High Compliance Cartridge With Low/Med Mass Tone Arm


I am using an Art 9xi with a SL 1200G turntable.
Dyn Compliance on the cartridge is 25 after converting from 
the Japanese standard. Tonearm mass with stock headshell is 12 grams.
The stock headshell is the lightest I can find.

Using the Vinyl Engine Cartridge Resonance Evaluator, the 
resonant frequency comes in at the middle of the 7Hz yellow area.

I know this is not Ideal.
Question: what should I be listening for to determine if this is not 
a good match? What negative sound characteristics would be
apparent? 

Thanks for any input.  

 

 

 

ericsch

What Raul said was also my point. The manufacturer of the cartridge may publish a single data point for compliance. That does not guarantee that every single one of those cartridges is exactly the same as to compliance. Likewise, there are a lot of independent variables that affect effective mass, like the weight of the screws and nuts you use, the weight of the headshell, and I personally am never sure what the manufacturer of the tonearm means when he quotes effective mass for his tonearm, because he cannot know what cartridge is to be mounted or account for headshell substitutions, or for the fact that the distance of the center of mass of the counterweight from the pivot, needed to apply correct VTF also has a large effect on effective mass, etc. I use those published numbers as a very rough guide only. Plus, I have grossly violated the rules governing resonant frequency without problems, though I try not to these days.

Thanks for all the responses. I had a feeling that the cartridge compliance specs could vary. I have a Shure trackability test record from the 80's that I will try. If not helpful, I will get a modern test record.

Another worthwhile point…what are your speakers?  Vented speakers are highly sensitive to inputs below their cutoff frequency…sealed boxes self-damp in that range.  Record warps can cause gross distortion with a too compliant cartridge with   some speakers.  Higher order alignments are more susceptible. Solutions?  High pass filter in phono preamp, viscous damping in tonearm.  The latter is not really an option with your Technics, so if you have fluttering woofers, an HPF will help, a steeper filter than the IEC 1st order.  Even a somewhat less compliant cart would not eliminate this problem entirely…if you have it.