I have been looking at a Titanium and Carbon Fiber headshell. I think one is 19gm vs 12gm. The ML has published compliance and weight, but I can't find published figures for the Technics magnesium arm? Anyone have suggestions as to best way forward when looking for a headshell?
Don’t bother. The titanium headshell is probably too heavy, if it really weighs 19 g or more. I’m not sure you would benefit even from changing the original headshell, but if you feel like experimenting, I would go with the carbon fiber headshell largely because of lower weight. You realize probably that a spec about the weight of the cartridge that the tonearm can handle does not tell you anything about the effective mass of the tonearm. Anyway, I am sure you’ll be just fine with either the stock head shell or a carbon fiber headshell.
Yes, the titanium headshell and Hana ML are at the upper limit of possible combinations that are possible, but not necessarily ideal. I've asked Technics about the mass, but don't expect an answer.
I never say anything is the "best" (at least not in our hobby), but I like the LP Gear Zupreme headshells. I have used them with my Hana SL on my old Technics SL 1200 MK2. They come in 10 and 12 gram versions and have an easy to use azimuth adjustment.
I’ve been looking at the DS Audio & PhaseMation head shells which are made of Duralumin. Supposably their the most ridged H/S on the market. This would be for my 1200 MK with the GAE tonearm.
I don’t remember where I came up with the number, but according to my spreadsheet, I listed the 1200G arm with a 12g effective mass. That puts it low on the spectrum. The stock headshell is very light. After using the 12g number and calculating all of my carts, I found that the resonant frequencies were within tolerance for all but the heaviest of headshell / cart combos. I use the ML with a version of the Zupreme mentioned above. There are several sellers of the same piece. No issues. I think that headshell is listed around 10g, but in practice it’s a bit more. I looked at the Titanium too - I thought it would be too heavy.
I have a bunch of the original Jelco magnesium headshells (LP Gear equivalent) and have compared them to carbon fiber headshells. The CF had cleaner, better delineated bass but diminished highs with slightly less dynamics. Overall, I stuck with the magnesium.
If you look at the math, there is really quite a bit of leeway in effective mass and compliance that will give you a resonant frequency that falls within the typical range of 8 to 12Hz. And anyone who has done vinyl for a long time with a variety of cartridges and tonearms will tell you that you can get away with a slightly lower lower limit (lower than 8Hz, that is). The first reason is that the Fr is dependent upon the square root of the effective mass times the compliance. Taking the square root has the effect of blunting differences. (To understand what I mean, go on line and use one of the Fr calculators. Plug in some extreme values for M and C and note how relatively little that affects the results.) The second reason is that one really does not know and cannot easily know true accurate values for M and C for YOUR tonearm and YOUR cartridge, unless you empirically determine C and go through an arduous calculation for M, instead of using numbers given to us by the various manufacturers, which are average values at best. (I don't think every cartridge X has exactly the compliance that its manufacturer tells us it has, even out of the box, but especially if it is vintage or well used.) So, in the end, "just try it" is a good rule of thumb.
I have read that the technics arm was tested to have a 9g effective mass.
the stock headshell has a lighter mass than most if not all aftermarket head shells, something i have found valuable trying to match cartridges.
another plus for the stock headshell is that it has a low cartridge mounting surface. most aftermarket headshells have a higher cartridge mounting surface. this could prevent setting a level cartridge and proper VTA because the arm height adjuster runs out of travel resulting in too much tail up.
this would mean using a much thicker mat or cartridge shims.
OK, I thought we were talking about the SL 1200G. I bought my 1200G shortly
after they came out. I did the research and the consensus was that the tonearm
mass was 12g. I found this information from several sources. I don't have the
time now to do the research again.
Also, the article above refers to the 1200GR. My understanding is that the
GR has an aluminum tonearm versus magnesium for the 1200G.
Think of it this way: square root of 9 is 3. Square root of 12 is ~3.4. So the difference between 9g and 12g is not going to affect the calculation of Fr by much.
Should have noted that when you multiply effective mass times compliance and take the square root, keeping compliance constant, then the ratio of the result with a 9g vs 12g effective mass is even less different than the square roots of the two numbers 12 and 9 would suggest.
As regards the SL1200G or GR tonearm(s), if the headshell weighs 7.6g, which is light as headshells go, then the total effective mass of the tonearm in question would very likely be greater than 9g, it seems to me. More like 12g.
The tested effective mass of the GR tonearm is the best actual data I have seen for this spec and the G arm should be very close to this number.
Effective mass as spec'd for tonearms is a qualification of its inertia or resistance to motion, not the weight of the arm wand. The most influential properties that affect the inertia are headshell mass (same for G and GR), distance from headshell to pivot (same), counterweight mass (same) and distance from counterweight to pivot (same). Bearing friction is also a factor and assumed to be the same.
The Gs arm wand is made of magnesium which is lighter than aluminum but again not much of a factor in calculating effective mass. The EM of the GR and G should be nearly identical.
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