After spending more and more on ‘new’ albums (mostly classical) I realized, stubbornly, that my old Kenwood was just not ‘cutting it’. Since I bought it in the mid-70’s it had issues with maintaining proper speed, and I finally decided it was time to replace. Still not wanting to spend a fortune, I found a Pro-Ject Carbon Debut for a good deal refurbished by an authorized dealer.
Received it, set it up, installed my Grado Red, and ready to go. Unfortunately, some of the issues with the old Kenwood came back, and more. Just very ‘unstable’, especially when walking around my room. In many areas were I walked it created a lot of ‘shaking sound’. I even removed the stock feet and used pads with no real improvement (but the pads did do a better job than the stock feet). Other than that though, it sounded great. So, what the heck. Why is my TT location so sensitive? Going back to what millercarbon suggested, I purchased a tray, filled it with sand to hopefully create more mass, but that didn’t really help, but I thought it would. I also have a Bernard Haitink/Strauss/Concertgebouw album that was for some reason unplayable. It created dangerous sounding speaker distortion, yet other albums did not do the same. Baffled.
I was considering either a wall mount stand or getting a treated wood post and 3/4” plywood to place in my basement and under the floor joists of my stand location, thinking I simply had to reinforce the floor. But, just prior to that, I was considering a record weight. Never having one over the years, thought they were more a gimmick than anything else. I set out to study which one to purchase without spending a ton on a potential non-solution to a non-problem. During that bit of research, I became more comfortable with the idea of a record clamp vs a weight. So, bought one; an inexpensive clamp made by Record Doctor via Audio Advisor. I wasn’t expecting this to cure the previously mentioned issues, just something else I wanted to explore.
Got it yesterday, put on a record, clamped it, and for goodness sakes, everything ‘stabilized’, both physically and sonically. I can walk across my floor without disturbance, and just played that Haitink album without a hint of distortion. I’m amazed that a $26 clamp could have such an effect through the system, my set-up, and the overall sound.
I’ll keep the tray with sand as it can’t be harmful, and I’ll keep it at its current location on my equipment stand, as a simple cheap clamp seemed to solve a lot.
Go figure.