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what an idiot......

pdm4606

pdm4606

Super Member
I got a new stylus from The Stylus Lady in England for a song.(low price)
I received it in around a week and a half. No problem.

All ok until I played the first record. Not a sound. Not a peep!

Was I upset. I checked everything.(or so I thought)
How could this beautiful stylus not work?
I rechecked all my settings. Tracking pressure was set with a mini digital scale and good. I checked Pickering specs for the XV-15 625DJ. All ok for my Pickering XV-15 1200e Cart.
By then I was really upset. Still not a sound.
I changed to an old XV-15 750 stylus and beautiful sound.
Again I reset everything and tried the new XV-15 625DJ again. By accident I
Pushed down on the headshell and I got sound. Beautiful Finlandia on DGG.
I examined the headshell and found that my setting for stylus pressure was off. The tiny dustamatic brush was keeping the stylus from ever making contact with the lp.
Not an issue with the brush. More like an issue with the make believe audiophile(me).
Was I stupid! I was ready to blame everything and everybody for the lack of sound.
I did everything right except to check to see if the diamond was contacting the record. Very much needed to get good sound.
Next time you have a problem and everything is going wrong, check the nut behind the wheel to see if everything is as it is supposed to be.

Then recheck it again!!!!!

Paul
 
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HA! like the story of the computer that won't boot up.... of course, its not plugged in. Better to learn a little humility than to return a defective product.
 
Its especially frustrating when you just can't figure it out. Its happened to me and I'm pretty sure its happened to all of us.
 
I am the happiest person I know, when I can conclude that the problem is "operator error" not something with my precious equipment. Stupid, but happy.
 
I did something like that this evening. I wanted to quickly test out a new phono preamp on an accessible system before taking apart my living room system, to install it there.

I quickly hooked up to the CD input using the cable that was coming from my CD. Dropped the needle...no sound... oh! Volume was off.

Raise volume.... no sound....

Scratch head, look at new preamp with suspicion... no sound...

Then I realized that I had unplugged the Cd cables from the receiver, not the Cd player.... my preamp output was going to my Cd player's output...
 
I've done much worse that that so that I'd be embarrassed to mention. At least it didn't cost you a bunch of money before you figured out what was wrong.
 
Some of these user-error moments happen because RCA connections are so forgiving. And it's a good thing, too, what with almost everyone connecting outputs to outputs at some time in their audio career. If there was real, smokin' voltage involved, we'd be a little more careful. Although there would be some great stories from those that weren't!
 
How about forgetting to put the jumpers back into the pre in/outs of your receiver after you disconnected the external sound processor. Took a friendly repair man to realize my stupidity on that one. You can imagine my shame as I walked out of there with my tail between my legs.
 
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