Slow Turntable? It May Not Be The Belt...

If you have a turntable that you use frequently, you may want to learn from a mistake I recently made. In this video, I talk about turntable speed. Sometimes, when a belt drive turntable starts to play records ever so slowly, it could be because the belt needs to be replaced. Over time, belts stretch, and this will affect the speed.

But this issue is not always caused by stretched belts. On many turntables, there is also a speed adjustment where you can manually adjust how fast the records play. On my Realistic turntable, these speed adjustments can be accessed on the bottom of the turntable. There is an adjustment for 33 rpm records, as well as 45 rpm.

It can be a little tricky to adjust these settings, depending on where they are located on your turntable. In this video, I explain how I was able to adjust the speed on my turntable. It can be a bit of a hassle, but once you get the hang of it, it's really not that difficult!

I have owned my LAB 340 turntable for many decades. It still works great! As I mention in the video, I do not use my turntable all the time. I may use it a few times a month. But after so many years, the belt is eventually going to stretch. I have read online that you should change your turntable belt every 3-5 years, depending on how heavily you use it.

Please be sure to check out my vinyl and turntable playlist. Over the past couple of years, I have made numerous videos all about vinyl and turntables. Years ago I was an avid collector of vinyl. I still buy used vinyl, but not as frequently as I used to. There is no greater thrill than finding that one record that you have been trying to track down for ages!

What turntable do you have? How often do you change your belt? How do you adjust speed on your turntable? Do you prefer vinyl? Do you think it sounds better than CDs? Feel free to leave a comment!

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