Telarc 1812 revisited

That Telarc is analogous to a trick...it has no relevance to real music on a real record. If your cartridge/arm can track it fine, if not so what. Its the music that counts.

Fair point Stringreen. Last night I played my old Columbia recording of the 1812. The Valley Forge Military Academy band and cannon made my poor wife jump out of her groove. ;-) And that was no trick.

Bifwynne: There are three different versions of the Telarc 1812 that I am aware of, and they are cut differently. The original version was cut by Stan Ricker and has "SR" engraved in the deadwax (groove leadout area). The second version, cut by Bruce Leek, can be identified by a "BL" engraved in the deadwax. It is less hot than the "SR" version. Bruce Leek cut one more version, which doesn't have any initials engraved in the deadwax. This the hottest of all (grin).

In contrast, the hottest any abnormal LP will max out at is about 100µm. By "abnormal", I mean a really extreme 12-inch dance single, probably 45rpm.

According to Stan, the "SR" version of the Telarc 1812 has a maximum groove level of 455µm - 4.5 times the level of any other "extreme" LP. I don't know how much hotter the unsigned version is.

I am surprised that Raul managed to get the Akiva (which I designed) to play cleanly through whichever pressing of the Telarc 1812 cannons that he has. Since I know how far the Telarc 1812 is outside of any normal (or even extreme) LP, it has never been my goal to track it.

The "New Angle" generation of Lyras - Delos, Kleos, Atlas, and now Etna, have a more linear suspension system than the two-generations-older Akiva - and with more equal compliance in the horizontal and vertical directions. That said, for a Kleos, I would consider 60µm tracking ability to be barely passable, 70µm normal, 80µm better than normal, anything higher would be unusually good.

Keep in mind that, in addition to all of the normal setup requirements like perfect leveling, optimum anti-skating, ambient temperature, relative humidity etc., the tonearm effective mass will alter the tracking ability, so expect that you will need to put in some trial-and-error work on your tonearm before achieving the maximum tracking ability that your Kleos is capable of.

The tracking limits of a cartridge also depend on age - it increases as the suspension limbers up through usage, but as the stylus wears, it starts to fall again. And if anything happens to the impair the flexibility of the suspension (the reason could be as simple as excess dirt build-up in the cantilever and coil area), tracking will be worse.

hth, jonathan carr

JCarr....you mention the proper application of Anti-Skate in your 10/11 post....Do you say that to increase the tracking ability, or to provide the maximum audio ability of the cartridge? I personally find that a/s acts much as a damping factor does, and actually inhibits the ultimate sound ability of the cart..

Stringreen: To increase the tracking ability on difficult passages. Since skating forces are dependent on tonearm geometry (they are not constant across the LP) as well as instantaneous groove modulation (the heavier the groove modulation, the bigger the skating force), unless you use an electronic servo-controlled tonearm, there will be no single, optimal setting.

And since normally there is no single, optimal setting, you will need to find the "best" setting empirically.

I agree that for normal listening rather than circus stunts, to error on the side of less anti-skating rather than more, usually gives better sound.

hth, jonathan carr