Vinyl Asylum Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Vinyl Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

Installing a new stylus or cartridge

Posted by M3 lover (A) on June 9, 2021 at 10:00:48

In Reply to: RE: how much do you value your records? posted by Horatio Alger on June 7, 2021 at 17:01:24:

Thanks, I'm glad you took the comments in the spirit which was intended.

Replacing the stylus in your cartridge body might be simple. But you don't know if it was aligned correctly to begin with.

To optimize playback with any cartridge/stylus requires proper set up alignment. When records are made a master disc is created on a precision turntable with a tangental tonearm and special cutting stylus, using a blank disc. Optimum playback would place your stylus in the same relative position as the cutter head in creating the master. But for several reasons the majority of tonearms are pivoted and the stylus traces an arc, rather than the master tangental arm where the cutter head moves in a straight line from edge to spindle center. Thus the playback stylus will not trace the precise position of the cutter stylus.

To compensate for that geometry has been worked out for positioning so the arc contact is as close as possible to that tangental line. This involves overhang (stylus position beyond the distance to the spindle) and offset (cartridge body and stylus/cantilever are angled, rather than installed inline with the tonearm).

The procedure for cartridge.stylus alignment should be learned by anyone who is at least half-serious about listening quality. See the Asylum FAQ for setup guides.

You could simply install a new stylus, but you would not know if your cartridge body was positioned correctly. If you buy a new cartridge then you certainly would need to follow the alignment procedure. Simply attaching the new cartridge to the headshell and connecting the wires offers an extremely low chance it will be correct.

With all the comments here hopefully you can now go forward.

"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing, if you can fake that you've got it made." Groucho

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Schiit Audio

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---