The instructions on this Pickering cartridge says to add 1 gram to your desired tracking pressure, to compensate for the brush.

The brush is carbon fiber and also adds antistatic function as well as removing dust.

In spite of Pickering's instructions, the whole idea of reading a microscopic groove with a stylus depends on letting that stylus rest in the groove with a precise amount of downward pressure, free of any other lateral force or vibration of any kind. A headshell-mounted brush will not just affect tracking force; the brush's fibres will themselves be tracking the grooves, generating skating forces, and transmitting vibration to the headshell as they "read" the grooves. The dust removal and anti-static functions can be achieved just as effectively with a brush mounted independently of the tone arm. Whatever you decide to do, it's good to see that you're taking care of your records. Rock on!

The blue glow is not reflections. With the naked eye, this blue glow is hardly visible. But my camera can see it well. This is a directly heated single ended vacuum tube integrated audio amplifier. It all happens because of a phenomenon called "Thermionic Emission".

No, don't do that. Stay with what the electrical schematic says to use.

@@Moejoe69 okay thanks!

@@Moejoe69 okay thanks!

I have both 300b and 2a3 tubes. Both sound amazing compared to solid state amplifiers. The blue glow is some sort of gas in it, and not a full vacuum state. I presume these tubes won't last long. When i test them on my tube tester, they peg the needle over 100mA. The pre-amplification can use either 12au7, or 12bh7. So, there are lots of tube rolling opportunities.

Looks very expensive

Hi @GIBKEL Thanks for your comment. The Elekit TU-8500 Pre-amplifier, with phono equalizer, sounds fantastic. It Is an easy billed if you can follow a well written instructions and have good soldering skills. However, you will need to download the English version of the instruction manual from the manufacture website, with proof of purchase. I Have been a HI FI geek for as long as I can remember. I always do a lot of research before I make such an investment. The most important thing to me is the sound and will it last a long time. The Elekit TU-8500 was my choice because it is made in Japan, with high quality components. For example, the resistors in this kit are gold banded, or have a 10% Tolerance, rather than the Chinese made products mostly use cheaper silver band 20% tolerances. When I tested the resistance values on all resistors, they all were spot on the resistance values. Almost as if they we hand-picked. So, I am very happy with the quality of the components. Another reason I chose this Pre-amp is, you can upgrade items such as the vacuum tubes, volume pot, and coupling capacitors, to improve sound quality. I chose to upgrade both the amplifier stage and phono equalizer stage, with High Fidelity, Mundorf brand with Silver/Gold with oil, electrolytic capacitors, made in Germany. Plus, I replaced the J.J. brand tubes that come with the kit, with the best sounding tube on the planet. (NOS) 1968, Siemens 12au7a, silver plate vacuum tubes. I purchased my kit on Ebay from a company EK Japan. Overall, I am pleased with the phono Stage. It definitely has that magical tube sound I was looking for. No humming noises and no clipping or distortion at full volume. I would definitely buy again. Best regards

@@Moejoe69 That is one hell of a good review. Big thanks 🙏. I need to work on my soldering. My MS makes me shaken when it gets active but I’ll pick my days. I just have a solid state Lounge Audio SS. It’s good enough but not in the league of my older 70’s integrated amps like my old Yamaha NaturalSound. I miss the push combined with the eq. Everything is a bit sterile and I’m looking for a bit of life in my records, especially the newer one bar a few jazz reissues which are stellar. Will it help with the coldness of digital? I’ve read about all kinds of different dacs bu one bi-product of the MS is that digital signals really hurt my ears. It’s why I pulled out my old records. All that compression of digital along with volumes that I enjoy was a death by a thousand cuts over the past 25 years when it began, although I didn’t understand the “why?” of it! I have a pair of those Klipsch Fortes and I bet a nice tube amp would go a long ways, along with this pre-amp. Thanks so much for the deep review. That is just what I’m looking for. I will practice this fall for a winter build. 👍

You have a good ear. This unit has pitch control like on turntables. The Pressure roller bushings are to tight, causing it to drag. I need to increase the clearance slightly. It is 0.02mm to 0.05mm clearance. Both pressure rollers have to be equal.

Like a Jukebox. My grandchildren love it.

I do not know the sizes. Sorry.

Sorry Jesse, I don't have the users manual, but you can watch the Jeff Tranter channel. He does a better demo on a video titled; The Heathkit TC-2 Tube Checker. He is reading from the user manual, as he shows how to use it.

@@Moejoe69 thank you. I’ll give him a look.

The box it came in says made in Germany with a sticker that says United Audio on it. But it did have Nippon Capacitor's, so you are probably right.

Sovtek

She will always be my fav!

roundoff onto springboard to arabian salto over the low bar to catch high bar as the entry skill onto the apparatus