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A pitch too High!

Recently, I damaged the V2 MM cartridge of Clearaudio Concept Wood turntable, so had it changed with a Grado Prestige Blue. The VTF for V2 is 2.2g while Grado blue stands at 1.5g. I took someone’s help to fix this. He even made azimuth adjustments and it sounded fine. But I soon realised that the sound had become thinner, voice being the primary indicator and just before the stylus landed on the record, it skipped back a bit then hit the record. Sometimes the tonearm would skip all the way out of the record, backwards. I called the guy back, and he felt the VTF should be fixed to around 2g to avoid the backward skip. He did so and that problem was licked and it seemed the voice thinning issue had also vanished. But last night, I put on the first pressing of Aretha Franklin Amazing Grace, and all along I found her pitch way higher, it was all too high pitched and uncomfortable. Seemed the bass had gone missing a little. On my Boulder 866, I could immediately hear the difference when the track was played through Roon. It was not as high pitched, thin as it sounded on analogue. I intend to call the guy again but wanted to know from experts here as to what the issue could be.
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Showing 3 responses by millercarbon

millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 

There is no standard for anti-skate because of how it works. Skating forces are generated by drag on a overhung stylus. This is why tangential tracking arms have no side bias. Since they are tangential the only force is in line with the arm and there is zero skating force generated.

Pivoted arms all generate skating forces because of the overhang. The amount of skating force varies constantly depending on how heavily modulated the groove is, how high the tracking force is, and how gracefully the cartridge traces the groove. The Soundmith Strain Gauge for example is famously low moving mass, low wear and a superb tracker. Sure enough I had to reduce anti-skate a lot when going from Koetsu to SG. 

Checking on a blank record is a pretty good starting point. Probably good enough to be one and done. But no one setting is ever perfect all the way across a record. All we can do is play listen adjust, play listen adjust. It is like setting sub levels, after a while you figure out what is a good all-around and then you are done.

I have these same test records. Probably the same tracks are on them. Don't know. Never bothered. Play music. Works just fine.

 

millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 

That test is misleading. You have to watch very closely to be sure the stylus is skating on the vinyl and not following the groove. In your video it is clearly in the lead-out groove. Some test records have a blank side for this. Best is a 45 LP cut on one side only, leaving the other completely blank. 

All this side bias testing seems to me is missing the point. Because if the problem was side bias you would be hearing it from one speaker or the other, or more in one than the other. Like Mike said, right is outside groove wall away from the spindle, left is inside closer. If you are hearing it equally from both channels (or close enough you can't tell) then your side bias (anti-skate) is correct and it is something else.

millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
^^THIS!

just before the stylus landed on the record, it skipped back a bit then hit the record. Sometimes the tonearm would skip all the way out of the record, backwards. 

WTF? Explain. How does it skip BEFORE hitting the record???! Cartridge body hit the record? What do you mean "back a bit"? If it skipped to the outside that indicates excessive anti-skate. Did your setup guru change anti-skate? See above- you need to be doing this yourself in order to understand what is going on!
Sometimes the tonearm would skip all the way out of the record, backwards.
 
Again, "all the way out of the record"? All the way to the outside? Or does "out of the record" mean up, up and away? Is the record warped? What is going on here anyway?
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