D
ecember
2017 103
siliconchip.com.au
Celebrating 30 Years
Music Hall mmf-1.3 turntable
The presentation of the Music Hall turntable is very clean
and simple: a shallow glossy back plinth supported on four
large vibration-damping feet and fitted with a removable,
moulded clear Perspex dust cover. Lifting the cover gives
access to the 4-position switch which turns on the power
and selects the three speeds: 33.33, 45 or 78 RPM.
The tonearm is a straight (not curved) design with a
removeable EIAJ headshell and adjustable counterweight
which allows the tracking force to be set between 1 and 4
grams (once it has been balanced). There is also an anti-
skating force adjustment.
Note that since this is a manual turntable, moving the
arm off the rest does not start the platter revolving – that
is done by the speed selector/power switch. And nor does
the platter stop revolving once the stylus runs into the
central groove.
So the playing procedure is to start the turntable, posi-
tion the stylus over the run-in groove and then flick the
damped lift/lower level to gently lower the cartridge into
the groove. At the end of play, you use the lever to raise
the tonearm and then you move it back to the rest position.
This is simplicity itself and the way most record enthu-
siasts like it.
The Audio-Technica AT-3600L moving magnet cartridge
is a middle-of-the-road model with a 0.6 mil conical stylus
and a recommended tracking force of 3.5 grams. It does have
a removeable stylus (AT-91R) so it can be replaced at some
time in the future (after you have played a lot of records!)
By the way, the AT-3600L cartridge is not suitable for
playing 78 RPM records. This will not affect most people
since 78 RPM discs are quite rare – but if you did want to
play them, to get the best results, you will need a cartridge
with larger stylus, typically 3 mil.
The much smaller stylus of any cartridge intended for
microgroove (ie, 33 and 45 RPM) records will ride in the
bottom of the groove of 78 RPM records and be very noisy.
In that case it is best to go for a dedicated 78 RPM mono
cartridge such as the Audio-Technica VM670SP.
The turntable itself is a lightweight aluminium casting
which has a thick rubber mat. Total weight of the platter
and rubber mat is 785g.
We like the inbuilt preamplifier on the Music Hall turn-
table as it means its output leads can be plugged into any
amplifier which can accept line level inputs, ie, with signal
levels up to 1 or 2V.
Setting up
The mmf.1.3 turntable requires very little assembly out
of the box. The main task is to install the platter on the
spindle and make sure the belt is sitting on the motor shaft.
On upacking the mmf-1.3 turntable, we checked the speed
of the turntable with the S
ILICON
C
HIP
strobe disc and white
LED strobe (December 2015) and found it was spot on at all
speeds, straight out of the box. . .
. . . but if it proved to be slightly “out”, it’s a simple matter
of adjusting the speed by holding down the push button
for two seconds then turning the knob. Unfortunately, it is
under the turntable so takes a bit of juggling to get to!
Here’s the adjustment end of the tone arm, with the tracking
dial at the rear and the anti-skate control closest to the
camera. The tone arm is raised and lowered by the lever in
the foreground.
The belt drive fits right around the turntable inner rim
thence to the capstan, seen here in its access window. You
have to remove the platter mat to gain access to this window
but fitting the belt is neither difficult nor time consuming.
