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Cartridge Mounting Hardware

I recently upgraded my tonearm to the Clearaudio Universal. This is a great arm and worth tweaking and experimenting a bit to get the best out of it. My cartridge – Concerto V2 (7 gr.) – came with several sets of cartridge mounting bolts: 5 mm nylon and aluminum flathead screws, and 8 mm stainless hex bolts. No nuts since my cartridge is tapped for the bolt threads. For years I've been using stainless bolts. With those I use a 49 gr. stainless counterweight and it sits nearly as close as it can go to the fulcrum when VTA is dialed in. When I play the Hi Fi News test record the resonant frequency of the arm is more or less at ~10 Hz as far as I can tell.

Conventional wisdom – AFAIK – says that's all good. 

I recently saw a Clearaudio photo of my arm with another one of their cartridges in the line (also 7 gr.) and it's mounted with the nylon screws. That got me to thinking about trying it, and maybe trying the aluminum ones too. With the nylon screws I can no longer use the 49 gr. stainless counterweight, and have to change to the aluminum 31.5 gr. counterweight, but that sits farther out away from the tonearm fulcrum (although it looks cooler, IMO). I'm trying that now. With the test record the tonearm resonant frequency is still right around 10 Hz. I'm playing music now and don't notice a difference, but my aural memory for such things sucks, so I have to live with it for a bit, and then revert to see how I feel. This weekend I'll play some records I use to test out setup changes and see if I hear anything for better or worse.

So that makes me wonder what others know and experience about cartridge mounting hardware (and techniques). What's your wisdom on the matter?
dwette

Showing 3 responses by millercarbon

millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
I sometimes wonder, do people bother reading any more? Or is it why bother, when reading in (ie, just making stuff up) is so much more fun?

Oh well, the words are still there, for anyone who cares to bother to try and understand their literal meaning.

As for the rest, while nothing like what I said, nevertheless is worth discussing. Of course these things matter. Of course they affect the sound. I say that not because I've done the comparisons in this particular instance, but because I have done the comparisons in enough other instances to know there is ALWAYS a difference. 

Unfortunately, this blows out of the water the whole idea of following torque setting guidelines! Because, if torque makes a difference to sound then obviously the correct way to tighten is by ear.

Think it through. 

Yes he is full of it. QED.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Fremer with a cheap torque wrench? As if. No, it was as high-end spendy as everything else in his lair. And read what I wrote again. He didn't trust it. He was TOLD to trust it. And so, dutifully following instructions, he destroyed a very valuable cartridge.

The Linn engineer is talking his own book. That's being polite. Torque values do not come from cartridge makers. Torque values come from engineers. Torque values have nothing to do with sound. Torque settings are derived entirely to be tight enough to not come loose while also not breaking or overly stretching the bolt. At no point does how it sounds enter the picture. There are torque tables for every gauge and diameter and quality of metal. There are no torque tables for cartridge model. The Linnie is full of it.

btw I have the Porsche, and the spendy torque wrench, and being a PCA Instructor have seen plenty of cheap torque wrenches being waved around at the track. They all work just fine.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Listen to Michael Fremers story about destroying a many thousand dollar cartridge with a torque wrench. He has never overtightened and only did so because he was told to trust the wrench. My hands and his are far more reliable. YTMV.

I've swapped parts out like this before. Stainless usually sounds the best.
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