This is the clearest explanation of tonearm height I have ever seen. Thank you.

Absolute brilliant thank you ! I have adhd and I was engaged for the whole video - the use of drawings is a great visual : very clear explanations of everything. I'm off to adjust ! Many thanks

Technics should award this guy a medal.

Finally! Someone actually showing us a way to get the VTA fairly close! Not like other “detailed” explanations on how to set up a cartridge and then twirl the height adjustment a little before they move on.

James you are so informative. I can't thank you enough for all the information and knowledge you've given me about my turntable, stuff that I had no idea about, that I for years never checked while playing my records. With all the crappy and cheap CD's they've been making over the years, squandering such a technological advancement and letting it go to pot, there's now a wonderful re emergence of records. Records that I still have tons of . Thanx again.You are spot on - and I love your accent.

You just saved me a lot of money, I thought my tonearm was completely screwed and it turns out this was the problem, I had no idea height affects tracking so much. Thanks so much for doing these videos man.

You are my source for technics 1200 info. Picked one up at a Pawn Shop for $20.00-"Twenty" and have been giving it a good cleaning and tuning. Your instructions are simple and effective. Thank you.

Appreciate the clear explanation, I currently own an Audio Technica AT-LP120 and noticed that even in the zero height position my tonearm was not level. Luckily I was able to fix the issue by putting the stock mat below the cork mat I use and it raised the height just enough to be level, or as close as possible. Tested a few records and noticed less sibilance and even some records had less surface noise.

absolutely brilliant demonstration! I had just watched the other video on the antiskating setting and checked this one right after... You nailed it just like the other one! Thanks!!!

I own 2 1200's and it's great to know how to take care and make the most of them. Thanks so much. All your videos have been extremely helpful and absolutely informative.

wow im so glad i found these old vids. i took a brake from playing for a few yrs. got the bug again and just bought a pair of used m3ds. after watching your vids i am confident to work on them myself if needed. after adjusting height with concords i noticed at 0 one deck sits about 6 mm higher at needle from deck case compared to the other. so my next move will be to take apart and grease/re calibrate/repair like your other video. might just replace tone arms as well and upgrade rca with internal ground and be done with it in one swoop. floating test with anti skate test kicks both arms to clip at 3 but does not totally kick them to spindle at 0. none of it seems to effect playing with traktor in absolute mode but new parts are fairly cheap online. by the way i like your taste in early 2000 dnb. my favorite genre is techy dnb. big ups for your detail videos!

@TheUzimis Thank you!!!, I never really taught of my self as much of a genius, but I'm glad you like the videos. I will try to get my stuff sorted and get some more videos up soon. Thanks again for your comment and kind words. nice one!!!

Thanks so much! You're the only person on KZfaq that could explain this well. You've earned yourself a new sub!

@FerreNL thank you, I'm glad you like the video, I always like to keep things relaxed when I do my videos, I like people to enjoy watching my videos not feel like they are on a forum and there are too many rules. thanks for your comment and your kind words. nice one!!!

@TheReIntegration no problem, thank you for your feed back and your kind works. I'm glad you like the video, thank you for your comment. nice one!!!

Thanks for your videos. I bought a pair of second hand 1210s a few months ago and they were stinking. The last owner never looked after them. Thanks to your videos I've now serviced then and adjusted the height, weight and anti skate to the correct settings. Thanks

thank you very much for your comment and kind words. im glad the video was a help. hopefully more videos to come soon... nice one!!!

I learned all these techniques from A-trak & Infamous back in the 90s but never knew the why behind it all. Thanks James!!

I do professional electronics repair, I just started fiddling w/these 1200's, this was most informative, thanx

Thanks mate this and your anti skate one are brilliant. You have a knack for explaining these concepts clearly.I've owned 1210s for twenty years now and finally understand anti skate properly.

Top man Very usefull. Just got serrato and saw that the signals were very different. Had my decks for 12 years and never bothered setting them up properly. Thanks to your video help they are set up perfectly.

Best video I saw on the subject even better than turntable manufacturers. You gained a subscriber my friend.

@robbies1 Hi there, thank you for your comment, its probably going to be best to set the weight first, as the weight will effect the height a little bit, as the needle pushes in slightly. I hope this helped and thanks again for your comment. nice one!!!

Frank you legend mate. Proper helped me out this did. Cheers.

