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Orig. Well Tempered Record Player - 2 Questions?

I am eagerly seeking advice on setup from any present and past Well Tempered owners. I'm especially keen to hear word from any former owners of the WT Record Player.

I have two burdensome questions:
1. How should the monofilaments be tensioned? I may not have enough silicone in the cup yet, but I have found that, when the tension is not correct, the lines can press against the side of the tonearm and cause it to skate.
2. How much silicone needs to be injected into the cup? Is the proper amount when the fluid reaches the upper edge of the paddle, or should the fluid just cover the paddle?

I'm working from a set of yellowed instruction sheets that were printed by WT with a dot-matrix printer and faxed to the owner in May 1989. Some details remain mysterious. I *have* checked the updated .pdf for installation of the tonearm on the WT Classic (available at Vinyl Engine), but it's a different mechanism, and some points were still not addressed. All suggestions are eagerly and gratefully anticipated. Thanks!
catachresis

Showing 1 response by armstrod

armstrod
618 posts
 
I owned the Well Tempered Record Player, and it's certainly easy to get it wrong if you've never seen one properly set up.

1) If the suspension lines are touching the armtube, I'm guessing you have the paddle turned on it's axis. The holes in the paddle where the lines feed through should be exactly perpendicular to the armtube. It's also possible you have the tonearm pillar at the wrong angle.

2) The amount of damping fluid is inversely proportional to the compliance of your cartridge. Low compliance cartridges generally need the paddle fully submerged, sometimes as deep as .25" under the surface. Some high compliance cartridges can run with the bottom of the paddle just barely touching the surface of the silicone. Medium compliance cartridges are somewhere in between. You have to experiment with every cartridge, and very small changes in the fluid level can make a big difference in sonics and tracking.

I have multiple PDFs of WT setup documents. Send me an email through the Audiogon system and I'll be happy to forward what I have.

David
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