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John Elison Challenge and Rake Angle (long)

John

Firstly I would like to compliment you on developing such a good way to compare cartridges. It makes it much easier for people to make informed choices. I wonder if any of the magazines will pick it up?

In trying to draw my own conclusions from the comments and discussions, I am troubled by the issue of rake angle. If I recall correctly, you set the arm so that the tops of the cartridges were horizontal and I wonder if some of the differences that you and others hear between the cartridges would be the same if the rake angles were changed?

Changing between two VN35MR styluses in my Shure V15 III cartridge with no other adjustments, I hear a pretty substantial change in sound. I suspect that a slightly different rake angle is the primary reason for this sonic change and that similar effects would also be common with other line contact cartridges.

In posts over the past few years, there seems to be broad agreement that with line contact cartridges, rake angle adjustments make a big difference to the sound. With any particular cartridge, some people seem to prefer the cartridge tipped forward, some prefer it flat and some prefer it tipped back. This may in part be due to personal preference and partially a question of what works best in the particular system. On the other hand it could be that people are actually setting up for the same rake angle but, due to manufacturing tolerances, sometimes have to tip the cartridge slightly forward or back to achieve it.

Getting the “correct” rake angle by eye is more than a little difficult and just using the ear is pretty subjective but I think I read a recent posting suggesting using an old quadraphonic recording and decoder. Presumably on the inner tracks, the rake angle has to be just right to pick up the high frequencies that the decoder depends on.

If you or anyone else with the right set-up is interested in doing it, I suspect a lot of people will be interested in a CD recorded using the same cartridge with “correct”, positive, and negative rake angles. It would be also interesting to get a feel for range of rake angles between different samples of the same stylus and the extent to which rake angle may contribute to the sonic differences you are hearing between cartridges.

To get a handle on the range of adjustment we might be talking about, lets assume a manufacturing tolerance of ± 2°. This would mean that with a 233.2mm tone arm like the SME III, the pivot would potentially have to be raised or lowered by as much as 8mm from the horizontal position to achieve the same rake angle.

Thanks again for your good work.

David Warden


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Topic - John Elison Challenge and Rake Angle (long) - energyandair 22:04:52 06/14/04 (24)


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