical scale. If VTF is not correct you need to adjust by VTF spring. VTF spring scale can be very inaccurate and I use it only for relative indication.

After VTF is done you can add antiskating.

Regards,

Alex

@lohanimal, I do have 948/929 instruction manuals.

@lewm, The height is set to factory @ 35mm & there's plenty of clearance above the cue lever. Now I couldn't tell you if the wires are obstructed.

@alexberger, I just re-balanced the arm as you directed. Had to lower the arm little. I think that was it! Thank you Gents. Dan

As @alexberger suggested, I'm on my way to do some serious listening again!

Please forgive me for appearing to beat what should already be a dead horse, but how did lowering the tonearm, presumably at its pivot, fix the problem of skipping?

@lewm I had to lower the tone arm to balanced the cart to the record plain.

Hi @danmar123 ,

Do you use EMT TSD15 cartridge?

Here is high (VTA) adjustment gauge for  EMT 929 and TSD15.

You can make such gauge on peace of cardboard yourself. The distance between armboard and bearing center is 35mm for EMT948.

Hello @alexberger, I know about the gauge, I did my measurement with a stick ruler, & yes it's the TSD/MRB. On my digital scale, the VTA is @ 2.87g, anything closer to the 2.5g gives me trouble.

What kind of trouble?

Even with 2.4g it should work good. Probably the zero balance is not set correctly.

@alexberger  any reading of below 2.8 the record skips. I checked the scale w/5g sync. weight supplied with the scale, & it's calibrated correctly.

The issue is with the zero ballance when the VTF spring is set to zero.

You need to set it correctly first and then set the correct VTF with the VTF spring.

Send me a video on how to do that... LOL

From the user manual:

Adjustment of Balance and Tracking Force

...

This part is super important!!! I call it zero balance - "Set the tracking force adjustment level to "0". Lower the tone arm lift and turn the counterweight on the threaded tube end until the stylus tip balances exactly in the plane of the record. Fix the counterweight in this position by gently tightening the Allen screw."

"Set the tracking force adjustment level to 2.5..."

I’ve done that. I’ll check tonight again. Not that I'm an expert, by any means, mind you. I have 47 years in audio, I just couldn't get it rite. 😉

Hi @danmar123 ,

Don't worry. I had a similar issue.

I had used this turntable without any troubles for 5 years. Then I moved to another home and setted-up EMT again. I started to recognize there is something wrong with tracking. At first I blamed room temperature then I blamed conditions of a cartridge. I even sent the cartridge to Dusch for repair. After the repair it played better but still there was bad tracking and surface noise. I checked VTF many times with electronic weights but it didn't work. In the end after a year! I checked zero balance and saw that the stylus tip was about 1cm over the plane of record. I fixed it with a counterweight. So stylus tip become even to the plane of record. Then I put tracking force adjustment to proper 2.5g on electronic weights. After that the turntable played very clear without any tracking issues with much less noise and better sound balance.
I don't know why it happened. Maybe I set-up it incorrectly at first or the counterweight was moved during usage.
But it took me too much time to detect this issue.

@alexberger, I’ve read that sometimes the VTA gauge is off on the arm. After I reset the arm to your instructions, that’s what solved my issue. Still  not using the tracking force... I can’t thank you enough. Dan M.

What's the internal wire on the EMT arms like?

Sorry but IDK.

@alexberger , PM sent.