It’s amazing how you get a perfect mechanism with a counterweight and s shaped tonearm and you go and put a ceramic cartridge! It probably would’ve been fine if it was just magnetic
Well, it's a cheapo turntable mechanism made to look like a higher quality one (emphasis on the "look like", cos it certainly doesn't sound like one!), any upgrades are basically just polishing a turd really, so far the whole unit has just been used as a glorified bluetooth speaker, about all it's really good for to be honest... :)
The Rotten Shed there are versions of that mechanism with a magnetic cartridge, it’s more the fault of the manufacturer just being cheep and not installing a magnetic cartridge
I have a Pioneer PL-400 turntable with an S-arm & magnetic catridge (Audio Technical AT95e), which is far, far, far superior to this Neostar, comparing the Neostar to a quality turntable is like comparing a Little Tikes Cosy Coupé to an actual car, cos the platter is hollow lightweight plastic, the tonearm is thin aluminium, the wiring is a joke, and the belt-drive is just woeful, plus there's no facility to add a magnetic cartridge as the preamp is not suited to one, and would require a complete re-wiring of the thing to add one to it... :\
The Rotten Shed I have a lenco l400 and it plays beautifully, I am however gonna search for that one on eBay to see if I can make some....modifications
There are markings for setting the weight balance, but as with any counterweight it needs to be calibrated to the cartridge (where you twist one half while holding the other still), but it can be set to a reasonably close force, it's coarse, but works...
@@TheRottenShed well I did try, I modified it with a much better sounding cartridge but it still came out as garbage but then again I used an old pressing of Bat out of hell that was carved to hell. I truly don’t understand how you could make a turntable with a counterweight and full-size platter and then throw a Crosley Cruiser Cartridge on it! Oh well looks like I’m sticking with my Pioneer PLX-500
It's like I'd previously said, upgrades to these things are like polishing a turd, it's still a turd at the end of the day, no matter how shiny!! To improve the sound would need the ceramic pre-amp inside being bypassed and an MM preamp fitting in its' place, then fitting a decent, but basic (cos let's be honest, it'll never sound great!!!) MM cartridge, bu that would mean spending more money that it is worth on it, and, well, nah, I'm good!!! :P
@@TheRottenShed again, I was just doing this to satisfy my curiosity. I’ve never actually seen an all in one system that had an s shaped tone arm and counterweight, usually they just have skywin mechanisms built in so I had to see it for myself
I was doing the same with mine, even threw a Pioneer 3MC cartridge I have spare onto the thing once, and it was pretty dreadful (but the cart sounds fine elsewhere!), it's never going to win any audiophile over, that's a given!! Mine was mostly bought because it was sold as broken, someone had dropped it and the weight of the internal AM antenna snapped off part of the main board takin a few traces with it, so repairing that was fun for me, and as I've previously said it gets used mostly as a glorified bluetooth speaker so it's not without its uses, just a jack-of-all-trades, master of none... :)
It’s amazing how you get a perfect mechanism with a counterweight and s shaped tonearm and you go and put a ceramic cartridge! It probably would’ve been fine if it was just magnetic
Well, it's a cheapo turntable mechanism made to look like a higher quality one (emphasis on the "look like", cos it certainly doesn't sound like one!), any upgrades are basically just polishing a turd really, so far the whole unit has just been used as a glorified bluetooth speaker, about all it's really good for to be honest... :)
The Rotten Shed there are versions of that mechanism with a magnetic cartridge, it’s more the fault of the manufacturer just being cheep and not installing a magnetic cartridge
I have a Pioneer PL-400 turntable with an S-arm & magnetic catridge (Audio Technical AT95e), which is far, far, far superior to this Neostar, comparing the Neostar to a quality turntable is like comparing a Little Tikes Cosy Coupé to an actual car, cos the platter is hollow lightweight plastic, the tonearm is thin aluminium, the wiring is a joke, and the belt-drive is just woeful, plus there's no facility to add a magnetic cartridge as the preamp is not suited to one, and would require a complete re-wiring of the thing to add one to it... :\
The Rotten Shed I have a lenco l400 and it plays beautifully, I am however gonna search for that one on eBay to see if I can make some....modifications
I bought one from the UK but also is there numbers on the counterweight so I can set the right tracking force?
There are markings for setting the weight balance, but as with any counterweight it needs to be calibrated to the cartridge (where you twist one half while holding the other still), but it can be set to a reasonably close force, it's coarse, but works...
@@TheRottenShed well I did try, I modified it with a much better sounding cartridge but it still came out as garbage but then again I used an old pressing of Bat out of hell that was carved to hell. I truly don’t understand how you could make a turntable with a counterweight and full-size platter and then throw a Crosley Cruiser Cartridge on it! Oh well looks like I’m sticking with my Pioneer PLX-500
It's like I'd previously said, upgrades to these things are like polishing a turd, it's still a turd at the end of the day, no matter how shiny!! To improve the sound would need the ceramic pre-amp inside being bypassed and an MM preamp fitting in its' place, then fitting a decent, but basic (cos let's be honest, it'll never sound great!!!) MM cartridge, bu that would mean spending more money that it is worth on it, and, well, nah, I'm good!!! :P
@@TheRottenShed again, I was just doing this to satisfy my curiosity. I’ve never actually seen an all in one system that had an s shaped tone arm and counterweight, usually they just have skywin mechanisms built in so I had to see it for myself
I was doing the same with mine, even threw a Pioneer 3MC cartridge I have spare onto the thing once, and it was pretty dreadful (but the cart sounds fine elsewhere!), it's never going to win any audiophile over, that's a given!! Mine was mostly bought because it was sold as broken, someone had dropped it and the weight of the internal AM antenna snapped off part of the main board takin a few traces with it, so repairing that was fun for me, and as I've previously said it gets used mostly as a glorified bluetooth speaker so it's not without its uses, just a jack-of-all-trades, master of none... :)