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Dynavector XV-1s and JMW 10.5i question

I recently purchased a new Dyna XV-1s for my Aries 3 and JMW 10.5i. I had a buddy set it up and it initially sounded fantastic. Recently I have noticed less air and a slight shift of center image to the right. It's also a bit less involving.

I know he had set the tracking weight at 2.2 grams. The weird thing was he had to put a small dollop of blue tack on the end of the anti-skate rubber ring weights to give it more anti-skate based on test record distortion in the right channel. I'm a complete novice at this stuff so I am a bit lost, but from most threads I have heard that little to no anti-skate should be needed with JMW 10.5i. After discussion with my analogue buddy who et up the cart, he said maybe it needed more anti-skate and blue tack.

I have ordered an Analogue Productions test record for myself and the Fremer DVD. I can (and will) ask my turntable guru buddy to come back and look at things again, but I don't want to 'over-ask' for his help and I want to start to learn about this on my own. Can anyone offer suggestions to help me 'find the magic' again with more air and a better solid center image?
philb7777
philb7777 OP
401 posts
 
Absolutely no apologies necessary Doug! This one of the many reasons I love Audiogon so much. A great website, but most of what makes it great is the community of audiophiles and enthusiasts. All of you are very insightful and helpful. I will start tweaking away this weekend and let you know of my results. I am definitely a novice, and certainly with the great gear I have and enjoy so much, its about time I start to learn how to manage my vinyl front end.

My buddy came over yesterday and put another dollop of blu-tak that took the distortion out of the right channel on the test record. Then we listened to music and although maybe slightly improved, it still lacked what it once had. Maybe after 150 hours the suspension has changed. I know on thing for sure, its a gob of blu-tak I've got on it for anti-skate.

This weekend I will experiment with anti-skate, damping fluid, and VTA and VTF. I'm going to get a good scale today.

Thanks a ton guys and I will keep everyone posted......
stiltskin
499 posts
 
Phil,
Analogue playback for the novice can be over whelming at first start. You quickly learn nothing about it is convenient with its use. And when things go wrong....

With a bit further involvement and gained knowledge it seams like all your doing is trying to keep ahead of all the little negative things that effects vinyl play back.

However when all is dialed in to the best of your abilities and the power coming into your home is clean for a change you quickly forget all the work involved and you actually don't mind the care and attention vinyl play back demands.

Once you have the issue resolved that you are now experiencing I would recommend learning how to set up your own system.

By doing so you will gain an appreciation along with a much deeper knowledge on how everything works together for the better and sometimes for the worst.

I see you have ordered a Mint protractor, good.
reticuli
4 posts
 
It could be your cables have become intermittent. This can be checked with a meter. L & R should read the same. You might also want to check capacitance to make sure it hasn't jumped.

The other possibility is just the suspension everyone's been talking about. If it's broken in and sounding less quick and open, then you probably have too much downforce now.

Reduce VTF as low as you can while still having low distortion in the left channel with no antiskate an the hifi news record. Then increase the AS again until the right clears up.

I like the hifi news record more than the analogue productions one, which seems to require an intermod distortion analyzer. Even a simple scope or computer based analyzer isn't enough for that one. It's more pro oriented.
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