JVC QL-A2 Turntable Score

sweetbeats

sweetbeats

Reel deep thoughts...
Well my fiancée are presently living in the middle of nowhere in a camper waiting to sign on our new-to-us house...we traveled to the next town today and bummed around. We went to the local Goodwill thrift store. It was one of the more clean and well organized stores of the chain I've been to...headed straight back to electronics.

After looking through the usual "no thank you" stuff for several minutes I spy a turntable. I haven't owned a turntable in about 20 years. I've often missed having one as I have a decent size collection of well-maintained LPs, and no CD or dubbed cassette copies of most of them. Life has been life and I've never gotten around to picking up another unit since my Sony linear tracking model decided to stop tracking linearly or rather at all. Anyway, my fiancée and I often talk about needing a turntable...we both love music and want to hear some of those albums...so when I saw the turntable I thought "ooooo maybe this will work!"

It looked pretty clean.

It looked all there with a cartridge installed too.

Direct FG servo drive...chassis has a little heft to it (thumbs up)...hmm...JVC QL-A2...quick Google search brings up a decent amount of hits so it's not some obscure lame model...something decent.

Plug it in and the platter spins right up and locks in like it should, automatic tone arm functions work...remove platter and it's really nice and clean under there...seems like it might be worth it. $19.99. *snag*

My albums are packed away so it may be a little bit before we can try it out, and I'm not sure I even have a phono preamp on the Pioneer receiver I have...I think there might be one on the vintage "workshop" Nikko amplifier I have. I KNOW I have TWO phono preamps on my early 80s prototype Tascam console :), but I'm in the midst of *something* with the master section on that...it's been another year since I've touched it and I'll have to refresh my memory once I get moved...think it had to do with select opamp upgrades, cleaning up "proto vomit" kludges, and replacing gobs of switching transistors. ANYWAY...I'll be spinning records at SOME point.

In the meantime, does anybody know anything anecdotal about these units? And how about the stylus cartridge installed? Can't find a brand. Maybe it is the original generic JVC cartridge? The needle points off to the side. Is that normal or is it tweaked/toasted? See pic below.

Here it is! Mitsy kitten says "ooooo analog warmth!"

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Anybody recognize this cartridge model?

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And what about the needle all hangin' to the right? My gut says its tweaked and I'll be investing in a new cartridge, but...?

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Good score! Looks to me like the stylus got bent. That ain't normal. Not a great cartridge anyway.
 
Thanks, RFR!

Yeah...it doesn't look right indeed. And no sense trying to repair and risk damage to my records.

Any recommendations on a new cartridge? I'm not turntable savvy.
 
I have forgotten some of the names of good cartridges, I'm a bit out of the loop myself. I do have a turntable and it has a Stanton which is a good make and been around forever. I used to know all the good stuff but that was years ago, and don't want to pull names out of my butt. Some may be around still, some may be crap now.

I know there used to be Pickering, Stanton, Shure, ADC, and I believe Audio Technica. Stanton has always been good to me.

Check EBAY there are stores on the east coast that sell there. Just a simple search will come up with tons of stuff.

Stay away from DJ stylus's. They are pointier, as in the point is sharper, and will shorten the life span of your vinyl.

I'm hoping some folks more current on what's out there will chime in.
 
Just to confirm, yes, the stylus cantilever is definitely pooched and beyond repair. The cartridge appears to be an ADC cartridge. Lower end model to be sure. You might want to check with local record shops to see if they sell replacement styluses. They all used to back in the day. Maybe an older long established store still has inventory? I would guess most of what you'll find on evilbay will be over hyped and over priced. Maybe do another trip back to goodwill to scope out a crap turntable that has a decent cartridge on it.

As RFR mentioned, Stanton,Pickering, which was a division of Stanton and Shure all made decent models. Audio Technica and Ortofon were also quality brands. Just make sure whatever you buy new cartridge-wise is a 2 screw half inch mount design where the cartridge attached as the current one does from the top of the headshell.

