flatfish+++ wrote:
On Fri, 09 Apr 2004 12:46:53 -0400, Scott Dorsey wrote:

The V15 will track AMAZINGLY better than a Stanton, but I would think
that anything as old as a Type 4 is probably going to be pretty shot.
Send it off to Shure and have them check the suspension on it.

I did replace the stylus last year with an original brand new Shure.
Does this take care of any suspension problems or are they internal to the
cartridge body?

Yup, with the Shure, you're good to go. Some other cartridges have
additional suspension stuff in the body, but not the Shure. Keep it,
it's a nice cartridge.

The Shure tracks my Harry James "King James Version" and Sheffield "Track
Record" much better than the Stanton, that's for certain.
The damping brush also deals with warps better than the Stanton brush did
before I removed it because it gives off a metallic sound of it's own.
I reset the tracking force after removing it of course.

Yup. Listen to how things like horns sound on worn records, on the Shure
versus the Stanton. The difference gets very pronounced on old records
with worn grooves, which the Shure tracks amazingly well and the Stanton
just damages further by mistracking.

Fiddling wtih VTA on those will sometimes alter the surface noise, too.
But I bet part of the reason you get more noise with it is that it has
a lot more top end than the Stanton.

I was wondering if it was riding in a different part of the groove
compared to where the original owner of the records cartridge (a nail in a
piece of plastic I think) did.

Probably. The thing about the fineline styli is that they always ride in
a rather odd part of the groove and they don't make much groove contact.
This is part of why they track so well. Fiddling with the VTA will help
you find a section that tracks a little better, even though it will also
alter your stereo imaging in the process.

I adjusted the VTA with the gauge Thorens supplies with the turntable.
Basically lay the cartridge upside down on a flat surface, put the gauge
behind it and then put spacers under it until it lines up in the grid.

The # 3 spacer seems to do the trick.

If all records were cut properly and brand new, this would be perfect.
The problem is that when records are miscut and screwed up, sometimes
you want to be able to alter the VTA away from what is nominal. An arm
with an adjustable pivot height allows you to do this.

Your goal for transcription, though, is to get lowest distortion. Don't
worry about noise as much as distortion. You can clean the noise up after
the fact, but you can't do anything about tracking distortion or tracing
distortion.

Ok, that's what I will shoot for.


The flooded ones, you wash by hand with Alconox or Decontam or even Ivory
soap before you put it through the machine.

I've been using Ivory and my water is pretty clean so it seems to work
rather well.
I can feel the soap lifting the grit to the surface and then running it
though the machine makes most of them sound pretty decent.

Scary, isn't it? I think Alconox is a little bit more harsh than Ivory.
I know folks who use undiluted Lysol Direct for prewashing too... and
that stuff is really alkaline. If Ivory is getting the gunk off, go for it.

Try the Apt Holman with the Shure and see if you're still seeing the low
end cut.

I found a couple that I did with the Apt and the Shure and I see basically
the same thing.

Flat down to 0 hz

I think Arny is on the right track and I am doing something wrong with the
program.

Yes, that's absolutely a measurement artifact. Don't worry about that.
Worry about how it sounds. And I bet a nickel it sounds a hell of a lot
better with the Shure and the Apt Holman.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."