Great guide, I think the tone arm height is is a good indicator but not the whole answer. I was eye-balling my LP120x putting more mats on and really checking the angle of the stylus and cantilever. It needed a bit higher up than I initially estimated purely going visually off the tone arm. You can see how the stylus behaves once everything drops.

Thanks a lot ! Just what I was looking for. Technics should sponsor you. Cheers mate

great vid! I have a tip for the different vinyl thickness problem. set it up with your slimmest vinyl why? because its better to have your tonearm too low than too high. if its too high the needle will totally hack away your precious vinyl. if you set it up with the slim vinyl, when you use a thicker one, it'll have the same effect as a lower tonerarm. which is your best bet.

@mushroomleg yeah i can see your point it does seem a bit strange, but the reason is because all needles and cartages are different shapes and sizes, you could have an ortofon blue and set it level but if i than put a stanton 500 on there it will be a bit lower so ill have to re adjust it. hope this helped and thats for your comment. nice one!!!

Thank you so much for your detailed video regarding VHA. I can't tell you how much you simplified the process of set-up. You rule and all the best to you and your vinyl acquisitions.

@newburyg No problem, thank you for your feed back and kind words, I'm glad you like the videos, I will try to do some more soon. Thanks again for your comment. Nice One ; )

Key is "height adjustable tone arm". A lot of turntables lower end or vintage don't have that. So you can change the platter mat or if your using a standard type 1/2" mount head shell you can shim between the top of the cartridge and and bottom inside of head shell.

Thank-You. It's probably been 30 years since I used a turntable & I had forgotten about the "setup" after moving it. You saved me from a big Oopz!

@ellollio No problem, thank you for your comment and feed back. Nice One ; )

Got a pair of 1200s recently and I' m doing this straight ahead, once I have them freshly serviced and I got my new Ortofon cartridges. Thx 🙏

Thank you, I'm glad you like the videos, i will hopefully have some more on the way soon. Thank you for your comment. Nice One ; )

@kazywaz Thank you very much for all your kind words. I am so glad you like the videos. I haven't done any videos for a long time, I will hopefully be doing some more videos soon. thank you again for all your kind words. nice one!!!

@nubedjmusic If you have adjusted the weight as well than you must have a problem with the anti-skate, try setting it to 0 and see if the problem stops, if so set it so 0 and keep it there, I will hopefully soon be doing a video on how to fix the anti-skate. other than that, your Gimble (the pivot point at the back of the tone arm) could be sticking, try a little drop of sewing machine oil on the barrings. hope this helped and thanks for your comment. Nice One ; )

fantastic! Just got my Stanton ST150's today. So glad I watched your video today too! Thanks, you've got talent for teaching.

What setting the Stylus rake angle (SRA) the stylus should "rake": forward about 1 -2 degrees to match the average rake angle of the cutting sting stylus on the master . When people talk about the VTA,, there are actually referring to the SRA.

9yrs I owned some 1210's and never adjusted the arm height.. I know feel like a total plum! Great Vid and easy to understand!

i've never done this in over 20 years. definitley going to do it now

all your videos really helped out tons. especially the led replacement of the target light. your the man. again thanks

Some excellent points. I honestly never gave it much thought of the thickness of the vinyl, sounds weird but I never have. Thanks again for the tips...

Thank you. I love your videos. I have an SL-1500 and am going to get it into shape.

Cheers mate, this had been confusing me. People said use a mirror but i wasn't sure what i was looking for

Great tutorials,,, saved me the trouble of having to explain much of it to some of my mates. Cheers

I've owned 5 1200s, 1999-present. I got my original set right from trial and error, but good grief, this video breaks it all down. It's amazing. Thank you so much @viperfrank

thx man, I have my 1200's for 7 years and really didn't had a clue!!

Thanks for the video, the sound quality is way much more better! Anybody tried listening to the Lp without a Slipmat?

Hi there, i did a video on how to service and repair the height adjustment, this should show you how to do the job, if you need any further assistance just send me a message. Thank you for your comment. Nice One ; )

Awesome video - well made tutorial. Now I have balanced my 1210s to perfection with fresh needles on them. Thanks Viper ;)

So helpful and easy to follow. I'd played about with this before but not really known what I was doing - also your anti-skating video was very useful as I'm about to come into an old 1200 which I'm sure will need a bit of reset. Plus; some of the decks I've played on in clubs have been all over the place and thanks to your video - I now have some idea of why. Cheers!

