Interesting. These low mass clips, are they crimped? Or soldered?
If soldered, how much net mass difference is there after accounting for the solder?
If you're gonna split hairs, split hairs! |
The low mass clips are pretty standard compared to the silver clips I mentioned. |
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Curious question based on ''essentialist world view''. One can state
in general that the most are worthless. The best are ''Clearaudio''
but pretty expensive. Aka : meant for the best cart/headshell combo.
Mitchel ''silver kind'' are similar but ''softer'' qua grip. Also pretty
expensive. So while we have ''endless'' choice of cables we hardly
have choice for clips. Despite all the stories about importance of
signal path.
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Some direct questions can distract from even more important
questions. I mean the problem of tonerarms with fast headshells.
Those are probably made for masochist. By each cart change,
not to speak about broken clips, one will ask himself : my God
why deed I not buy an arm with removable headshell? Well my
consolation is that one need only 4 of those Clearaudio clips.
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Hi,
regarding only material i would go with gold, silver or rhodium plated as they do not corrode over time compared to brass or copper. Soldering strength and construction is a different issue as is wire purity. |
I could imagine that the less flexible, stiffer headshell wires may vibrate more than Litz types. Likewise, slightly loose clips may resonate causing distortion. I’d like to try a single strand of pure silver wire wrapped in silk. Better construction -even if slighty heavier- should give you a better result.
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Gold and silver are to soft for clips. That is why the most are made
from gold -or silver plated bronze. Clearaudio's are machined from
Rhodium and than gold-platted. All headshell wire are isolated
so hardly resonate.
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Copper clips are unlikely to be pure copper. Also especially silver clips are very unlikely to be pure silver, because both of these metals would be a poor choice for maintaining a tight grip on the cartridge pins. Most cartridge clips are problematic, but their weight or mass makes such a trivial difference that I have never even thought about this as a problem. Why do you bring it up? |
I have one clip that's lost it''s retention (I believe it's partially broken) and was inquiring as I consider replacing one or all. |
I can suppose no reason why a "low mass" clip would improve sound (rather the opposite).I like the Mitchell clips better than the Cardas. See if you can stick a round toothpick in the loose clip and squeeze carefully with small pliers to regain tension.
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I did that several times, hence I believe it's broken. |
Thanks to all who responded. I have some JA Mitchell silvers’ on a wire loom I made for my ET 2.5 years ago. I may remove them and replace to my 3d arm. Years ago, in searching for the shortest length clips I ran across the Clearaudio clips. I bought them purposefully to use with my Acutex 420 STR on my tt project, as the pins protrude at a steep upward angle making the normal length clips impossible to use and feel good about it. |
slaw&oldears, for those who never owned Mitchell clips will be
difficult to understand what you are talking about. Using an thing
and talking about or describing the thing are different issues.
Because Mitchell clips are made from silver which is an soft
material one can't get ''tension'' back by ''squeezing'' its ''legs''.
The tension is lost by using different carts with different pin's
dimensions. The added problem is the difference of ''thickness''
by headshell pins and cart pins. It is a shame that there are
no standards for such basic dimensions. For such expensive
items one should not need ''toothpick'' as fixing ''instrument''.
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I knew an audio tech who soldered the headshell wires directly to the pins of a Linn Asak. Amazingly, it worked and didn't destroy it.
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