This would be my first turntable that I've owned in close to 20 years, so don't remember much about the technology. I've browsed this newgroup and have done some searches but can't get any simple answers to some basic questions. Bascially I purchased this unit, for next to nothing, and will be using it to play some old records and to show my kids what daddy used to listen to music on when he was a kid :-), so did not need anything high-end. Okay, first of all, is the pionner PL-255 a decent turntable? Just curious, it seems to work fine and the few records I've tried on it sound ok. The number on the front of the cartridge says "EXCEL-ES28" and it came with an extra needle which says on the box "W-717STDE for Sanyo MG28 Cartridge". Does that mean anything to anyone? Now for the newbie tech questions:
1) What should I set the anti-skating dial, and the larger dial on the back of the arm to? The anti-skating dial goes from 1 to 3, and the other dial (counterweight??) goes from 0 to 2.5. They are currently both set to 2 from the previous owner so I just left it at that.
2) When adjusting the speed dial, is it correct that you should get the little strobe light dots to appear to stand still for the optimum speed? My older brother used to have a turntable with the strobe thingy and I seem to recall that this is what was done. The PL-255 actually has a little window you look into with multiple lines of dots that are associated to different record sizes.
3) I'm currently plugging this puppy into my Yamaha RX-V595a amp which has a phono input (ground wire connected to get rid of the hum). Is this all I should need? Will I get better results with some sort of preamp? Works and sounds fine, but I've noticed that it is not as loud and the bass is less compared to when I play a CD so I have to turn up the volume and my subwoofer a bit more with the turntable, is this normal? The manual for my yamaha amp says that if the volume is low than the record is being played on a turntable with an MC catridge and that you should use an MC head amplifier. I have no idea if my catridge is MC. Under the spec section of the yamaha manual, anytime it references the phone input (eg. input sensitivity, RIAA equalization deviation, etc...) it calls it "PHONO MM".
Anyway, any help on the above questions would be greatly appreciated since I live in a small town where there are no experts on turntables.