I'm very excited for the original poster, especially now that I know that he's a teenager. It's such a different world now than when I went down this path as a 13 year old girl. I was into the usual teen girl stuff, except where my friends were listening to Shaun Cassidy on their craptastic plastic record ruiners, I was into really cool album rock and upper-end stereo gear. I devoured issues of Stereo Review and Audio magazines, which is where I learned what all the specifications meant, and how to set up a turntable, and how Dolby worked, and all sorts of wonderful stuff. For this young lad, there's YouTube and various how-to videos...some good, some misleading, some awful. How fortunate he is to have found AK.
When we do get this problem isolated and fixed, he's going to have something that 99% of his peers don't have...a very nice audio setup. No earbuds and mp3's for this kid!
Thank you so much for the kind words, unfortunately, when I speak to my peers about all of this, they just smile nod, and call me crazy. My parents are the worst about it though, they get the music, that's cool to them, but they think I'm mentally deranged about all of this distortion... They think it sounds "great." Also, to regard another post about a friend with a turntable, unfortunately, the only friend with a turntable I have, has a Crosley, so it doesn't quite count...
Thanks to YouTube as well, I fixed those speakers I listed at the beginning of the post, there was a buzzing, in the midrange speaker... I (sort of) knew what I was doing, so (no YouTube yet) I took each cone off, and found a "twist-tie" stuck to the midrange speaker's magnet... After that, I moved onto the thing that needed real repair, a tear in the surround... I found this on YouTube, to fix this, rip a paper towel into its individual layers, then, carefully glue it on... It actually worked perfectly! I can send pictures if you guys would like.
Seeing as how I've "revealed" that I am a teen. Most would think I'm kind of a jerk (to use a light word) about my vinyl. Saying things such as, "I only listen to vinyl," or "you aren't cool unless you do" (these are very broad descriptions, but, they suffice.) That ain't me... When I was very small, 4, 5, 6, I was extremely close with my Grandfather. I would stay overnight at my grandparents often. Any time I would go over there, after a couple hours, I would say "Papa, can we go listen to the tiny records?" He would grab a cigar, and his bottle of Jim Beam, and I would grab an apple juice, and a Swiss Roll... (It's the same thing) we would go down, and he would break out the stack... He would let me choose the records to play, which would always be the same two, The Ventures- Walk Don't Run (Flip-side "The McCoy") and Dueling Banjos. We would just sit and tell stories for hours, just listening to these "tiny records." As we did it more and more, he broke out the LP's, the soundtrack to Easy Rider, Kenny Rogers The Gambler, and Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. Finally, the final LP... "Live Bullet" a pure masterpiece, since I'm in the Metro Detroit area. He passed on when I was eight... When I was twelve, I finally got the nerve to ask Grandma if she wanted to go play some "Tiny Records for awhile." The next month was my birthday. She gave me the TEAC... And the awesome records that came with it. I played it everyday getting ready for school for years... After noticing the needle was worn, as described earlier, I stopped playing records for about a year. Next thing i knew, it was junior year, and there was a problem with the basement bathroom... That's where I found the Pioneer. On the floor in the bathroom. Turns out, my Dad bought it from a guy who took it with him to Vietnam. He bought it in a set, with the original receiver (I need to track one down, Dad sold it) and a Reel to Reel (the R2R is a massive story in itself) I spent the next couple days restoring the turntable visually. Cleaning the dust cover, wood plinth, and re-oiling everything within. I tracked down the instruction manual, and found it was complete. Finally, the moment of truth, I plugged it in... And it spun up and was perfectly on speed. I've since replaced the belt, cart, and stylus... But the thing works like a charm. I like the story behind it. There have been many people that have told me to sell it, and stop dealing with all of these problems with it, I said no. It has a story, and I intend to keep it to make more stories.
Anyways, I would also like to thank all of you within AudioKarma. Since it's my senior year, and I'm graduating in a few short months, I will be going to college to become an Audio Engineer... Thank all of you for your hands in my interest towards this.
Sorry for the novel of a post, but, I figured I would share my story out.
