[Wayner]

I found a picture of your turntable. Where is your headshell? This table needs a headshell (screws onto the end of it and the headshell makes contacts with the 4 pins on the arm). We need to find out what headshell is compatable.

Now I know what TheChairGuy was talking about as I am unfamiliar with this table. And He asked you this question awhile ago. You do need to find a compatible headshell or you are screwed.

Wayner

[S Clark]

On closer inspection, the tone arm has four male pins that are spring loaded.  The Ortofon cartridge mounts by fitting into a socket on the tonearm with an offset pin to insure that it mounts correctly, and then the tone arm has a collar that screws the cartridge snugly into place.  The ADC mounts fine on another table that I have, a JVC L-A31, but it is a lower quality table and not what I want to work with.

This turntable came with a DJ cartridge that mounts straight to the arm.  The cartridge that I bought came with a headshell, but it doesn't fit.  The seller was told which table it was going onto. Perhaps the tone arm has been altered, or the guy just sold me the wrong cartridge.  Unfortunately, to complicated matters, I left my digital camera at a friends several hundred miles away a couple of weeks ago and haven't had a chance to get it back.

[TheChairGuy]

Unfortunately, to complicated matters, I left my digital camera at a friends several hundred miles away a couple of weeks ago and haven't had a chance to get it back.

Wouldn't that just be the town next to yours in Texas...as it's so BIG 

I do indeed love it when my Texan friends begin telling me how large Texas is end to end.  It's a hoot (especially fun if the beer is flowing)

All in good fun, Scott...John 

[TheChairGuy]

Ooops, sorry there was a question there that needs answering, too 

The ADC's came often came with a type of headshell that fit on straight arm tonearms....the tonearm on your QL-F6 is an S shaped arm that takes what is called an 'SME-type' headshell (as SME was the first to use it 30+ years ago).  It's not a 'P' mount....your table hails from 1979, just prior to the P mount offerings.

If your ADC is mounted on a headshell that looks something like below, it's the wrong headshell (but the cartridge is still very much usable when you remount it to the correct headshell)


This is what your headshell should look like:


If it looks like the top and not the bottom headshell....Tim at Turntable Basics will sell you one for the grand total of $14.00 delivered: http://www.turntablebasics.com/hardware.html

Note the helpful pics he has loaded on that page to help you recognize and install it on the end of your arm correctly.

[S Clark]

Thanks. That is exactly what I needed to know, and I'll get the right headshell ordered asap!   

Actually, my bud lives in the town of Terlingua, just next to Mexico about 400 miles from Abilene- which is just about dead center in Texas.  It's a remnant of a mining town that consist of a bar/restaurant, a bar/store, a bar and the worlds largest chili cookoff every Nov. 

Here is the desert view from the bar just about every evening.
http://www.maklandcompany.com/Portals/0/Prime%20Bluffs%20at%20Sunset.jpg

[Wayner]

I love stories that come to a happy ending! Clark, at least your on the road to recovery! Audiocircles is great 'cause there is somebody familiar with almost every piece of gear there is. I knew John boy would come to the rescue. 

Now just to make you a little jealous, I just scored Oregon, Distant Hills LP on Mobile Fidelity, half speed master, for 7 dollars! While that is high for a used album, it is mint, probably only played a couple of times, with almost zero noise (slight occasional static). The other ablum is by Gypsy double album, self titled (I'm sure it's their first, and it's mint), not even a spindle mark on the label.

Wayner  aa

[TheChairGuy]

I love stories that come to a happy ending! Clark, at least your on the road to recovery! Audiocircles is great 'cause there is somebody familiar with almost every piece of gear there is. I knew John boy would come to the rescue. 

Now just to make you a little jealous, I just scored Oregon, Distant Hills LP on Mobile Fidelity, half speed master, for 7 dollars! While that is high for a used album, it is mint, probably only played a couple of times, with almost zero noise (slight occasional static). The other ablum is by Gypsy double album, self titled (I'm sure it's their first, and it's mint), not even a spindle mark on the label.

Wayner  aa

Nice score, Wayner.  I've never had any Mobile Fidelity half-speeds but I have several Nautilus half-speed records....I don't like the lot of them.  Can't for the life of me figure out why (and they weren't cheap back when purchased new) - it's bot the artists or music as they are well known, there is something endemic in the mastering by Nautilus that just bugs me.

Gotta' find some Mobile Fidelity discs to hear it done better....as I recognize the many advantages to half speed mastering otherwise 

Scott/S Clark - good to get to the bottom of your issues.  Let us know if you have any further issues with either mounting, balancing or configuring your cartridge to your tonearm and we'll walk you thru it.