I have a Audio-Technica AT-PL120 which looks exactly like your Technics, just silver instead of black. They must be made by the same company. Very solid direct drive turntable for the past 5 years.

great video. 5 stars waiting for weight tonearm adjustment video. thanks

@MsOliver02 thank you very much i'm happy you like the video. nice one!!!!

Another neat move I've just read is to place the needle on the run-in of the stationary record and raise the height at the tonearm base until the bottom of the stylus housing is parallel with the record. Then do the measurements. This might be more protective of the stylus as you don't need to hold the tonearm level while adjusting with no chance of dropping or bumping.

Thanks for the informative video, I now know I was sold a 1200 with a bent tone arm, haha.

thanks mate...i have learnt a great deal. i bought my turntables 6 months ago...and i didnt know these stuff, thanks alot

Great video on stuck tone arm adjustment. I took apart the tone arm apart. And the ring of the tone arm height adjustment is still stuck. I can’t move it. Any ideas how to unstick it. Some sites say use a heat gun. But not sure about that. Please let me know any ideas

Total dude, my 1200s are set up perfectly thanks to you. 👌

Nice Job On The Video. Where Were You 20 years Ago I definitely Needed You Then.

Awesome videos james... thanks to you i managed to replace both my tonearms and now my 15year old 1200s sounds much much better and SHINY!!! :) but one problem... they still somewhat skip every now and den when i do simple scratching, i calibrated both the tonearms with new headshell+carts&stylus and also levelled it as in this video.... hope you could advice on some other problems that might be happening :) thanks again james!!! nice record collection btw :)

Cheers for all you put up mate, much appreciated! Already replaced an rca cable from one of your videos and just sorted anti skating (on one only as one not doing it), tone arm height and cleaned contacts for needles etc. and seems a lot better sound wise :) Think my mixer and speakers need servicing but defo way better at the minute!

I had a similar problem and whilst this tutorial is good I think it may be slightly inaccurate, I found a very handy tutorial on the ortofon website. Cant post the link but if you google, "ortofon how to set up a turntable" you should find the tutorial easy enough. Hope this helps.

@SirFoggy2Doped hi there, not really, you wont really notice the difference its only mainly for setting up for new cartridges, its not really worth going though all the bother of setting the hight every time you play a record. hope this helped and thanks for your comment. nice one!!!

Very helpful, I have a Technics SL1500C with a Ortofon 2m red, and it will be replaced by a Ortofon 2m black very soon, thanks for the information.

@plagueblack thank you, I'm glad you like the videos, I never thought I could be much of a teacher but I actually like it. thanks again nice one!!!

hi there, no you should be fine to put WD40 on it as long as you don't use too much and wipe off and over spill. if you spray some into like a small pot like a yogurt pot or something like that, than get a small peace of tinfoil and bend it into a u-shape and use that to scoop some oil up and drip it into the hight adjustment ring. it will be less messy that way and you can get it more accurately. pope this helped and thanks for your comment. nice one!!!

hi James, how do I adjust the lowering speed of the tonearm? It drops down too fast and hard. It also pops up quite fast as I use the lever to do it.

your vids are brilliant man!.thanks!

This video's great for people who are using that particular Ortofon cartridge... but not all cartridges are the same, and this method will not work for everyone. Also, some cartridges can sit in the head shell at an angle. So, the tonearm will not always be level. Best to just use a set of magnifying head glasses to see where the stylus is sitting in the groove.

Thanks - tuning for dummies. Needed that !!!

And then when you have it perfectly level (on a regular 120 gram vinyl record) THEN the fun part starts, now you have to fiddle down in the 1/50th of a mm. In order to find a VTA setting that sounds best across your different LP's of various thicknesses. If you're very persistent, you'll have everything sounding stellar. Word of advice, a neutral VTA doesn't sound very good. You'll have to reduce the height of the tone-arm base very slightly, so the tonearm is going up-hill towards the pickup. This is called a negative SRA, and my experience is that a very miniscule amount of negative SRA, sounds much fuller, deeper and less fatiquing.

You're a very good orator.

Hi mate. Just picked up a 2nd hand 1200 mk5. Is it normal for the tone arm adjustment to be really difficult to adjust. Its taking so much force to adjust it its actually making the deck. The setting is set to unlock too so its not locked. Does something need to be looked at and repaired here? Thanks

Can you offer any advice on my tone arm lift not picking up or going down? Thanks

The arm of my turtable don't come back at the end of the disc. How can i fix that? Thank you so much

YOO! My Brethren! Is you still out there!? Just getting hip to your HELPFUL videos! Uploaded 6 YEARS AGO?! Give me a shout out if your still on the Web!? ...Peace.

