I'm seemingly trying to relive my youth (according to her who must be obeyed) by attempting to play my much loved vast early 80's vinyl.

Point being, no matter how much I attempt to clean the damn vinyl, the mmc4 picks up every last particle of dust and within 2 minutes of playing a track all that can be heard is a muffled nothing.

I've bought all kinds of so called vinyl cleaning products but I'm getting no where.

So is it as I thought..... vinyl really is too much hassle and beograms are just nice to look at??

Without being a sad old 40 something, I have some real vinyl 80's rarities and I'd love to try and hear them for a change.

My old boy used to have a few moving coil ortofon cartidges and never had any problems, perhaps my vinyl's just past it!!

Any solutions................... or is it back to digital music????  

   

Boy, do I have vinyls from the 80s. Just minutes ago, I was going through local auctions and contemplating getting some Belinda Carlisle vinyls, but I can't decide if I want to listen to them without seeing her.

Anyway, there must be something wrong if you have dust clogging the stylus all the time. It shouldn't happen. Do you have a plain old carbon fibre record cleaner to try? I've found them to work really well. Other than that, I can't think of any other problem than that your stylus tracking weight might be way off. 

Really dirty records can be washed, in really mild dish washer solution (the hard part is getting them dry without leaving any residue), but this shouldn't be the problem if you have loose dirt on them.

 

I'm probably using crabby cleaning fluid

perhaps i need to check the tracking weight......

any ideas.... beogram 3300...... mmc5........

belinda carlisle, yes pleeease  

Speaking as a sad old 40-something who has been dusting off his record collection I can definitelty say you have a problem! I clean both stylus and records regularly, but use nothing special to do so.

When I was using my old MMC20S I used to have a lot of problems with the stylus picking up dust that I didn't get with the MMC20E I also had. When I looked closely using a portable microscope,  the tip of the 20S was in poor condition and this (I think) led to it picking up more dust on the way through.

It is also worth checking your turntable setup as this may make the dust you do collect have a more severe impact than it might  otherwise.

 

Try a few diofferent records as well. Some of my car boot sale purchases are definitely past it and no amount of cleaning and adjusting will save them.

 

It is definitely woth the bother! B&O turntables track at lower weights than other makes which protects your investment.

 

 

Simon

 

I'm using one of these which I bought in 1982 or so, and it seems to do the trick for loose dust. I don't use any fluids whatsoever on records that have no grime attached to them.

I think the recommended stylus weight for MMC5 is 1.5 grams, a little more than the other cartridges of the same series.

If you've been using any "anti static" cleaning fluids then check out this thread and get yourself a Knosti to get your records clean again. The only liquid I've found that genuinely will dry off and leave nothing behind to accumulate on the stylus is distilled water. I can echo the recommendation for the carbon fibre brush.

You'll need to clean your stylus, too. It'll help if you've got at least a jewellers eyeglass; I got myself a cheapo microscope off eBay just for checking my styluses - 200X is more than enough magnification for doing this so there's no need to spend much.

Vinyl that's kept clean and played with a clean stylus should sound as clear as a CD.

Cheers, Steve

Simon..

I don't have any manuals for my old beogram 3300.....

When you say "the decks set up" are you refering to the weight on the arm for the cartridge or something else?

The deck seems to play fine so I'm assuming it's the weight I need to concentrate on ... do you know the tracking weight for an mmc5?

Additionaly the stylus is possibly past its best so maybe thats a big contributing factor.

Like you my OMD vinyl is really worth playing.

Steve (liverpool)

Just realised you have opne of the tangenital turntables which I know very little  about! You can download the service manual  if you upgrade to Silver or gold membership on the site and a quick glance reveals plenty of things to lubricate and adjust!

 

It's also worth spending £5-10 on a battery-powered portable microscope from eBay  and using it to check your stylus out.

 

 

Simon

 

 

The only hassle is the 15-20 minutes playing time and you have to turn it ower.

For the first time in my life I take more care of my vinyl collection than ever. The BG8002 with a Soundsmith mmc2 is the best record player I've ever had and being fully serviced a keeper which means the best care for the vinyl I got.

Some weeks ago I purchased an AM cleaning kit:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-AM-CD-RECORD-CLEANER-FLUID-CLOTH-STYLUS-BRUSH_W0QQitemZ110246276031QQihZ001QQcategoryZ48460QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It cleans the vinyl perfectly for the money. I've tried some vinyl which I had not played for years and it sounded very good.

Sometimes I get vinyl from Ebay and they do need a good clean. The AM stuff is good so I will stick with it.

 

nikeyboy1212:

perhaps i need to check the tracking weight......

any ideas.... beogram 3300...... mmc5........

1.5 g

Chris.