Horrible Squee-gy Noise from Stylus

What kind of table/arm/cartridge?

Makes this noise regardless of the record being played?

Is the noise coming out of your speakers, or from the TT itself?

Fightingwords, I sent the following email to MH about an hour ago:

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Subject: baaaad press!
You guys should really take better care of your customers!
Especially the youngsters -- they are the future of this precious little hobby ;--)

Read the whole thread at:
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1231936400&openmine&zzNsgarch&4&5#Nsgarch

Best regards,

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I just got a return email from Roy Hall. He was obviously concerned, and he thought I was the customer ;-) I asked him to email you through your Audiogon link. You should be hearing from him soon.

Good Luck!

Neil

F.W. The name of the game you are in is "Getting the Dealer to Perform" and the best way to do that is to get the manufacturer on his back ;-) The dealer (whether local or online) is definitely the responsible party if your unit is in warranty and it's an authorized MH dealer. Was the dealer's referral back to Music Hall in writing (email, etc?) I'll assume not (otherwise all you'd have to do is forward a copy of their refusal to help you to MH) So the next thing is to get the name of the store manager so you can email it along with the store name and phone number to MH, with a note indicating that THEIR dealer is refusing to help you (you should send/email the dealer a copy.) That should get something going (probably a 'Return Merchandise Authorization' so the dealer can send it back to Music Hall.) DO NOT attempt to fix it yourself or allow the dealer to "see if he can fix it" ;-) It needs to go back to the factory in order to maintain your warranty rights.

As for the problem, I'm similarly perplexed as Swamp. My (only) guess after the details you provided, is that the stylus may have a chip in it. It DOES happen, and would be hard to see except under high magnification. I'm not saying for sure that's the problem, but if it is, you don't want to play any records with it until it's fixed.
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Jay, you shouldn't have to remount the cartridge if the unit came with the cartridge mounted. And since no one knows what the preoblem actually is, the whole TT is going to have to go back to MH anyway, so let them remount a new cartridge (if that's even the problem.)

This kind of thing sucks, however, when something is in warranty, you just have to take the attitude that you have 'all the time in the world' for it to be made right, even if it means them replacing the entire unit after figuring out they can't fix it!

Another very important tip: keep all records showing (1) the date you returned it to the dealer for repair (NOT the date he sent it to MH, but the date you returned it to HIM -- get a receipt!) and (2) the date you received a working unit back. Attach these to your original purchase invoice. The time elapsed between the two dates can be (legally) added to extend your warranty ;--)

Shipping costs both ways for an item under warranty are the responsibility of the dealer and/or manufacturing (unless specifically excluded in the terms of the warranty, which you should have a copy of in your owner's manual.)

If your dealer is not local, and he arranges for MH to send you an RMA so you can send it to back to MH, then MH should also include a pre-paid shipping label for you to stick on the box when you ship it back. (Make sure to ask your dealer to ask MH to include one with the RMA.)

I hope you still have the original packing.
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