About the turntable itself, it looks to be a decent lower budget model and should be fine so long as its mounted on a very sturdy shelf or table that will not easily vibrate from low frequency output from your speakers and cause audible rumble at louder volumes. At lower to moderate volume, it should be fine.

I used to own a JVC LA-11 turntable which was a very similar design from the early 80's. It was bottom of the line for its day but still pretty decent at the same time. You model is 1 or 2 notches higher in that year's line up so for the 20 bucks you paid for it, you certainly got a great deal. :)



Cheers! :)
 
If you can find a SHure V15 type II or III for a decent price , grab it. I recently got a type III with a VN 35HE stylus for my Dual 1019 turntable. It sounds so much better than the other shure model I had on it. The v15 is one of the best vintage cartridges out there. But they can be pricey. I got my for $140 with a stylus that has a lot of life left on it. It cost more than my turntable, but the sound is amazing.IMG_00000930.jpgIMG_00000928.jpg
 
Cool score Cory! I bought my first turntable about two years ago and have about 15 LPs now. (My parents had one when I was growing up, but this is the first I'd bought on my own). Mine's nothing special at all, but I just really enjoy the experience. We have a "music room" downstairs with a piano, my stereo system (Kenwood KA-31 amp/KT-31 tuner, Kenwood KD75-F turntable, and Kenwood speakers), and my Sony TC-530 reel to reel. We'll put on a record while making dinner or something, and the kids will dance to it. It's just a fun listening experience.

By the way, congratulations on your recent(ish?) engagement. This is the first I've heard you speak of it, so forgive me if it's old news.
 
I like Stanton 681 EEE

Beware of cartridges for sale these days. Most are now for DJ use and have been ruggedized for the abuse they are subjected to, at the cost of performance.
 
sweetbeats said:
What is involved in a proper setup?
Click to expand...

Properly aligning the cartridge on the headshell, balancing the tone arm to float, setting the tracking pressure and then setting the anti-skating to the same setting as the tracking force. All in that order.

I can get into the specifics in greater detail if you like...after I finish dinner.



Cheers! :)
 
Yikes. Yeah. I'll need more specifics. And I'm assuming I'll need to purchase some kind of measuring device to set the pressure.
 
You can just look up the cartridge specs and it will tell you the force to use. The Shure v15 can track down to a low weight, as little as 3/4 grams. I have mine set at 1gr. As for aligning the cartridge you can get one of these.
Amazon.com : Turntable Phono Cartridge Stylus Alignment Protractor Tool Mirror : Handheld And Pda Styli : Electronics

They sell them on ebay too. Or you could go over to the vinylengine site and down load and print a protractor on to paper. Thats what I did.
Also plenty of tutorials on youtube. Aligning the cart is the trickiest thing.
 
sweetbeats said:
Yikes. Yeah. I'll need more specifics. And I'm assuming I'll need to purchase some kind of measuring device to set the pressure.
Click to expand...

No problem! :)

First off, no special extra measuring device is needed for setting the tracking pressure. That's built into the counterweight at the back end of the tone arm. which turns separately from the counterweight itself...more on that later.

Step one: cartridge alignment on the headshell. This involves placing the cartridge's stylus tip 48mm from the most forward edge of the headshell's 4 pin connector barrel. "The most forward edge" is the edge which is closest to the front of the turntable, as opposed to the back edge of that barrel which is inside the tone arm when attached to it. There are alignment jigs which come with many cartridges when you buy them new which would give you a more handy view of where along the two top screws on the headshell need to be placed along their track travel. From memory, I believe the owners manual of the turntable would have a pretty good line drawing of all that.



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Step two: Floating the tone arm. This involves firstly making sure the tone arm elevator is in the down position and that the successfully mounted cartridge and stylus assembly is mounted on the headshell and firmly attached to the tone arm. Once that's in place you will then proceed to turn the rear counterweight until the arm floats freely, not listing downward or popping upward toward the ceiling. The turntable itself should be sitting on a level surface on both axis' front to back and left to right. You should gently keep one hand near the cartridge end of the arm so that it doesn't accidentally fall downward thus damaging the needle but it should not touch the headshell or cartridge as that will throw off the float balance you are trying to set. Generally, giving the counterweight a quarter turn at a time and then taking you hand off the weight to see how the float state coming along. Then doing much finer turns one you get the arm to its middle float state. Once the float state is achieved, return the tone arm to its rest clip.

