Hardy cartridge


Being a klutz, I keep destroying the stylus on my ADC XLM II. It is in a low mass Magnepan Unitrac in my 'B' system.
Thinking about all the abuse DJs give their styli. Is there anything rugged but decent sounding of highish compliance I might want?
Classical and Jazz.
fstein

Showing 2 responses by mijostyn

@fstein, You have a very light tonearm. The specs just give you an idea if you are reasonably close. You have to use a test record with vertical and horizontal resonance tracks. These are usually very easy to use. First you get lateral resonance right by adding weight until you get the resonance down to 8-10 Hz. If it is already there you do not have to add anything. If it is lower you have a problem because removing weight is much harder. Usually, I go to lighter screws, either shorter or aluminum. Once you have the horizontal sorted you look at the vertical. Vertical resonance is affected by tracking force, add more and the suspension gets stiffer and the resonance frequency goes up. Add less and stiffness drops to a point and resonance goes down. I usually start at the highest recommended tracking force and work my way down. I just set up a Soundsmith Voice. Once the horizontal resonance was down to 8 Hz the vertical was up at 12-14 Hz, too darn high. Dropping the VTF by 0.2 grams brought it down to 10-12 hz which is where I left it. VTF is a pleasing 1.5 grams. It only took me 20 minutes.

IMHO this is more important than VTA. This will determine how well your tonearm follows warps, how well the cartridge tracks and how detailed your bass is. 

Yes, the Grado will work but you may have to add a little weight to the head shell. There are also the high compliance Soundsmith models. 
The Grado is probably more abuse proof. 
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