4 were completely dead, 2 not far from it. Kinda knackered my starter because I had to crank her hard to get going. Also slightly worried that I've done some damage to the gearbox as some times it refuses to engage correctly. Though the guy from Land Rover claims a service will fix that problem, so I've got it booked in for one. Fingers crossed it does sort things and I don't need a new box.

Quote from [RCG]Boosted :

golf mk2?

eeeeeeeeeeee-yup

http://www.laptopspec.net/wp-c ... /05/Dell-Inspiron-14R.jpg


got myself one of these.

i5-2430
500gb hdd
6gb ram
and stuff.


does anyone know any good looking addon/app to replace the original hud thingys of win7? ( yes my previous pos had XP. i am now in the present and not the past )

im also surprised that she runs lfs quite smoothly.. the graphics arent that old as many people say...

It's not that I've started playing any of them yet. Haven't even opened the case.

Quote from Ni-san :

Haven't even opened the case.

If you have an nVidia graphics solution you better keep it closed.

Phono Preamp


A new cartridge


A digital tonearm scale


and a cartridge alignment tool


Spent a whole evening adjusting everything, now my records sound amazing!

What turn table are you using? the last two items seem a bit gimik-ish.

seems like a 1210mk2 from the first pic D:

i don't think that's his 1200 MKII (silver ).

right, mixed it up with 1200s.

While we're nearly on the subject, does anyone know any turntablists in the Leeds / York area? My new band could make great use of one.

Quote from dadge :

What turn table are you using? the last two items seem a bit gimik-ish.

I'm using an SL1210 MKII that i got about two years ago, never used and still sealed in the original box, so the condition is still like new (pic is not mine indeed).

The last two items are something that is not needed a lot (basically only one time to adjust everything, or if you change the cartridge). It's very important for records that the turntable is properly adjusted and the cartridge alignment is more or less correct as well. If you compare an adjusted system to a non-adjusted one, the difference in sound quality is quite big.

The alignment tool you could probably make yourself from a bit of paper and cardboard, the tonearm scale might be more difficult to make yourself (the one i got is the cheapest i could find). Staying within the recommended tracking weight of a cartridge is important as well after all.

PS: I'm also properly cleaning all my records (time consuming process) and got new inner sleeves. All the above things would be a bit stupid if all i'm playing is records with dust from the last 30-40 years on them.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

While we're nearly on the subject, does anyone know any turntablists in the Leeds / York area? My new band could make great use of one.

I know a very skilled dude, but he's from scotland, which is a bit far i guess... :P

Quote from 5tag :

If you have an nVidia graphics solution you better keep it closed.

Because it's awesome graphics with nVidia could damage vision with it's awesomeness?

Quote from -NightFly- :

Because it's awesome graphics with nVidia could damage vision with it's awesomeness?

No, but because like many other users I've got the (already updated) graphics driver continuingly crashing every few minutes which in half the cases means I'm just going to have a black screen for a couple of seconds while in other cases the game will entirely crash too.

Though inbetween the game runs smooth and looks great.

Quote from jibber :

I know a very skilled dude, but he's from scotland, which is a bit far i guess... :P

ask the Scottish DJ if he knows anyone from Leeds. He would be listening to the stuff Kev is looking for and would have a better chance of finding what Kev is looking for.

about the needle alignment. it doesn't have to be as finite as you might think. this is because records come in different thickness's and are made with different compounds. so you might have the tone-arm height set perfectly and weighted perfectly for record "A" but record "B" could be thicker (throwing the tone-arm height off) and softer vinyl (excess tone-arm weight = needle burn).
the sound quality increase comes from the amp. you haven't broke the needle in yet. (usually ~3 hours of record playing)

Some of these

M3 Mirrors.

I know that these were originally on the e36 3 series, but even so its a retro mod as such, theyll suit my e46 much better than the big ol square things that are on it currently, only 35 quid too

Quote from dadge :

ask the Scottish DJ if he knows anyone from Leeds. He would be listening to the stuff Kev is looking for and would have a better chance of finding what Kev is looking for.

about the needle alignment. it doesn't have to be as finite as you might think. this is because records come in different thickness's and are made with different compounds. so you might have the tone-arm height set perfectly and weighted perfectly for record "A" but record "B" could be thicker (throwing the tone-arm height off) and softer vinyl (excess tone-arm weight = needle burn).
the sound quality increase comes from the amp. you haven't broke the needle in yet. (usually ~3 hours of record playing)

That's a good idea about the DJ, i'll do that!

And regarding the records, it's not just the amp. Something as simple as an anti skating setting that is off can ruin the sound already. Have you ever listened to a record with vocals that aren't panned, and then had a play with the anti skating wheel? Wrong settings will distort the vocals (and other stuff) pretty noticeably.

And about the thickness... even if that might throw off the adjustments a little, it's still better if the table is adjusted to begin with i'd say. And it's not only about thickness, it's also if your cartridge runs parallel to the groves or not, over the whole side of the record. I've wanted to know the difference and adjusted the system using my old cartridge first, to me it did sound a lot better after everything was more or less within the recommended settings/measurements (i used my standard phono preamp from my hi-fi amp first, not the new dedicated one, so it was a fair comparison).

I know about the needle having to break in first, same goes for the preamp as far as i know.