Hey, as well, go buy 8 lbs of PlastiClay (aka, any modeling clay) and pack it into the innards of your new deck.  It'll be about the best $35 you've spent on an upgrade on  your plastic bodies Japanese DD machine 

The clay can be found in Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Ben Franklin Craft shops or online if you want.  It's silly how much better the deck gets with some firming of the jiggly bits inside.

John

[S Clark]

I'm way ahead of you on the modeling clay.  I packed in 7 lbs right after the turntable arrived. 
I have a few of the MFL disk, several Angel 12" 45 rpms, and a slew of DBX encoded records that I am eager to hear again.  My headshell is ordered- I just have to wait for it to arrive .

In the meantime, Wayner, what is your mix for homemade record cleaning solution?

Scott

[Wayner]

3/4 reverse osmosis water, 1/4 99% isopropyl alcohol (get the isopropyl from a drug store). I put that into a small mist-spray bottle and lightly spray my Discwasher brush and brush the record before playing. It helps pick up dust and also stops and reduces static build-up over using a dry brush. Soon, your records will become very slippery.

Slippery good.......very good.

Wayner  aa

[TheChairGuy]

I'm way ahead of you on the modeling clay.  I packed in 7 lbs right after the turntable arrived. 
I have a few of the MFL disk, several Angel 12" 45 rpms, and a slew of DBX encoded records that I am eager to hear again.  My headshell is ordered- I just have to wait for it to arrive .

Scott

Cool - you are indeed a planner.... 

John

[Derockster]

Hi S Clark sorry to hear of your troubles with your new cartridge.Mines arrived 3 days ago and I was very much not impressed with the sound.Then John came to the rescue with his tights and cape on  and said give it 50 hours it ain't soft and thin sounding.Tonight after numerous hours of playing I'm smiling .This cartridge is musical it's fun to listen to and it has an extended top end which is to die for.It's also very picky about cables.Try to get a cable which is low in capacitance.It makes beautiful music no regrets at all.Thanks once again John Regards derockster ps I mounted it on my sp15 instead of the 1200.

[TheChairGuy]

Way cool!

Actually, I found the ADC XLM responds to a bit of capacitance....about 250-300pf and it smooths out and sounds as linear as any cartridge I'd ever heard.  I never really thought I'd ever hear real linearity before in frequency response of one cartridge to another...until I heard the ADC 

It really is one of the great cartridges of all time...every vinyl lover should own or hear one once under the right conditions to hear what it can do.  As long as there is stock still around, I would absolutely rate it over the slightly-more-pricey AT440MLa of today.   It likes lower mass arms, however, and the AT will live more comfortably in medium mass arms.

Regards, John

[Derockster]

I've tried a few cables with it such as MIT 330,the original SME tonearm cable and kimber's  own pbj.I'm now running a homemade tri-braid 26 guage silver cable with it.When the music shop opens this morning I'm going to purchase some microphone cable and give that a try.The interesting thing is the silver is thus far giving the best results.It is a lovely cartridge though and once again I've got to say thanks to the VINYl SUPERMAN John the Chairguy Regards derockster

[TheChairGuy]

Yup - keep playing around with it.  I found 250-300pf linearized the sound....I think ADC recommended 275pf (tonearm wiring, outer leads and any capacitance at your preamp needs to be added to get to the total amount).

Kimber's are typically quite high in capacitance - braided wires tend to be.  As the ADC is not a very low inductance cartridge (I think it's 350mh a side...commendable by standards of most MM/MI/IM's, but not really low) if you have too much capacitance you'll essentially chop out some of the delicate/moderately extended treble response unnecessarily.

Enjoy! - John 

[Derockster]

What do you mean by outer leads??Sorry for the many questions but this is a learning curve for me.Regards derockster

[TheChairGuy]

What do you mean by outer leads??Sorry for the many questions but this is a learning curve for me.Regards derockster

The outer leads is whatever is attached from your TT to your preamp.  Sometimes it's one continuous length of wiring from headshell to rca's 4-or-so-feet away.

I don't know what value your internal tonearm wiring is on your SME (you might want to email SME and ask)....you need to add that to whatever you are using for TT (outer leads) and add any capacitance specified at your preamp (often it is zero, but occasionally there is 50 or 100 pf wired in)

The three together, inner wiring, outer wiring and innate capacitance at your preamp phono input gives you total capacitance.

What you likely want is a total of about 250-300pf...the correct total capacitance will smooth out a resonant peak in the cartridge...and should make it more enjoyable (ie, you'll eek out a bit more performance from your new purchase).  More likely than the physical makeup of the wire you are making up be it silver or copper, twisted braid or coax, etc) the total capacitance and how in interacts with your ADC is likely a bigger factor in how it ultimately sounds to you 

As with most things vinyl tho....how it sounds is an individualized thing tho so don't get crazy chasing any one aspect of performance down.  Get the biggies down...like VTF, azimuth and correct alignment.

John