Step three: setting the tracking force. On the rear counterweight there is a black ring at the front of the weight. It should have markings on it which start at zero and go up to three. Carefully turn this dial alone ensuring the counterweight does not turn and set that dial at zero. Once done, then now turn the counterweight to 1.5 on the black ring's dial scale. The scale will turn as you turn the counterweight. Once achieved, you'll have the proper tracking pressure now set for your Shure cartridge.

Step four: setting the anti-skating control. This dial has two scales on it, One which is denoted for conical styluses with a round circle symbol and the other for elliptical styluses which is what your Shure cartridge is and that should have an oval shaped symbol on the scale markings. You'll turn this also to 1.5 on the elliptical scale. I should have also mentioned that this dial needs to be set to its zero position prior to balancing the tone arm.

And that's basically it. Once all those steps are followed, your cartridge will now track your records at a safe pressure that doesn't damage the needle or your records and will give even performance all the way through the arm's travel across the record.

Hope that helps a bit. ;)



Cheers! :)



NOTE: To other folks out there, the above information is specific to sweetbeat's record player model and some of the info provided on cartridge alignment wont carry over to different tone arms other then a handful of similar JVC models which shared the same tone arm design.
 
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j.harv said:
You can just look up the cartridge specs and it will tell you the force to use. The Shure v15 can track down to a low weight, as little as 3/4 grams. I have mine set at 1gr. As for aligning the cartridge you can get one of these.
Click to expand...
Even though the specs call for .75 to 1 gram of tracking force, I'd usually go with a bit more because of a few reasons.

1 - a bit more tracking force is usually a good safeguard against the needle jumping out of the grove with records that are worn/well played or warped.

2 - a bit more force will also guard against needle jump at louder levels where the bass vibrations could feedback through the turntable and arm enough to lead to needle jump.

3 - lower end record players tend to be more susceptible to these issues because they are lighter and not built to the same standards of precision that higher end heavier tables are.

Yes, this will lead to a bit faster wear of both the records and and the needle but its not dramatically worse.

Cory could start off at the 1 gram setting and see how that goes under real world conditions and if no issues show up, leave it there or just go ahead and use the heavier settings which I believe would be needed based on that model's design. YMMV...



Cheers! :)
 
The Ghost of FM said:
Even though the specs call for .75 to 1 gram of tracking force, I'd usually go with a bit more because of a few reasons.

1 - a bit more tracking force is usually a good safeguard against the needle jumping out of the grove with records that are worn/well played or warped.

2 - a bit more force will also guard against needle jump at louder levels where the bass vibrations could feedback through the turntable and arm enough to lead to needle jump.

3 - lower end record players tend to be more susceptible to these issues because they are lighter and not built to the same standards of precision that higher end heavier tables are.

Yes, this will lead to a bit faster wear of both the records and and the needle but its not dramatically worse.

Cory could start off at the 1 gram setting and see how that goes under real world conditions and if no issues show up, leave it there or just go ahead and use the heavier settings which I believe would be needed based on that model's design. YMMV...



Cheers! :)
Click to expand...


Yes! I think I might actually up the pressure on mine by half a gram. I have an old Dual 1019 which is actually a real nice old turntable. One of duals finest IMO. It's built like a tank and has a 7.5 lb platter!!!
Cory, also check the condition of the rca cables. If they look ragged or even cheap, it's easy to replace them with higher quality ones.
 
I'm away from my thrift store find at the moment, but with what little looking at it I've done your instructions make perfect sense, Ghost...HUGE thanks...for all the guidance AND the link to the manual! Grew up with turntables but my brother was always the owner of them until I got my own, but the two I owned were linear tracking models, so I've never had to deal with the tone arm/cartridge/stylus setup.

New skills!! :D

Thank you again!
 
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