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Cartridge Loading and Compliance Laws

After reading into various threads concerning cartridge/arm compatibility, then gathering information from various cartridge manufacturers I am left feeling confused with head spinning a bit.... Ok, cart compliance I get, arm and total mass I get, arm/cart compatibility and the whole 8-12 Hz ideal res. freq. range I get. But why on earth then do some phono cartridge mfgs claim their carts are ok to use with med. mass common modern arms when they are in the highish 20-35cu compliance range? Am I missing something??

Ie. Soundsmith, VanDenHul, Ortofon and who knows, maybe more??

From what I gather, below 8Hz is bad and above 12Hz is bad. If one is less ideal than the other, which is worse I wonder, too low res. freq. or too high?
jeremy72
jeremy72 OP
97 posts
 
While daydreaming about carts I'd buy if money were no object, I looked at the spec for a low output mc VDH Colibri and found something which is baffling to me -

Weight (metal body) - 7g

Compliance - 35/mn

"Colibri metal body. Total cartridge weight is 7 gram. Suitable for arms with an effective tone arm mass of 10 gram to 14 gram." According to VDH website.

Now, what I am trying to figure out is how in the world a cart with that soft of a suspension go good with anything but a super super low mass arm.

From what you guys are saying exceptions exist but i am sorry this ones specs just appear too extreme not to be curious about. Excuse my ignorance and far be it from me to second guess mr. VDH but the specs imo beg the question.
jeremy72 OP
97 posts
 
Another thing about that VDH cart which is odd is that its the only low output mc I've seen around with a super soft suspension compliance. The others around are almost the complete opposite - low output mc's with low to med. compliance. 5-15mn weird....eccentric designer maybe? If I am mistaken here please excuse my ignorance and lack of experience. Just trying to get a grip on this stuff.
fleib
1,124 posts
 
Hi Jeremy,
From VDH - Static Compliance: 35 Micron/mN

To estimate arm/cart res use dynamic cu @ 10Hz.
Regards,
jeremy72 OP
97 posts
 
Fleib, thanks but not sure I know what you mean.
fleib
1,124 posts
 
Jeremy,
Static compliance is always higher than dynamic. It's dynamic compliance that is used to estimate arm/cart resonance. The standard used in these calculations is measured at 10Hz. Some Japanese cart manufacturers measure dynamic at 100Hz. Those figures are not directly comparable to 10Hz figures.
Regards,
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