Emerson NR305TT - Replacement Turntable Needles

I have the same model. Though I haven't replaced the needle yet, I was able to remove the broken one. You'll see that the arm has a red plastic attachment. It houses the needle in a very thin strip of something like electrician's tape. There is a very small separation on the front (end of the arm facing you) of the tone arm, where the arm (black plastic) and needle "cartridge" (red plastic) come together. I used a metal nail file and pried them apart very gently. At this point the red plastic "cartridge" with the broken needle was hanging but still connected on either side. The red plastic "cartridge" is made with tiny plastic 'bumps' that pop into indentations built into the black plastic of the arm. Again, using my metal nail file, I simply held the arm and pried the red plastic "cartridge" away from one side. It popped off the other immediately and fell away from the arm. Voila!

Hope this helps!

I have the same model. I just bought it off of ebay brand new. The right channel with the record player was "crapping" out. Sounded like a bad connection. I gently popped the needle of to investigate when all the guts fell out. The two "reed" type things incased in 3 rubber mounts fell out as well as the wires. I believe the bad sound on mine was from a loose connector on the negative wire, The pin fell out of the connector. It was a bad "crimp". Trying to fix it resulted in one of the connectors breaking and one of the "reeds" snapping in half. My wifes birthday present is broken after 5 days of use, so be careful!!

Yes, a bad needle will cause lousy audio. You could also just have some dust buildup on the needle point (the diamond or sapphire point which contacts the record groove). This can be cleaned off by using a toothbrush. Lift the tonearm and lightly brush the needle. Replacement needles can be found, probably online from those who've bought old repair center stock. Might as well mention here, a bad cartridge (needle mounts in this part) can cause the same symptom. Lastly, is audio poor only from the turntable, or from the radio too? If only on the turntable , the above info applies. If bad from AM/FM, the trouble lies in the electronics, likely the amplifier section.