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Torture test for a TT rig!

I have less than 200 hours on my Miyajima Shalabi. Triplanar arm, Woodsong Garrard 301.
I am actually hoping that it is a compliance mismatch cart and arm.
Just playing 1812 Overture on the cannons the arm jumped off the record and the sound stopped for an instant!
Sure seems like the cart is not tracking.
At least I now have a torture test!
And I am getting “clipping-like” distortion. Especially on the fuller tones of a singer.
Cartridge/Arm mismatch? Is compliance the only or main issue?
My VTA is right.
mglik

Showing 3 responses by atmasphere

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,088 posts
 
Nice that increasing the tracking pressure solved it :)

This is entire off topic, but that cartridge is pretty low compliance, suggesting that its designed for a high mass arm. Perhaps the Fidelity Research? Its nice that the Triplanar will work with it regardless.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,088 posts
 
Well, last time I checked, the VTA was 2.1g. The recommended is 2.3. Just checked it now, it was down to 1.9!Set it right the 2.3 and the full vocal is almost all better.
@mglik  If I'm reading this right, it appears that you might have 'VTA' confused with 'Tracking force'. VTA stands for Vertical Tracking Angle and is measured in degrees. Its often conflated with SRA (Stylus Rake Angle) although the two are a bit different.

If you were referring to your tracking pressure in the above quote, try 3grams- I think you'll find it gets better.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,088 posts
 
If the cartridge isn't set to track heavily enough, this could explain everything that's been described.


I would consider also using multiple weights supplied with the Triplanar rather than the one larger weight, so as to move some of the mass further back from the pivot. This would have the effect of increasing the effective mass of the arm, allowing it to work better with a low compliance cartridge.
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