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Turntable Setup & Calibration
Tracking force, anti-skate, alignment, leveling — the setup canon.
The repeatable setup steps that make any deck sound its best: balance the arm, set tracking force by the numbers, dial anti-skate, align the cartridge, level the plinth, and kill the hum. Do these once and the record does the rest.
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Asked & answered
What tracking force should I use?
Use the cartridge maker’s spec, not a guess. Most moving-magnet cartridges track between 1.5 and 2.0 grams — the Ortofon 2M Red wants 1.8 g. Set it with a stylus force gauge; too light skips and mistracks, too heavy wears records and the stylus faster.
How do I set anti-skate?
Anti-skate counteracts the inward pull on the tonearm. As a starting point, set the anti-skate dial to match your tracking force (1.8 g force → 1.8 anti-skate). Fine-tune by ear or with a test record if one channel distorts before the other.
How do I level my turntable?
A turntable should sit dead level so tracking force and anti-skate act correctly. Put a small bubble level on the platter, check front-to-back and side-to-side, and shim the feet or the surface until the bubble centers. Re-check after moving the deck.
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