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RE: Warning to Stanton and Pickering collectors...

Posted by flood2 (A) on June 23, 2015 at 17:17:56

In Reply to: RE: Warning to Stanton and Pickering collectors... posted by neobop on June 23, 2015 at 07:26:12:

Interesting that Blue Angel noted that the tie-wire failed rather than the suspension. I'm a little puzzled to be honest unless most of the damage was typically caused by "accidents" in which the cartridge was subjected to excessive downforce. If stainless steel is used as the wire(as many designs use), then corrosion shouldn't be an issue so I don't understand how it fails if used within the normal VTF range, whereas rubber naturally degrades over time. I know that Ortofon have done a lot of research into pre-treatment of the butyl rubber to maximise life, but hardenening over time is inevitable. Van den Hul actually advises placing the cartridge in the freezer for long term storage!

I was trying to find the source, but originally I thought that Pickering/Stanton used neoprene as the elastomer. However, I'm not sure and my recent experience suggests perhaps not. It does seem "era" dependent though. All my low impedance styli (D88S, D4500S, D78E, D3500E) which were likely made in the mid to late 80s exhibit good tracking ability but have the same HF rolloff around 16 to 23 kHz amounting to nearly 5dB suggesting that the tie wire is working OK, but the elastomer has hardened sufficiently to cause an overdamped effect. They are still usable though, and I can still digitally equalize my recordings if these cartridges/styli are used. However, my batch of D6800EEEmkIII styli sourced directly from Stanton and personally certified by John Kuykendall himself in the late 90s are largely unusable now - in fact one of the ones tested had such a low compliance that the LF resonance was placed around 13Hz and I began to wonder if these were in fact D6800EL styli overmoulded in the wrong tool with the wrong labelling!!

"Use it or lose it" is the motto for my collection of cartridges and styli now!
Regards Anthony

"Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.." Keats

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