A pitch too High!
@atmasphere No worries. Thank you for your help.
@goofyfoot This gets a little confusing as somewhere above in this thread, somebody suggested I keep the counter-weight end 7-9mm above the cartridge. This link was given to me as advice https://www.vandenhul.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Phono_FAQ.pdf Though, I have still kept the tonearm parallel to the record when the stylus is hitting the record. |
terrible, I would say that Vandenhul is probably right but he did state ’in my expeience’ and the likelyhood is that he never had the same problem that you’re experiencing. My cartridge too is in a slightly lower position than the weight on my tonearm. However, if the sound is too shrill, then havng the cartridge a slight bit higher than the weight of the tonearm is the antidote. It shouldn’t be that difficult to determine where your tonearm height is and then adjust it up or down to see what sounds best. If you find that it doesn’t matter and that your cartridge is still sounding shrill, then I’d try turning down the phono amp gain. If that doesn’t work, then I’d load a different cartridge. |
You have no clue about condition of your stylus, you don’t have even a macro lens to check it (but actually you need a microscope to see it), you made claims many times how bad is the sound, your stylus has been used with the wrong tracking force and wrong anti-skating for some time. Every stylus have its life span, your stylus is elliptical and life span is short even at recommended tracking force.
If you are done with adjustment and everything is right then you can finally buy a new Grado stylus (it’s cheap as chips). You can even buy a better stylus from the next model (they are many options).
You even mentioned some new cartridge you want to buy, but actually all you need is a new stylus, not a new cartridge. Grado styli cost something like $150, some models like 8MZ, TLZ and XTZ with advanced profiles are the best and more expensive, but fully compatible with your cartridge body. New stylus from a higher model is a good upgrade for your cartridge. You can use old stylus for experiments (when you learn things how to adjust everything), when you're done and learned some lessons you can add new high quality Grado stylus. |
Spending $150.00 to retip a $250.00 cartridge seems a little nutty to me. Why not just wait and upgrade to a better cartridge? I had the $600.00 Grado and on certain records, it performed well above what one might expect for that price range. I started out with a Prestige and while it was free of listening fatigue, to me it sounded bloated. Audio Technica might be another good option. |
It’s not a re-tip! Leave your re-tip for MC. Re-tip is a drop of glue around new stylus tip on old cantilever (if the origina stylus tip is worn or damaged).
I'm talking about original replacement stylus. With MI/MM cartridges the stylus alone cost more than a cartridge body without stylus. Grado Black with the most expensive Grado XTZ stylus ($450 just for the stylus) will perform not like Grado Black anymore, it’s huge upgrade. There are $70 styli from Grado too, but 8MZ, TLZ and XTZ are the best styli for Grado Glack,Blue,Green... series. |
