I bought a Artone portable phono last year and rebuild it tonearm, tubes ,cartridge,idlers,springs .Problem is low volume it has three speeds it plays the loudest on 78s (lots of sound when needle is touched)but volume low on 33 rpm and 45 rpms its a ARTONE model no 321. Thanks A.V.M

What is the downward force of the needle?

The older record player certridges required more downforce on the needle. Needle diameter was different too between 78's and 45/33 types. If nothing was changed that might reduce that dwonward force, it may well be that you are just using a needle intended for 78's only. On the microgroove 45's and 33's that 78 needle will ride on the top of the groove. If the cartridge uses a single needle, try a "universal", which will be 2/3 the contact width of the of the 78 needle, and it will drop into the groove to make adequate contact.

:I bought a Artone portable phono last year and rebuild it tonearm, tubes ,cartridge,idlers,springs .Problem is low volume it has three speeds it plays the loudest on 78s (lots of sound when needle is touched)but volume low on 33 rpm and 45 rpms its a ARTONE model no 321. Thanks A.V.M

:What is the downward force of the needle?
:
:The older record player certridges required more downforce on the needle. Needle diameter was different too between 78's and 45/33 types. If nothing was changed that might reduce that dwonward force, it may well be that you are just using a needle intended for 78's only. On the microgroove 45's and 33's that 78 needle will ride on the top of the groove. If the cartridge uses a single needle, try a "universal", which will be 2/3 the contact width of the of the 78 needle, and it will drop into the groove to make adequate contact.
:
::I bought a Artone portable phono last year and rebuild it tonearm, tubes ,cartridge,idlers,springs .Problem is low volume it has three speeds it plays the loudest on 78s (lots of sound when needle is touched)but volume low on 33 rpm and 45 rpms its a ARTONE model no 321. Thanks A.V.M

John”s solution will work very well. One other option, get a “flip" cartridge. It has the small (33) styli on one side and the big (78) on the other. There are several sources for these that work very well on tube amps. I have done this on several rigs that I am not overly concerned about adhesion to original specs. The quality of sound reproduction will be a bit better on the 33s and 45s with this set up.

::What is the downward force of the needle?
::
::The older record player certridges required more downforce on the needle. Needle diameter was different too between 78's and 45/33 types. If nothing was changed that might reduce that dwonward force, it may well be that you are just using a needle intended for 78's only. On the microgroove 45's and 33's that 78 needle will ride on the top of the groove. If the cartridge uses a single needle, try a "universal", which will be 2/3 the contact width of the of the 78 needle, and it will drop into the groove to make adequate contact.
::
:::I bought a Artone portable phono last year and rebuild it tonearm, tubes ,cartridge,idlers,springs .Problem is low volume it has three speeds it plays the loudest on 78s (lots of sound when needle is touched)but volume low on 33 rpm and 45 rpms its a ARTONE model no 321. Thanks A.V.M (I replaced the univeral cartridge it was A single needle like a 78 needle , and replaced it with the flip over kind 78 and lp Iam wondering could it be the weight of the tonearm or lps ,45s are louder .If not can it be the volume control? ,is there any way to test? Thank You ,A.V.M

If you didn't replace the cartridge with a different type and you didn't modify the suspension of the tone arm, THERE IS NO NEED TO CHANGE THE DOWNWARD FORCE. Ideal tracking force for LP records is no more than 7 grammes. As long as you are not hearing needle chatter--the needle is bouncing around in the grooves, you are doing fine. Needle chatter, caused by the tone arm being too light, will destroy the grooves, too, but too heavy a tone arm will also do this. You do not want to increase the weight of your tone arm unless you decreased it in the past.

THE reason why 78s are louder than 33s and 45s has NOTHING to do with tone arm weight or that the needle size is different. A 33, though it will not track well, will play equally loudly with a 78 rpm needle as with a 33 rpm needle. The highs will be missing, but it will be the same volume. This will also dangerously spread the grooves of a 33 rpm record. The reason why they are quieter is because they are MICROGROOVE records. The grooves are spaced closer together, and they are not recorded with the same amplitude as 78 rpm records because of this closer groove spacing. 78 rpm records have always had an extremely high amplitude because they were originally designed to drive acoustical phonographs. In the 1950s, they recorded them even louder than originally done for "high fidelity" purposes--to bring the music way above the surface noise level. By the 1950s they were using much quieter shellac in the 78s, but they did this anyway. This also caused undue record wear if a cartridge with poor lateral and vertical compliance was used.

If your tracking force is ideal, you are FAR better off adding an extra stage of pre-amplification. This can easily be built and placed between the volume control of your set and its original amplifier. If your original amplifier uses two or more tubes of amplification (plus rectifier), then it should be more than capable of reproducing 33s and 78s with ample volume. If it only has one stage of amplification (35C5, 50C5, 35L6, or 50L6, etc.), then unless you use a high output cartridge designed for this type of amplifier, you will not be able to obtain ample volume with just the original amplifier. Furthermore, if you used a magnetic cartridge in place of a crystal cartridge, and your amplifier was not designed for this, your audio will be quieter.

Thomas

Thomas is absolutely dead on, on tracking weight, do not increase it; you will do nothing to increase the output of the cartridge, but you will make a lot of black frisbees out of your records. There are crystal cartridges available, make sure the one you chose has an output of .8v some of the best for your tube radio put out 1.v+ Or its preamp time.

:Thomas is absolutely dead on, on tracking weight, do not increase it; you will do nothing to increase the output of the cartridge, but you will make a lot of black frisbees out of your records. There are crystal cartridges available, make sure the one you chose has an output of .8v some of the best for your tube radio put out 1.v+ Or its preamp time. I replaced it with A magnetic cartridge...... ( Are their Crystal cartidges with the flip type needles ? The orignal one was like a 78 needle but the phono has three speeds ) Ihave plenty of volume on my 78s not so much 33s I have to turn the volume control all a way up . How can I tell wether it is a crystal cartridge or ceramic? Thanks A.V.M