EMT 948 w/ 929 tonearm.

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

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.

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..."

What kind of trouble?

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

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.