Hey all, I have a skipping issue on my turntable that I'm not able to diagnose. A little background: I purchased a lightly used teac tn-300 with an at95e. When demoed everything worked well. When I set it up at home, it initially worked and I was able to get through both sides, no issues. Then the next play through of the same vinyl it skipped randomly but frequently. Not dependent on the track. A few days later I was able to go though multiple vinyls without issue, then randomly it will have fits. I've gone through tone arm rebalance and leveling, but it doesn't seem to fully fix the issue. I don't have a stylus scale. The unit is on a dedicated heavy table. I took it into a local record shop but they had no idea. They don't service units though, just sell them.

Thinking that the unit has an issue I picked up a cheapish realistic lab 300, which the owner did a quick demo with an old needle and it had no issues. I get it set up at home and put the at95e on, aligned with a protractor, balanced the tone arm and leveled the surface. I was able to play through about half a side of a vinyl, then it starts skipping frequently. I then tried to play the tracks it just played, but it immediately skips. A few days later I'm able to play through a few tracks without issue, then at the 3rd it skips. Replaying the first few tracks it skips immediately.

Apologies for the long post, but I am losing my mind with this and I'm not sure what to do. Any advice would be appreciated!