Tonearm/Cartridge pairing.


Hello to everybody.

My turntable’s tonearm has a mass of 15.6 g (cane + head shell). My cartridge weighs 6.9 g. If I calculate the effective mass of the tonearm the way the maker did (arm’s mass with head shell + cart + tracking force) I get a global 24.5 g mass. The arm + shell mass is 15.5 (15.6 actually); the head shell weighs 10.1g.

My cartridge’s static compliance is rated 20mm/N (I ignore whether it’s @10Hz or 100Hz).

Will someone more experienced than I am please tell me if the cart and the tonearm are suited to each other statically? My cart (Goldring E3) did fine on a friend’s turntable (rega P2) but seems a little ill at ease on mine (Technics SL-1510, ca. 1978).

Opinions welcome,

Thanks
M.

martinguitars

Showing 2 responses by mijostyn

@martinguitars , Never assume the settings on a pre calibrated arm are accurate. Always measure. Same holds for specifications which is why a test record (HiFi News Analog Test Record) is so important. Never assume. Measure!

The bearings on a tonearm can get pretty bad before you can notice it by feel. There is no easy way to tell if they are OK. The WallySkater is the only way I know of and it is $250. 

Compliance is listed in um/mN. The Goldring is British and measures compliance at 10 Hz. 20 um/mN @ 10 Hz would be a medium compliance cartridge and should be OK in your arm if it is operating correctly and the bearings are in decent shape. The only real way to know what is going on would be to get a test record and measure the resonance frequencies.