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Ikeda 9 Cartridge Squeaking

This is an odd issue I have never been able to figure out the last few months. I have an Ikeda 9 Kawami cartridge on a Well Tempered Reference table, with the longer WTR arm. There are a few albums by Mark Isham on Windham Hill label that this cartridge has a high pitched squeak or rubbing sound in the groove. I can hear it and it drives me nuts! Yet on other albums such as George Winston on the same label there is none of this nonsense. 

Overhang is set by an arc protractor with spindle to pivot being 233 degrees. I have not found a factory listed number for this arm, but an owner of a Wally Tractor had one done for his table and reported the 233 mm number. I used an original Feikert and measured 230 mm from the first setting that the previous owner had it at when I obtained this table.  I cannot find a factory protractor for this table, and all the info from Stanalog or Transparent seems to be missing. I am tempted to pull the cartridge off this arm and put it on my Audiomods Series Six with a heavy cartridge plate and see what happens there. But I would prefer to keep the cartridge on this table, but for the life of me I am not sure what the issue is. 

There is nothing on the net regarding this phenomenon that I have found. Anyone experience this, or hear about it? Since the cartridge is similar to a London Decca design, perhaps an owner of those cartridges may have heard something?
neonknight
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
meanwhile, if Audio Technica, or Grado called an elliptical 'special ellipse', hmmmm

Joseph Grado made his best with so called Twin Tip.

Ikeda made his LOMC for Fidelity-Research with Refined Contact type tip. 

Special Elliptical is probably Hyper Elliptical.

But what is Special Oval ? :)) 

I'm lost in translation (from Japanese).



nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Dear chakster, you are not lost in translation but in advertising. 
However Japanese translations of Japanese in English are
indescribable. 
neonknight OP
392 posts
 

Since I started this thread I eventually moved the Ikeda over to a Dynavector DV505 arm that is on a Scheu turntable I have. The cartridge performed well, and had no tracking issues at all, with a balanced sound and low noise floor. 

However, since I am not the original owner of the cartridge, I had no idea of the hours on it or the condition of the diamond. I figured it would be a good idea to get it serviced and have a known starting point. 

There are very few places that will service this cartridge. However Expert Stylus has confirmed that they have experience with it. So a week ago I sent it off to Expert along with an Ortofon MC2000. This morning I got confirmation from the company that my package has been received, and to expect the results of the inspection in about a week. 

At least from this juncture things seem to be going well. Good communication, and no issues with shipping from the US to the UK. 

au_lait
339 posts
 

Old thread I know, sorry, but did you have a good experience with Expert Stylus and how is the Ikeda performing now?

dogberry
655 posts
 

I think I'm correct in remembering Expert Stylus used to service Decca cartridges, but only by sending them on to John Wright. Perhaps that's what they did with the Ikeda too.

BTW, back all the way to the OP: I have heard Decca cartridges make noises on slightly warped records, as they have very little clearance and occasionally the rear of the cartridge body can touch against a warped disk.

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