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In Reply to: A quarter of a gram.... posted by lpspinner on December 16, 2005 at 05:58:39:
the cartridge makers got into a low tracking contest back in the 60s with shure and adc at the forefront. this resulted in many people ruining their records by tracking too light.if you dont use enough pressure the stylus can lose contact with the groove on highly modulated passages and the stylus slams into the opposite wall with great velocity and damages the vinyl.
on every cartridge there is a range of vtf recommended, its best to stay at the higher end of the recommended range unless you can prove to yourself that the cartridge is tracking everything very well. test records are made for this purpose by shure, cbs labs, and hifi news and record review.
the best scenario is to always have the stylus in contact with the record at a force within the recommended ranges. different styli have different contact areas and distribute the pressure over an adequate area so as not to damage the records. you will see cartridges with recommended forces of 2.5 gr. no prob.
...regards...tr
Follow Ups:
The range is there partly for personal preference but mostly to account for seasonal changes in the cartridge's suspension: hard in cold, dry weather, soft in warm, wet weather.
I am a big klutz and seem to often end up dropping the arm off of my finger onto the records from great heights. I have found that when I am tracking at 1.25 gms the resulting damage is much less than in the old days when I would be tracking at 3 gms or so. :-)I just did that last night on one of my pristine Manley Vacuum Tube Logic lps. The SME 3009 arm and Ortofon VMS stylus hit the record and bounced and skipped a couple of times, creating a horrible sound. However, on inspection, I did not see any visible damage to the record, and also no sonic problems.
For normal people, this would not be an issue, but I seem to do this every week or so. If I would use the cuing lever, this wouldn't happen, but I don't like using it, and can't seem to force myself to.
Dick Schneiders
Dick
While I understand your rationale, I think Tommy is right on this one, it's best to err on the heavy side of the VTF range, even if you do drop the arm periodically , cantilevers are considerably more robust than one would assume from their diminuitive sizes.And mis-tracking occours with disturbing regularity and is often
audibly undetectable in marginal just a mite too light on the VTF situations and the damage is ir-reversible and those high velocity stylus richochetting divots and tears expand progressivly even after adequate VTF is properly established, where the damage from the stylus hitting the record when the arm is dropped is minimal or non existent.This knowledge was gained by my Father and I, over many decades of
experience spinning vinyl under the influence, between the 2 of us
we easily imbibed enough Wild turkey and Cutty Sark to comfortably
float the QE II. The dropped styli number in the millions easily ;-)
Didn't want to start another thread and the original post is way back in archives. I stared at the mechanicals on the bottom of the unit, as instructed. Removed the platted and found the binding point for the Start switch. Also a binding point underneath. Some judiciously applied phono lube at friction points and a bit of muscle power to one of the moving parts below has that part of the unit working.The speed adjustment knob is more dicey. It was frozen at 45. I tried everything I could think of and lubed or oiled everything in sight. Intense staring, WITH frown, did no good. Finally got a pair of pliers to get more torque and the selector moved off 45 to 33 with actually little effort. Works fine, although that speed control is now VERY loose. But 33 is what I wanted anyway. Plus I got a good copy of the manual from the link you provided. A nice 7th turntable.
Again, thanks, David
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series of turntables. They get considerable bad "press", but most of it is unfounded. They are very well made and the motor is near bullet proof. They use metal in places where a lot of the competing brands use plastic to cut costs. The arm is a bit quirky and the changer mechanism, which I am using for playing 45's, seems jerky but it works well.What cartridge are you using in it? Currently I have an old Pickering V15 Micro Type IV that sounds pretty good. I have also tried an old Radio Shack V series (made by Shure) that worked well. I have several of the slide in cartridge carriers, so I can experiment with different cartridges.
One thing you said, that did surprise me. The "frown" combined with the "intense staring" didn't help, in your situation. Did you also accompany this with several curse words and gnashing of teeth? That might have been the missing ingredient, as it worked for me. :-)
A Shure M97HE. I scored a couple NOS off E-Bay for a pittance. Also have the P-Mopunt equivalent equivalent of that same cartridge. I'll definitely mount one of those three. Just need to move a table out and out this one in. Prolly the office system at work. Defnitely not gonna be hooked up to the big rig at home but will get a lot of play time at work.
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"Do I have to spell it out?
C --- H ---- E ---E ---- S --- E
A --- N --- D
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