Is loud needle talk good or bad?


Ok , somewhere in the resonant chain of cantilever-cartridge body-head, shell-arm, arm base is amplifying the vibration of the cantilever . Causing lots of needle talk. So.. Is loud needle talk good or bad? We are talking of a distance of 2 ft or more.
jebsmith73
not good. (but also not a terrible problem) probably a poor cart/arm combination.
For a simple cheap fix, try a bit of thin cardboard between the headshell and cart. Cut the card to be the same as the cart body top.
this may or may not work but it is a really nearly free attempt to decouple that particular combo.
And tighten the cart only snug, not really tight.
If it works some... then you can try a bit of other stuff to see if you can find a thin flat product which will decouple the cart arm better. a bit of soft vinyl, a bit of rubber... an "O" ring, thin but about the diameter of the top of cart...
Even stuff like 'Blue Tack"a tiny bit IN the underside of the headshell. (but that is less likely to work IMO.)
I have actually used thin piece of Vinyl flooring,between cartridge and headshell ( use it for a shim ) and it works quite well............
The cartridge is a Dynavector XV1S . Graham Phantom II tonearm, Basis Debut turntable. VTF is 1.85g , VTA slightly up in the rear.
It's only a problem if you can hear it over the rest of your system. :-) Relax, enjoy.

And please don't try any of those "fixes" posted earlier with your particluar arm/cart. Well you can try them, but you'll absolutely hate the results.