Your videos are excellent. Thank you. I have two 1210MK2 and I simply cannot get the tone-arm to become parallel in neither. The first one has the height adjustment jammed up so I'll have to check your other video on fixing this. The second one however has a different issue. I rotate the height adjustment as low as possible and I still have the tone-arm base too high! Am I doing something wrong here? Thanks!!

hi there, nice vid my dial that adjust the height is super stiff and I can't move it. I've tried a bit of oil but it still won't move. what could you suggest? please help

Always set up the counter balance first, the usual way - make sure the tone arm floats straight, then set the weight, then set the anti-skate and finally the height adjustment.

I just bought new pioneer plx turntables one needle doesn't reach the vynl at all can you help me

Hi, My Shure 447's don't allow for the height to be level, even on zero. Are u sure it applies to a headshell style cartridges? it''s as though there needs to be a -2 setting on the height adjust to make this levelling method possible. I look forward to your reply. thanks.

Is the needle at 90 degrees to the cartridge (perpendicular) on most cartridges? thanks

Thank you just watched this and your anti skating video, I have now fixed the issue on one of my turntables :)👍

@viperfrank, cheers mate your vids r excellent. i have followed the tone arm and counterweight vids and still have really distorted sound.when i apply more pressure it sorts it. first i swapped the weight round, then moved it after seeing you say it was wrong. i put the tone arms at zero gravity, but then the weight only moves to 2 on dial. not enough tone arm space to move towards the needle end.. technics 1200. 1 ortofon & 1 technics head. ortofon more than technics but both still not perfect

Continuation... When measureing one is always lower and the tone arm sits on the record kind of slanted to the inside sometimes causin my cartridge to scrape the record. Is the any way of adjusting the pitch or roll on my tonearm. Sorry for using aviation terms but its the only was to get my point across with out taking photos.

i have a pair of technics and the height adjustment knot will not move on both of them,if i add a little bit of WD-40,will it damage the turntable?

Is this the same thing as arm elevation? My turntable has an arm elevation and it looks more like a lever.

Do you know what the problem is on a 1600MK2 TT when the cuing operates the tonearm but it fails to stay in the "up" position unless activated 4-5 times?

Hi Mark what its the best settings for you high adjust mm for ortofon concorde ? Greetings

Excellent explanation! Thank you.

It is gonna sound silly but, I don't know where to adjust the height. I have an old Akai AP-103 model with a broken needle. I've ordered the needle, it's on its way... But I can't find the place where you adjust the height on that model...

For anyone finding their tonearm base is still too high (even 'on 0' or even past '0' with the grey part of the base no higher than the black ring, in others words, the lowest you can get it)...notice that this guy is using a CORK mat on his turntable platter, possibly a 5mm one...which of course raises the record to meet the tonearm so the latter can be at a level angle. I say all this because I, like many owners of a Technics SL-1210, are having this issue. I ordered a cork mat last night then returnd here and spotted what appears to be the same thing. Mine is 3mm and hasn't arrived yet but I'm confident it'll be the answer having seen this intelligent chap use one as well. I may even put the Technics rubber mat on top of that, we'll see.

James maybe this is earier to do. This comes from the Technics 1200/1210 manual. all you need to know is the height of the Cartridge either measure or in instructions for Cartridge. Table as below Cartridge height............ Now set scale reading ring at base of tone arm to:- 15mm 0 16mm 1 17mm 2 18mm 3 19mm 4 20mm 5 21mm 6 Hope this Helps

I have a Technics SL 1500 and it doesn't adjust like yours. I notice when the arm lever is up the tone arm is level and when it is down on the record it is at a slight angle. I am looking through the manual and it doesn't say how to adjust. Can you please help?

Awesome video indeed. Very informative and helped greatly with understanding the significance of the Technics 1200's tonearm height adjustment & my vinyls.

Got an oldschool Gemini PT1000II with a ortofon concorde pro s needle, despite lowering the armature to its base setting it still wont sit flat. Are there any solutions? Thicker slips? Thanks in advance!

Hi, I still cannot seem to get the arm completely level. Another issue is with the counterweight at 3.5 the stylus does not settle firmly in the grooves. It needs a coin on the headshell. How do I increase the counterweight effect when it will need go any further ? Thanks,

Soo how much heigt for the concorde on the Technics SL1200 ????????