Later turntables were grounded differently and didn't need the individual ground wire. It's the Grado causing the hum. They are notorious for this.The 'table is a pretty basic little table that sounds good. Unfortunately, it is a two-wire table with no seperate ground wire and either that or the Grado MT+ is responsible for a very low-level hum in my system. Since this is a temporary setup for me, I haven't devoted the time to troubleshooting it and isolating the hum.
Semi-automatic means that it's manual, but after play the tonearm automatically returns to the rest. Read my comment in the previous post (Post #8). This is belt drive. In this design direct drive is preferable. The Sony would be better. So if you're going to pass on the Sony, certainly pass on this. Unless you can get it for like $10 or less.this is the only photo i found...i somewhere read that it's semi-automatic, what does it mean?how much should i pay for this one(really good shape)?
Most Ace Hardware stores have screws of every conceivable size, well organized and labeled, and you can look through the drawers on your own and buy a single screw for a few cents. I would have done my best to estimate and buy a variety of sizes for maybe a few dollars. That would have satisfied me more than disabling the auto-return. I have fixed many projects that way.I just picked up one of these for $5 at the local thrift. The arm is cheesy but the speed is dead on.
The cueing is messed up and at the end of the record it drags the arm back across the grooves (not good). It looks like there is a missing screw (a really tiny one) on the lift rail to adjust for proper height.
I can't be bothered to hunt down such a screw for an otherwise functional table that I am giving to a college kid. So I "fixed it" by pulling up the platter and removing the gear that couples the platter to the return mechanism. Voila! Manual turntable!
What do you guys think of this solution?