Home Vinyl Asylum

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

Re: Mounting dimensions for Ittok - any one got them?

Actually I got a funny "No Output" message when I tried to read the Linn FAQ!

If the distortion is only at the inner grooves I would question the set-up. Was the cartridge properly aligned, and is the anti-skating right, how about tracking force?. For Baerwald geometry the maximum distortion occurs at groove radii of 60.325mm 85.383mm and 120.90mm, so you should about the same level of distortion at these points, and the lowest level of distortion at 66.04mm and 120.9mm.

I've been trying to see if I can hear the difference in tracking distortion by switching from Baerwald to Löfgren alignment over the last week, but nothing detected yet.

I have a couple of very difficult records (a Chopin Polonaise on Decca is the worst) and I also use a Sony test record with a 300Hz signal cut at 0dB 6dB 12dB 15dB 18dB and 21dB - I believe the HiFi News test record goes to 18dB.

Unbelievably, I got one cartridge (a Shure VST-V) to play the 21dB track cleanly, but only by increasing the tracking force by 0.2g, and using a very high anti-skating - without this the record spat the stylus out!)

Unfortunately this didn't alleviate the tracking difficulties on the Chopin test record (the mother of all tests!). Moreover setting high anti-skating actually made the distortion worse on that record, so I returned to "setting on anti-skating dial ~ tracking force" method

The only cartridge which plays all of my "difficult to track" records is the Shure V15-VxMR. Using the normal settings it can play up to the 18dB track on the test record also. The Shure V15-VxMR is the best tracker I have found. But the sound is a little dead. However Siegfried reported very good results with a Thorens TP50 tonearm and the Shure V15-VxMR, and I have seen some very good reviews of this cartridge.

In summary I believe that miss-tracking is a problem which effects piano music the most, and there is no easy way to cure it, except by much experimentation and expenditure!

Best Regards,

Brian.




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


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups
  • Re: Mounting dimensions for Ittok - any one got them? - bkearns 12/12/0016:17:54 12/12/00 (1)


You can not post to an archived thread.