Here it is, in painful detail, and a sincere thanks to those who made suggestions.
Troubleshooting was time consuming, because the noise would only happen once on startup every several hours. In other words, I would hear it after the table sat for a number of hours. The longer it sat, the longer the noise would go on, though never more than about three seconds. Shutting the table off, then on within a couple of minutes elicited no noise.
I tried giving the platter a nudge upon startup, same noise.
I inspected the sub platter and no marks.
I tried with just the platter removed. Same noise. I was able to see with a flashlight that no contact was being made underneath the sub platter.
Then:
I tried with sub platter removed(this would be just the motor spinning, no belt attached). Noise again, lower in volume.
Therefore, I believe the sound is coming from the motor itself on startup. I further surmise that possibly there is a bit of lube or something in the motor that needs to be distributed in the first spin up. That might explain why the noise subsides for several hours after an initial ‘cold start’. Similar to an engine where the oil takes several hours to all collect back into the oil pan.
Truthfully, the noise isn’t very loud, I do have to listen for it, and therefore I capitulate to it. I’m going to send a query to Pro-Ject and see what they have to say.
Thanks,
Jim
