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Help... my turntable is alive!

I am hearing a heartbeat through my turntable between tracks, and also when the music is very quite in the song's track. This noise is at 33 BPM in sync to the turntable rotation. It's very quiet unless of course the volume is turned up, but can clearly be heard. I don't think its rumble as it has a distinct "heartbeat" sound.

My turntable is a Basis 2500 with a Graham 2.2 arm and a Goldring 1042 cartridge set at 1.70 grams tracking force. Any guesses here? Is the bearing on the turntable shot?

Thanks
koestner

Showing 2 responses by lewm

lewm
13,476 posts
 
Dover nailed it, and I would have if he had not.  I think what you heard was the body of the cartridge touching the surface of a record warp, once per revolution.  Just for yucks, put that same LP back on and run it at 45 rpm; now you should hear the heartbeat at a faster rate.  If so, case closed.
lewm
13,476 posts
 
Just for starters, how old is the turntable? Have you ever serviced the bearing in any way? For example, have you changed the lubricant? On the other hand, a periodic noise with that character of a heart beat is probably not due to a bad bearing. A bad bearing is likely to create a generally elevated and constant background noise.

Do you own any 45 rpm LPs? When you play 45 rpm, does the timing between pulses increase accordingly with the speed? Does the pitch change at higher speeds?
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