Shure V15VxMR to be discontinued

Norm: Clean your records one time very thoroughly, put them in high grade bags and then brush them off with each play. As far as cartridges and TT's go, align the cartridge and arm, set the proper tracking weight and be done with it. Maybe you'll have to adjust VTA once in a while, but good arms do this "on the fly", so no big deal.

For those "lower quality, higher error rate" designs that use pivoted arms, you'll have to do all of the above AND try and find a suitable anti-skate adjustment. Given that this will change over the curvature of the disc, good luck.

Other than that, did you ever think that all of the mistracking / stylus drag / dirt in the grooves is probably what has caused the various distortions that you make mention of and others complain about? Then again, what else can one expect out of a design that can only be "theoretically correct" a maximum of two times across an entire disc? Believe me, those problems are NOT from using a "reasonable" tracking force on a properly aligned arm / cartridge on a clean disc. Sean
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Hi Sean,

you 'jumped a groove' on me because I was just thinking about which cartridge is best for practical vinyl enthusiasts, and what to do when Shure quits selling the beryllium cantilever cartridges. You are describing some things about angular tonearms vs. linear tracking tonearms.

Well a guy could buy that Pioneer linear tracker but that will cost you, plus the maintenance. It also has to 'be your style'. I always liked the classic "S" arm just for everyday usage that is. The cartridge is where I want it. I never got into using a knob to electronically place the arm, but obviously some folks are into that. Yes the error on a pivoted tonearm is about 2 degrees I heard, and its correct only at 2 points as you said. It really depends on the shape of the needle. That 2 degree error has to be absorbed by the stylus tip. I've got every respect for linear motion tonearms. Maybe somebody should make a longer "S" arm (make it 2 feet long). I think antiskate adjustments work OK, they assert the outward force on the cartridge so that its not being dragged radially inwards by the pivoted arm configuration.

Back to cartridges, regardless of whether you use a pivoted tonearm or a linear tonearm, you need a cartridge that tracks lightly and accelerates quickly, so that forces between the diamond and the vinyl are low. You also don't ever want to lose contact with the vinyl, for that is fatal.

I have a really high respect for the old 'trackability' concept of Shure Bros., and haven't seen anything do a better job at avoiding record wear. The very lightweight stylus & cantilever allows lower tracking forces. The good tip shape is the cat's meow (the microridge stylus) and I am baffled why a high-end Grado would sport an "elliptical" stylus. Back to my main point-of-view, what do I care if the beryllium tube flexes a little, provided that the cartridge has the quality of not wearing out the records, esp. on the dense inner grooves.

Yes, I brush the records thoroughly. I use the high-grade bags which used to be called "DVRP" and they are still available new (discwasher valuable record protector). Yes, I set track force and antiskate once, I set to 1.0 gram , and would have a hard time sleeping at night if I had to switch to a $1000 cartridge that wanted 1.8 grams.

Question, is there anybody you can trust who can do an honest inspection of a needle? I think if you go to a dealer, they'll say "yup you need a new one" because they want to sell product.

Thx,

- Norm

analogee@gte.net...Before the days of mag tape, radio stations used to use 16 inch records to prerecord programs. Some audiophiles used these turntables. The long pickup arm was a plus.

Norm: You can use a simple microscope for viewing your own stylus. After all, if you can look at paramecium using one of these things, you can surely see a small hunk of diamond with one.

As far as record cleaning goes, i'm talking about a REAL "deep cleaning" and then general maintenance after that. By deep cleaning, one would use cleaning solvents that are scrubbed into the grooves, removal of the offending solvents and grunge via vacuum removal and then a thorough rinsing using distilled / highly purified water with further vacuum removal. While this may sound like a lot of work, you only have to do it ONE time per disc and that's about it.

As far as linear tracking tables go, i wasn't referring to a Pioneer as being "high end" ( although i have several Pioneer tables ). My personal preference runs more along the lines of a Clearaudio Tangential TQ-I or Eminent Technology type arm mounted on a good table. This is not to say that a product such as a Pioneer PL-1000 or PL-800 can't play records and make music, but that it may not offer the last bit of refinement and detail that an admittedly more expensive combo of gear is capable of. Like anything else in this world, you have to pay to play. How much one wants to pay is directly related to how much one can play.

As far as flexing of the canilever goes, you are talking about distorting the amplitude and duration of each micro-vibration in a groove. A sloppy cantilever is equivalent to a car with bad shocks. Not only is the effectiveness of the suspension highly compromised, "road holding" power is also reduced. As such, a stiffer cantilever not only improves linearity by reducing distortion, it can also improve trackability IF the rest of the system is up to snuff. Sean
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Sean...Your remarks about "deep cleaning" are interesting. Are your methods capable of removing some of the dirty lyrics?