Teac TN-300 turntable owner question-tight spindle?

[Phillips]

My new Teac TN 300 turntable seems to have a tight spindle, the axle that the turntable platter rotates upon. Before I put the platter on the turntable, I spun the axle with my fingers, and it was met with some resistance, not a totally free spinning spindle/axle like I would have expected. With the belt disconnected and the platter spun moderately by hand, it will spin 4-5 revolutions------I would have expected it to spin for minutes and minutes. I do not hear an audible sound of bad bearings when the platter is free spinning.

The main reason for concern I as is that I am getting a bit of very low frequency rumble.........not sure if it is needle to vinyl rumble or some rumble from the spindle/axle bearings. It has been 3 decades since I had a turntable, so my old ears may be playing tricks on me, or all my vinyl albums may have long since been worn out. All of my albums are at minimum 1980s or earlier, some back to last 1960s. Thank you.

 

[TLS Guy]

My new Teac TN 300 turntable seems to have a tight spindle, the axle that the turntable platter rotates upon. Before I put the platter on the turntable, I spun the axle with my fingers, and it was met with some resistance, not a totally free spinning spindle/axle like I would have expected. With the belt disconnected and the platter spun moderately by hand, it will spin 4-5 revolutions------I would have expected it to spin for minutes and minutes. I do not hear an audible sound of bad bearings when the platter is free spinning.

The main reason for concern I as is that I am getting a bit of very low frequency rumble.........not sure if it is needle to vinyl rumble or some rumble from the spindle/axle bearings. It has been 3 decades since I had a turntable, so my old ears may be playing tricks on me, or all my vinyl albums may have long since been worn out. All of my albums are at minimum 1980s or earlier, some back to last 1960s. Thank you.

Your instincts are correct. That turntable is far too cheap to be of any quality. Where was the POS made?

 

[slipperybidness]

My new Teac TN 300 turntable seems to have a tight spindle, the axle that the turntable platter rotates upon. Before I put the platter on the turntable, I spun the axle with my fingers, and it was met with some resistance, not a totally free spinning spindle/axle like I would have expected. With the belt disconnected and the platter spun moderately by hand, it will spin 4-5 revolutions------I would have expected it to spin for minutes and minutes. I do not hear an audible sound of bad bearings when the platter is free spinning.

The main reason for concern I as is that I am getting a bit of very low frequency rumble.........not sure if it is needle to vinyl rumble or some rumble from the spindle/axle bearings. It has been 3 decades since I had a turntable, so my old ears may be playing tricks on me, or all my vinyl albums may have long since been worn out. All of my albums are at minimum 1980s or earlier, some back to last 1960s. Thank you.

Do you have a subwoofer in your system or no?

 

[Phillips]

Yes I have a Paradigm 12" powered sub. My turntable sits on a wall 4' from the corner, and the sub is about 6' down the wall that is past this corner at a 90 degree angle. The room is 14 by 28, and the sub and my main speakers are on the 14' wall, with sound going towards the other 14' wall. I sit about 16' in front of the speakers. Thank you for your reply.

 

[slipperybidness]

Yes I have a Paradigm 12" powered sub. My turntable sits on a wall 4' from the corner, and the sub is about 6' down the wall that is past this corner at a 90 degree angle. The room is 14 by 28, and the sub and my main speakers are on the 14' wall, with sound going towards the other 14' wall. I sit about 16' in front of the speakers. Thank you for your reply.

OK.

Have you tried to switch the sub OFF to see if the rumble is still there?

From your response, you may not be catching where I'm headed here. I'm not suggesting that the sub is rattling the TT and causing the rumble. Rather, you may have some low frequency rumble in the TT that is being output by the sub.

So, the next thing that I would do is POWER OFF the SUB, then play a record and see if you still have rumble or not. I have a Rythmik F15HP sub and it has a built-in rumble filter.

EDIT: However, with either my Technics SL1210 or my Pro-Ject Debut Carbon--I don't have any rumble problems so I don't use the rumble filter.

 

[Phillips]

I do understand your direction now, and I will try your suggestion and see what happens. I did play some LPs last night that I never liked, thus they were never played very much, and the rumble is almost non-existent with the one I tried. Could be that my albums are just old and ruined? thank you

 

[TLS Guy]

I do understand your direction now, and I will try your suggestion and see what happens. I did play some LPs last night that I never liked, thus they were never played very much, and the rumble is almost non-existent with the one I tried. Could be that my albums are just old and ruined? thank you

The fact remains though that your turntable has far too much bearing friction. What you described is totally unacceptable.