Category: Turntable Setup & Calibration

Sibilance on vinyl — the “sssh” on vocals turning into a spitty, distorted T sound — is a stylus tracing…

End-of-side distortion, sibilance on vocals, and one channel going quiet are almost always setup faults, not bad records. In my…

Mono records played back in stereo carry a layer of noise and distortion that no amount of alignment will remove,…

Overhang is the single geometry number most likely to cause inner-groove distortion, because getting it wrong shifts both of your…

If your record skips, it is almost always one of three things: a tracking fault in the setup, damage or…

Anti-skate is the outward force that cancels the inward pull dragging your stylus toward the record’s center. Set it roughly…

Tracking force is the downward weight your stylus presses into the groove, and getting it right is the single most…

Setting up a turntable for the first time takes about an hour and four cheap habits: assemble the deck, balance…

A turntable setup guide comes down to geometry and discipline, not magic: level the plinth, zero the tonearm, then dial…