Lkdog,
I was going to ask if you/anyone has checked the cartridge setup at all. Spend $39 on some alignment tools (you're going to need them anyway) and see if you can improve things. That said, if this has recieved significant use during its time here on earth, yes the stylus may well be worn, and the cantilever suspension may be deteriorated, and there's no way to make that sound good. I have a 26 year old Pioneer (with a considerably younger cartridge) that I still use on older damaged albums, and it sounds pretty good - nowhere near the level of a 308T though. My RegaP2/Denon160 combo is nice, but not quite to that level either. A friend's P25/Dynavector20/BlackCubeSE gets to that plane. I think Twl was just trying to manage your expectations a little. Spencer's suggestion to demo some good properly setup deck(s) is a good one. Patrick, I will respectfully question, or perhaps clarify, the very last part of your post. I would think that '...very recent, or new.' still could be somewhat dated. For elapsed time in a properly matched and setup arm/cartridge one would expect at least 2000 hours on a stylus, and I'd expect calendar time on the suspension to be at least 5-8 years, wouldn't you?
I was going to ask if you/anyone has checked the cartridge setup at all. Spend $39 on some alignment tools (you're going to need them anyway) and see if you can improve things. That said, if this has recieved significant use during its time here on earth, yes the stylus may well be worn, and the cantilever suspension may be deteriorated, and there's no way to make that sound good. I have a 26 year old Pioneer (with a considerably younger cartridge) that I still use on older damaged albums, and it sounds pretty good - nowhere near the level of a 308T though. My RegaP2/Denon160 combo is nice, but not quite to that level either. A friend's P25/Dynavector20/BlackCubeSE gets to that plane. I think Twl was just trying to manage your expectations a little. Spencer's suggestion to demo some good properly setup deck(s) is a good one. Patrick, I will respectfully question, or perhaps clarify, the very last part of your post. I would think that '...very recent, or new.' still could be somewhat dated. For elapsed time in a properly matched and setup arm/cartridge one would expect at least 2000 hours on a stylus, and I'd expect calendar time on the suspension to be at least 5-8 years, wouldn't you?