Get your old turntable working again
YOU have come across a dusty old record player, be it in your parent’s attic or a market. There’s no better time to put it to use, and experts say even if it looks old, it won’t take much to get it back into action.
“If it’s a brand-name device that has not been used for 20 or 30 years and is just gathering dust in the corner, it can be worthwhile to make such a record player work again,” according to Hifi specialist Herbert Bisges.
It’s still possible to get spare parts for players from well-known manufacturers. However, a prerequisite is that the turntable is still intact.
“The first step is a thorough cleaning,” says vinyl specialist Matthias Boede.
“The coarsest dust can be carefully removed using a vacuum cleaner with a soft nozzle at low speed, then a damp cloth should be used.”
Fellow Hifi expert Ralph Werner says you should do a quick test first to make sure that the player is still working.
“Just connect the device to power and see whether the turntable is still turning and running smoothly and doesn’t wobble,” he says.
You should also look closely at the tone arm that holds the needle on the record: “If it is bent or badly damaged, you can basically forget about it.”
Next you should check whether the tone arm bearing can move freely.
“To do this, you lift the tone arm and slowly and carefully guide it over the entire record without putting it down. That should be possible without resistance,” Werner says.
If these parts are working fine, you should then look at the stylus or needle and the cartridge that holds it at the end of the tone arm.
“The stylus is a wear-and-tear part, it’s best to play it safe and replace it,” Werner says.
If the cartridge is missing or broken, things can quickly become more expensive. In that case, it may make more sense to just buy a new record player.
Fitting a new cartridge requires skill as it has to be properly aligned to achieve the right sound quality.
Another component that may need to be repaired or replaced is the drive belt for the turntable.
A replacement belt costs around US$30 (RM120). You should check the platter bearing and its lubrication when you remove the platter to replace the drive belt.
“The best thing to do is to remove the old oil with a Q-tip and alcohol and then add new oil,” Boede recommends.
After that, the turntable needs to be connected to the amplifier or receiver.
Fortunately, the records themselves do not need any special care as long as they’ve been stored correctly, that is, standing upright and not exposed to the sun. – dpa
CHINESE scientists are developing a face recognition technology for golden snubnosed monkeys, an indigenous species on China’s top protection list living in the Qinling Mountains.
According to a report by Xinhua news agency, the research team, composed of scientists from Northwest University in Xi’an, capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, is also the country’s first to systematically study golden monkeys in the wild.
The monkey face recognition technology aims to establish an identity information database of golden monkeys in the Qinling Mountains by extracting the animals’ facial features.
The technology is still in the experimental stage and is currently able to recognise about 200 golden monkeys.
“We take 700 to 800 photos of each monkey, while the recognition rate can reach 94%,” said Zhang He, a member of the research team.
After being fully developed, the system can be embedded in infrared cameras set in the wild, and automatically spot monkeys, name them and collect their behaviours, noted Zhang.
A sticking point of monkey face recognition is that the animal is hairier than humans with subtle facial feature differences, thus requiring the system to have a higher deep learning ability.
“We need more high-resolution images to improve the recognition rate,” said team leader Li Baoguo.
“But that is extremely difficult as the monkeys don’t ‘cooperate’ with the cameras
in the wild.”
According to the report, the new technology will significantly facilitate the study of the rare species when it matures, as traditionally it would take scientists one to two years to conduct in-depth behavioural analysis for a specific colony of these monkeys.
“If the monkey face recognition technology is adopted, early studies of the species, including location, identification and the
observation of behaviours, will be greatly shortened, thus improving research efficiency,” said Li.
The Qinling Mountains house about 4,000 golden snub-nosed monkeys, a typical arboreal animal living all year round in the forests at an altitude of 1,500m to 3,300m.
The mountains also house a huge variety of plants and wild animals such as giant pandas and crested ibis. – Bernama