I have recently decided to get my turntable back into shape.  It's spent the 
last several years being lucky if it played an album once every couple of 
months. So, I took it down to the local high end audio shop and had a tech 
check it out for me and re-align the cartridge.  It turns out that the table 
is in great shape for what it is.  It's a late 70's model Technics with the 
old curved S tonearm.  I got to talking to this guy for quite some time about 
all of the different tables that are around now and how there are a ton of 
them on the used market that are excellent tables that would far out perform 
what I have.  We also talked in great length about the newer designs from 
Audio Technica on sylus shapes and how I could get a radical improvement in 
overall sound quality going to one of the new style cartridges reguardless of 
whether or not I replaced the table. So, I have a few questions for anybody 
that is still into records. Does this newer stylus design that is supposed to 
penetrate deeper into the groove make the radical difference that he led me 
to beleive?  I currently have an Audio Technica cartridge with an eliptical 
design that does have quite a few miles on it (bought it new in '84 and it 
was one of thier better ones).  I forgot what he called the newer design.  
Also, what are some of the really nice tables now?  He rattled off a few 
brands and a lot about tone are design, platter weight and drive design which 
all made good sense and then told me I would be far better off finding a nice 
one on the used market than paying new prices.  So now I'm out to find out 
what the nice ones are!  And last, but probobly most important.  What is a 
good way to clean your records now.  The old Discwasher brush just does not 
cut it on the old albums anymore.  They still sound great but they crackle 
way too much for my blood.  I'm hoping that a better cleaning method would 
cure a large majority of the crackle.  Any tidbits I can get would be greatly 
appreciated!  With the price of good used records being so cheap now, it 
would be awsome if I could bring these critters back to life.  I even listed 
to quite a few of my old albums the last couple of days and the sound quality 
is great, it's just that anoying background crakle that's making me leary of 
investing this much in some newer equipment if there is no cure for the 
crackle.
                        Thanks Jim
--- GEcho 1.20/Pro/PBBS
I saw a question floating around in this echo about how Dolby S works.  I 
never saw an answer to it though :( I'm very interested in how it actually 
works because I bought a new deck a few months back that has Dolby HX-pro, 
Dolby B,C, and S. I've recorded about 100 tapes on it now and I must say that 
the Dolby S works AWSOME!  It is next to impossiable to tell the difference 
between the CD and the tape if it's done up with Dolby S. So, if anybody 
knows, I would be very interested in knowing how it works. Jim
--- GEcho 1.20/Pro/PBBS
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