[john from seattle]

First of all, I'm currently in the Kenwood camp, but would love to move out of there into something else entirely

I'm not exactly a newbie in the vinyl realm as I've been playing vinyl ever since I can remember - and still do.

However, I was also on AA, but due to all kinds of issues there, I left there  2-3 years ago and while I got a lot out of the vinyl asylum, I've been slammed for what I have table wise by some.

I have an old Kenwood KD-12RB belt drive table. Now, this isn't one of Kenwood's better decks, but one that was easily found at places like Silo when they still existed in the US at inexpensive prices for the masses in the mid 80's. While not the worst thing for it's day, I was able to make it sound really pretty good, thanks to those on Vinyl Asylum and one of the things I did was replace cheap cartridge with the Ortofon OM-10 cartridge. The actual shell is now 6 years old, originaly purchased in 1998, but has had I think two styli since then at the very least. The last being prior to 2003 and it's not been played much since then.

Anyhoo, just within the past week or so, I've began to notice it's lost some of it's oomph soundwise. This deck runs bright to begin with, but had a lot of sparkle and detail until now where the mids seem kinda lost and it sound rather thinhish all of a sudden.

So, I'm begining to think a fresh cartridge may be in order for now and want something more mellow and warmer sounding that'll counteract the tendency of the table itself to run bright since I play everything from classic Jazz to vintage to more current rock/pop, many of those on the bright side and of course some classical music.

I'll post the rest of my system in my profile so you can get the full picture of what I have.

Thanks and sorry this a tad long.

[WEEZ]

Howdy, and welcome to AC.

Not familiar with the Kenwood, sorry. FWIW, I've used a zillion cartridges over the years (well, not that many, but you know what I mean) and I always come back to Grado. Just something about the 'voicing': warm, full-bodied and easy to listen to.

You could start by trying the cheapest one- the Black. If you don't like it- you're only out about $35.

WEEZ

[john from seattle]

Thanks for the response and the welcome.

In some of the brief perusing of postings here, I'd forgotten many of the names and yes, I've heard of the Grado and if I recall right, I was going to go for it at my local recoed shop, but they didn't carry the Grado, but did the Ortofon, which was about $70 or so at the time of initial purchase.

I may give the Grado a try. Thanks. The idea is to ge the table warmer to closely match the CD player.

[WEEZ]

If you don't have a local source, there are plenty of on-line sources for Grado.

Be carefull: IF you get hooked on the sound of a Grado, next thing you know you'll be shopping for turntables and tonearms and god knows what else 'cause the better Grado's sound even better and then..........$$$$$$$.

 

good luck,

WEEZ

[john from seattle]

I know, I know!!! At this point, I just want to make what I have sound decent until I can afford to updgrade the whole table.

Right now, money's tight so gotta help make what I have limp along, but be listenable as well.

[Tonto Yoder]

When did you last change the belt??  It's possible that a stretched belt doesn't quite keep the table spinning at the perfect speed---not quite irregular enough to be obvious, but it CAN take the pace off the sound.

I had a good discontinued table and decided to order a new belt before they were totally out of stock.  I didn't think anything was WRONG with the TT as is, but wanted an extra.  Just for an experiment, I installed the new belt and the sound "sparkled" by comparison.

This is just a guess, so don't take it for gospel; but it's one thing to consider.

[john from seattle]

The belt got changed a few years ago, like I think in 1999, or it may have been in 1998, I can't recall off hand and it may be due another one. The place here in Seattle carries parts for many older tables and many of the belts for brands  like Kenwood are of sizes easily gotten still.

The original belt had stretched quite abit I do recall, and that was from age mostly.

[Uptown Audio]

You might try cleaning the stylus with some alcohol and a bit of tissue, being extremely careful not to bend the cantelever of course. Also be sure the table is mounted on a very solid surface.
If you have moved the speakers, be sure that they are not interfering with the turntable. If the table is not well isolated, vibrations created by the speakers can get into it and smear the sound. Check by placing your hand on the table when playing a record at the volume where you find a problem with the sound. If the dust cover vibrates more, then you might want to remove it or at least keep it closed when playing an Lp.
-Bill

[orthobiz]

Hey John, Old Is Good.
I have an 25 year old Linn, 28 year old Dahlquists and I might just keep them forever. Sometimes you get an attachment to an oldie but goodie and it's nothing to apologize for. So keep the old TT going if you can! I won't diss you!

biz

[john from seattle]

I do keep the stylus pretty clean and this table is on the cheap side and for a while with the Ortofon cart, it souded pretty good, even if on the bright side, but what I'm getting now is a thinning of the overall sound than normal for this table.

It's not a smearing effect that I notice other than compared to my CDP and DVD player, it does not have that overall roundness and fullness of sound. Part of that is to be expected, but in the end, it's less than I recall.

To be honest, I did change out the speakers, I had a "large" pair o vintage Sansui Speakers with horns that had created a very hard sound that no matter what I did, was just glaring to no end so I swapped them out with the previous, slighly smaller pair of Sansuis and the sound, while sweeter and more enjoyable, the table now sounds thin, especialy so on some LP's than on others, but has an overall bright sound, typical of this type of deck.

I do usually keep the dust cover closed and will check the isolation of the table since I'm using a modification of a system I'd used before in my old space.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[john from seattle]

While I grant that old can be good, I do know that for some, the suspension of some carts will dry out and cause problems and that is what I may be suspecting to some extent.

Also, this table is on the cheap side for the mid 80's even and runs bright so I do want to go warmer in the long run, to more closely match my CDP.