Victrola No. 4 Performance: Part II

[Lucius1958]

Taker, not giver.

Could you clarify that statement?

Bill

[Gatyam]

Sorry, should have been more clear...I have a couple of those reproducers and neither perform well. I would like to know more, but have no knowledge to offer up in return.

[winsleydale]

Well for what it's worth, I found that the fine adjustment on the pivot points for the needle bar is really, really finicky. I tightened the little nuts on the inside of the pivot lugs first, but then when I put the screws in on the outside, it seemed like they pulled the pivots slightly loose again. So I eventually had to fix the problem by overtightening the nuts, then when the screws went in, it pulled everything to the Goldilocks zone of tightness, allowing free movement for the needlebar, but not allowing any side play. Once I figured that adjustment out, it really got rid of a lot of issues with the way the thing sounded.

The other things I did were to replace the diaphragm (the old one was delaminating in a few spots and sounded terrible) and the gaskets, for which I used Exhibition gasket tubing as recommended by another member of the Forum. They compressed far more than I am used to in this case, but it's damn near hermetically sealed as a result, so there is absolutely no leakage at all.

For some reason, the screws that attach the needle bar to the diaphragm were too long on both of my No. 4s (I just got the brass one yesterday), which I attribute to new mica being thinner. They refuse to properly clamp the mica, but I found that when you seal it with beeswax, which you're supposed to do anyway, it eliminates the 'wiggle' pretty effectively.

These are the things I did on my No. 4 soundboxes that gave me clear, forward sound, with some punch especially on Whiteman records, I've noticed. Still sounds kind of shrill on certain records, but much less so than my No. 2 and Exhibition. I think that's just going to be what happens with a mica diaphragm at this point; certain records will play better than others.