Troubleshooting

Your belt should be relatively loose to (a) prevent motor noise from entering playback and (b) maintain excellent speed
consistency. Please review our belt installation instructions here or contact us if you are having trouble installing your belt. Belts are covered under 3-year warranty. Outside of warranty, replacement belts are available here for $9. Under normal use, your belt will need to be replaced after about 1,000 playing hours.

∙ Do you have a phono preamp? Are you connecting your turntable to a dedicated phono input on your receiver? If you answered “no” to both of these questions, then you will need a phono preamp to convert the turntable's “phono” signal to a line level (i.e. AUX) signal. If you haven’t seen it already, you might find our brief stereo setup guide helpful.

∙ Check that your stylus is not loose (this sometimes happens when you first remove the stylus guard). If you are unsure, please send us an email with a picture of your cartridge and we will take a look.

∙ Make sure that you have removed the plastic guard that protects the stylus.

∙ Check that your stylus is not loose (this sometimes happens when you first remove the stylus guard). If you are unsure, please send us an email with a picture of your cartridge and we will take a look.

Your belt is probably stretched or worn out. Belts are covered under 3-year warranty. Within warranty, please contact us with your serial number (on the bottom of your turntable) and preferred shipping address for a replacement belt. Outside of warranty, belts are available here for $7.

∙ Are your records dirty, damaged, or warped? Does this skipping occur across all of your records? Damaged, dirty, or defective records are to blame for many tracking issues like skipping or looping.

∙ Make sure that there is no dust or debris on your stylus tip. Learn more about cleaning your stylus here.

∙ Still having tracking problems? Contact us!

∙ Make sure you are only using one phono preamp. If your turntable has a built-in phono preamp enabled, then do not connect to the PHONO input on your receiver or powered speakers. Passing the signal through two phono preamps will result in severe distortion. You can also disable the turntable's built-in preamp if you want to connect to the PHONO input on your receiver or speakers.

∙ Make sure that your speakers are not vibrating your turntable. If you are hearing distortion at higher volumes only, then it probably means speaker vibrations are getting back to your stylus.

∙ If you are only using one preamp and still get severe distortion, then your stylus might be damaged. Please send us a photo of your stylus and we will help out.

∙ Hum is often due to something environmental (e.g. EMI/RFI) or setup/connection-related.

∙ Try connecting the turntable's power adapter to a different wall outlet. We strongly recommend connecting directly to the outlet (avoiding surge protectors, power strips, and even power conditioners).

∙ Electronic devices, light dimmers, fluorescent lamps, TVs, and anything with a wireless transmitter (or anything that shares a common ground with your turntable) can contribute to hum. Try completely unplugging nearby electronics/appliances (so that they are receiving no power whatsoever) or try moving your setup to a different location in your home.

∙ If you have an extra pair of RCA interconnects available, try connecting these to your turntable. It is not uncommon for some noise to enter the signal path via the RCAs.

∙ If you are still having trouble, please contact us and let us know what troubleshooting steps you have already tried.

∙ Is this problem occurring across all your records? Damaged, dirty, or defective vinyl often leads to excessive surface noise.

∙ Are you regularly cleaning your records with a record brush? Dust and debris can quickly accumulate in record grooves. New records are not always clean! In fact, there is often a ton of debris on new vinyl. Make sure you use a record brush before you put the needle down on a new record.

∙ Make sure that there is no dust or debris on your stylus. You can learn more about cleaning your stylus here.

∙ When a cartridge is brand new, the stylus suspension can be a bit stiff. This can lead to amplified surface noise and slightly "harsh" sound. If your stylus is still new, give it 15-20 hours to fully break-in. Surface noise will usually decrease during the break-in period.

∙ Please contact us with your serial number (on the bottom of your turntable) and preferred shipping address. If your turntable is under warranty, we will provide a replacement motor that can be installed at home for no charge. Outside of warranty, we can provide a replacement motor for a small fee.

∙ Make sure you are using the correct AC adapter. The Orbit’s adapter has a silver label that says “Orbit” on it. If you have lost yours, replacement AC adapters are available here.

∙ If you are using the correct AC adapter, please contact us.