I replaced the needle on my Audiotronics 304A and it is skipping and jumping all over the place...will replacing the bracket help? I have a new one on hand. Or maybe I should just tape a penny to the top of the head!

I had the same model player, and it did it too. I ended up giving it away to Goodwill. It tracked way too heavy to use on my records for my liking anyways.

Is it possible that you got a cartridge with a 78 stylus? That would be the symptom. Or the cartridge could be defective -- perhaps the stylus tip is gone. I'm not hearing good things about some of the 89Ts available today.

Definitely don't increase the tracking pressure, it's very high already and the 89T isn't the most gentle thing on records.

If you really like records and have some that are important to you, it might be a good idea to come up with a high-quality turntable with a recent (or even new) magnetic cartridge. Many are available at all price ranges -- check out Amazon. Just stay away from anything labeled "Crosley" or looking like it.

-David

Thanks for the reply. This is the only working record player I have right now and I have been using it for years. I buy records I like. Not for value so I usually have a backup of my faves. When my records go to crap I turn them into bowls. Lol. Still would love to keep this one going. I have too many cool stickers on it!

The stylus is both 78 & 33. The bracket flips the needles. I have a newer turntable in the garage. May have to bring it in. I have always had a dislike for crosley. Never knew why. Thanks for the reinforcement! Lol.

I've had that problem with every model of that record player that I've had. I think the biggest issue with those players is the cheap plastic tonearm. They do OK with spoken word records; but, not well with music records. The last 304A that I had skipped, no matter how many 89T's I tried in it. I tried the same cartridges in my older players with metal tonearms and had no problem at all. Then, I installed an Astatic 83D into the 304A record player and it worked much better. The 83D's are a special cartridge that was used in talking book record players for the blind and I think the tip is a little smaller than the standard 89T. An 83D will fit in an 89T holder; but, genuine 83D's are getting very hard to find.

I will also agree that the quality of 89T's are all over the place. I've had them that caused skipping, sounded bad, caused instant record destruction, or a combination of the above. I know some on here won't agree with me; but, I'm not a huge fan of the 89T cartridge because it is rather rough on records and I agree that if you have any "good" records; then, you need to invest in a good record playing system. And, I don't "crosley" or "ion" as being any good.

Funny thing is that the old needle still works, but I can tell it is kinda crapping out....Little piece of paper taped to the player says the cartridge was replaced in '83 or '87, can't remember. Any whoo, I think I may try to replace the bracket or try to find an 83D. Thanks for the info. I just love this record player it has been through some rough times with me. *sigh*

As per everyone's posts, you can see, unfortunately, there are a Million variables which can cause mistracking.

First, there's HUGE variance in compliance between different 89T cartridges made by different makers, from different decades, stored in different conditions. Some 89T's are incredibly compliant (i.e. flexible, they flex well "with" the groove movements) and can play loud 33 rpm 1980's 12-inch dance & rap music discs; other 89T's are incredibly NON-compliant (i.e. rigid) and refuse to flex easily and therefore jump out of the groove often.

Besides variations in 89T compliance, there's obviously the question of, when you said "I replaced the needle", did you replace it with a guaranteed-new-condition (not worn or chipped) needle from a reputable dealer? I keep a low-powered microscope around for needle inspection.

Another HUGE variable is, what era the vinyl records you're playing on it were recorded. Newer records tend to have stronger bass notes, and are quite often cut with the "assumption" that customers won't be using "outdated" phonographs but rather modern magnetic turntable pickups, and therefore less attention will be paid to "containing" outbursts of bass (i.e. the heavy dynamic compression which was used on bass on older records expected to be played on older record players), etc, as long as a modern magnetic turntable will track it, the mastering engineer is usually happy with it, and it goes to the presses.



Radiotvnut , you hit the nail on the head: another variable can be the tone arm itself: I had an Audiotronics circa-1970 player like this one, with the curved black plastic arm:



It played *most* records fine, but an unacceptable number of records would skip around on bass notes. I tried everything I knew how, including putting lithium grease on the horizontal & vertical pivots, ensuring the padding in the horizontal pivot was the right flexibility & thickness (no loose play causing "rattling"), etc. Not good enough. Then, finally I replaced the arm with the most common NOS METAL generic 1950's Astatic replacement tone arm (transplanting the same 89T cart into that arm), identical to this arm:



I managed to lube the joints and dial down the tracking force to identically same force as the plastic tone arm had.... and now it tracks VASTLY better, plays almost every record I've thrown at it.

The low-mass and lack of inertia of the plastic tone arm, combined with the lower-compliance of 89T's in general, was causing too much sympathetic vibrations in the plastic tone arm on loud 1980's dance club singles; the metal tone arm had more mass, therefore more inertia, therefore it "stayed still" more (no sympathetic vibrations), and it tracks excellently now, using the SAME CARTRIDGE.

I couldn't believe that was possible, so I actually switched it back to the plastic tone arm, verified EXACTLY the same 6.5 grams tracking force, and played the "Shure Audio Obstacle Course" LP and measured the numeric rating of its bass-tracking ability (poor), then re-switched it back to the metal tone arm with the SAME cartridge, verified the Exact SAME 6.5 grams tracking force, and it tracked all the way up until the final and loudest bass thump before skipping - a vast improvement.

I'm not necessarily saying everyone should change out all plastic arms for metal ones, only that there's a million different variations which can result in mis-tracking... Obtaining several different new 89T's of different body-colors helps, then you can do play-tests to choose the best 89T which skips less... Somewhere on here there's a thread discussing which colors tend to be best; my favorite is an older (1970s?) gold-colored one...

Good luck...

- Bob

I think Blacknwhite nailed it.
Very low compliance cartridge in a low mass tonearm will cause all kinds of tracking problems, they feed too much
energy back into the tonearm. This can also happen in expensive systems when a lower compliance Moving Coil
Cartridge is installed in a too low a mass tonearm, not so much skipping but bad sound. Cartridge and tonearm matching is very important for best tracking and sound but unfortunately most people just don't get it.

Of course putting a ;high compliance cartridge in a high mass tonearm gives problems also, poor warp tracking
and and skipping from footfalls.

I have installed medium compliance magnetic cartridges in those cheap plastic tonearms and they work quite well.

Thanks for taking the time to give me feedback and input, I appreciate you all for doing so.

This is an image I found when I googled 304A....It has the same tonearm as mine. Notice the penny, roflmao!

Radiotvnut called it first

Yes, Orthophonic, with the exception of the higher-end MC magnetic carts in ultra-low-mass precision arms (I've never had the opportunity to mess with audiophile stuff yet), I've experienced all those scenarios you mentioned at some point or another... This is something I've only recently connected all the dots with to see the Big Picture. And then, thinking about it logically, it suddenly seemed like it "should've been obvious from the start"...

Hindsight, etc.

Been wanting to try a trick out on a manual plastic-arm player awaiting restoration, which has a nice "look", and a decent sized front-firing speaker: Besides adding an additional tube to the amp, packing a few small weights into the underside of the arm, tightening the tension spring to compensate, and dabbing lithium grease on the tone arm vertical pivot to compensate for the added bearing friction of the higher spring tension...

- Bob

How did you fix your problem I have the same problem right now?

Mary, you need a small digital scale to weigh the stylus for tracking pressure. The 89Ts track best at around 7 grams of pressure. If you need additional weight to bring your pressure up to 7 grams or so, try different small nuts or washers to arrive at the right weight, then superglue one underneath the tonearm. Never tape a penny, dime or quarter to your tonearm!