Start Assembly
Remove the platter from its protective bag and remove the felt mat from its bag.
The inner platter will have a small piece of cardboard under it. Remove it and store it in your turntable box in case you ever need to pack it up for moving.
Make sure your hands are clean and put the belt on the inner platter, then loop it over the motor pulley. Carefully place the platter on top of the inner platter, the put the felt mat on top of the platter.
Balancing the Tonearm
The tonearm is tied down with a piece of wire tie, loosen this carefully. Now we get to the only part where you need to be careful. The stylus has a guard on it that is milky plastic. This will pull straight off. Hang onto this guard. You’ll want to put it back on when you dust or clean your turntable.
Put a record on the platter.
Find the counterweight and identify the side with all the numbers. Push this onto the round post on the back of the tonearm and rotate it.
Lift the tonearm carefully out of its holder and while you support the tonearm with one hand, rotate the counterweight back and forth until the tonearm floats.
Put the arm back in the tonearm rest.
Hold the rear part of the counterweight to keep it from moving, then rotate the dial on the front until 0 is pointing straight up. Then rotate the counterweight counterclockwise until you have 20 pointing straight up. This is 2 grams of tracking force.