Vinyl is very sensitive to being placed on an uneven surface.
The good news is that other than your time, setting up a turntable properly doesn't need to cost a huge amount. Turntables are sensitive to the outside world. On a smaller level, the effect of your speakers and other external sources of vibration on your equipment will effect the performance. The signal from a cartridge is tiny and additional noise being recorded by the stylus through unwanted movement is extremely undesirable. A tonearm serves to both move the cartridge across the record and to apply the correct amount of tracking force to the cartridge.

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