I got my Vinyl 500, it is really the perfect combo what I was looking for. I mainly need a streamer but also something occasionally to play vinyls.
But, I am struggling with the "pop/crack" sound. I tried a few LPs I had (old ones from yard sale to brand new ones). I am waiting for a scale to arrive on Thursday so I can double check the VTF, but not sure what else I can do to reduce the surface noise (already got the brush). I am happy to buy a nicer cartridge, but somehow I feel the problem is not with cartridge.
(This is an used one from Amazon Warehouse BTW)
Welcome to the world of vinyl!! where pops, crackles and imperfections can never be avoided, but can be minimized to some degree. I wouldn't worry about the cartridge yet, its just fine, but. step 1) just check the stylus (especially if you bought it used and was not Yamaha's factory refurb).
step 2)
Watch this video on setup (it would be helpful). This guy compiled a lot of things to keep an eye on during the initial setup.
The only thing i'd bother upgrading is the platter mat for 14 bucks. I replaced mine with a slightly thicker cork mat than the one the Yam comes with. IMO, that felt default platter mat is not the best!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JD38XDQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
IF everything's fine on the above mentioned,
Step 3)
Clean the records....even new records can be filthy (invisible dirt, whatever). Not sure what you have. But, don't go crazy yet and drop beaucoup bucks on some huge ultrasonic cleaner (you can if you want), But, I've had appreciable success with something like this (this brush is good)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DVSTBXM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
4) Some pressings/labels are just lousy by default man and it doesn't matter how good a setup you have, it will still pop/crackle to high heaven....European pressings (german ones especially), in general, tend to have less issues than some American pressings . You should always do your research on the lousy/good labels out there before you buy them. If you're buying stuff used from discogs, make sure the quality is VG+ and higher.
Again, welcome to the world of vinyl! a world of imperfection and OCD. There's a lotta reading up you can do on a lot of things vinyl and go deeper and deeper into it. But, If you get too much OCD over vinyl, it may not be a right fit for ya. It can drive some people crazy (a.k.a myself, back in the days). But, i suggested the Yamaha unit because you also get a good quality digital streamer that came with it.. So you didn't lose much even if you gave up on vinyl someday (couldn't deal with the OCD). You can tinker with it as much as you want, but don't drop much too money on vinyl man, it can only make the OCD worse.... If you scroll on to my earlier comment on this thread, you'd note that i quit vinyl after spending more than 10k dollars (in today's money) on my vinyl equipment, sold everything and went to digital. The only reason i came back to it is because i have a bunch of old and rare records ( very rare musicians, world music, etc dating back to the early 1900s) that i inherited from my grandfather. I enjoy them and there simply is no digital format available on any of these. The other thing is that some older albums (mid 60s to early 80s) can sound better on the vinyl release. The CDs/Digital versions available for some of them were/are just plain awful (victimized by the compression/loudness wars).
This website can serve as a guideline, but, it shouldn't be your guiding force.
http://dr.loudness-war.info/
So, feel free to play with it, but, don't drive yourself crazy with this thing called vinyl, lol. (your expectations for this decades old medium should be realistic)
