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Practicality of reversing frequency response curve of phono cartridge / stylus

Burning question regarding phono cartridges and wondering how much this has been explored: 

How practical would it be to measure a phono cartridge's frequency response with a test record and then correct it with a digital signal processor to be ruler-flat, much like Genelec's GLM system does with a room? Does anyone offer a product that would do this? It seems that rather than spend thousands on a fancy cartridge, one could get by with an average cartridge and correct it with some rather simple processing (?)

My future plans are to use a CEDAR Cambridge processing system to archive the best examples I can find of early jazz music, and I'm forced by the nature of the records and the cartridges available to use a Shure V-15 VX with aftermarket 78-specific stylii, so I'm thinking it might be possible to correct for some of the imperfections of the cartridge if I have a baseline.

 

mke246

Showing 1 response by atmasphere

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,088 posts
 

Having said all that good phono cartridges are relatively flat.

Actually any magnetic or moving coil cartridge is known as a constant velocity device, which is to say that their output doubles with doubling the speed at which the stylus vibrates. So they have a rising 6dB/octave response. However you are correct in the response is a pretty straight line alone that 6dB/octave rise.

The RIAA curve is meant to compensate that as well as reduce high frequency noise on the LP surface. The RIAA curve has a step in it, which causes the actual equalization to be a bit of a wavy curve. This might be a bit tricky to set up in DSP.

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