Dear lewm: I have a direct culprit because years ago I spread everywhere that we can use any kind of tonearm effective mass with light-weight/high compliance cartridges. That the resonance frequency values between the effective mass tonearm and cartridge compliance were not critical.
That kind of statements were a big MISTAKE/ERROR that I had it by some kind of self " ignorance ".
I posted several times in the long MM thread and other threads about. As a fact way before FR came ( in this specific subject ) to this forum I posted that using my heavy mass SAEC tonearms and other similar EM ( including FR ones. ) tonearms the cartridges I mounted on them performs very good and through these kind of experiences I spread my mistake.
Suddenly I experienced what means and how sounds the IMD when I added to my audio system my active subwoofers and left out/off from my main speakers the frequency range: 80hz and down ( any one can read about here: page 1 in my longest post " Dear friends ":
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/do-you-think-you-need-a-subwoofer ).
Now always exist the bass frequency intermodulation distortion and you can read about here:
https://books.google.com.mx/books?id=L38MrvScG3gC&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=low+frequency+reso...
read specifically on tonearm/cartridge resonance.
So, right now I really care that in my tonearm/cartridge combinations I can stay inside the " ideal " resonance frequency range: 8hz-12hz, but even here we have those bass/subsonic modulations.
If we are out of that resonance frequency range the distortion levels goes higher and this is what I was hearing over several years. Today I still have distortions but at low levels.
So we have to take in count that kind of BID before decide which tonearm or headshell weight we are using it.
That BID is an additional kind of distortion that we can’t avoid 100%.
Through the years some tonearm designers/manufacturers were/are trying to have better ways/mechanisms to design a better DAMPED tonearms. I don’t know if they are aware of that additional kind of " problem " or are not.
That BID is other form of generated distortions that we have to avoid and one way to do it is not buy or use NON DAMPED or NOT WELL DAMPED tonearms: ANY.
That we can like those kind ( and other ) of distortions is not the subject and only can tell us that we are wrong in what we like.
Lewm, you can use almost any well damped tonearm with any cartridge if the combination is inside that " ideal " resonance frequency.
One problem with the tonearm specs about effective mass is that the manufacturers just give the EM value with out any sign of where the tonearm counterweight should be positioned for that EM can be meeted.
Btw, independt of all that acomplish with that resonance frequency value and when we are outside we are not helping the cartridge ride on the LP grooves and we can exite subsonics bass frequencies that make that the cartridge " jumps " at micro levels in a higher level that's normal way of tracking and in extreme cases even we can see how the tonearm/cartridge jumps over the LP. I had only one time this extreme experience and I can't remember with what cartridge/tonearm or LP track.
Regards and enjoy the music,
R.
That kind of statements were a big MISTAKE/ERROR that I had it by some kind of self " ignorance ".
I posted several times in the long MM thread and other threads about. As a fact way before FR came ( in this specific subject ) to this forum I posted that using my heavy mass SAEC tonearms and other similar EM ( including FR ones. ) tonearms the cartridges I mounted on them performs very good and through these kind of experiences I spread my mistake.
Suddenly I experienced what means and how sounds the IMD when I added to my audio system my active subwoofers and left out/off from my main speakers the frequency range: 80hz and down ( any one can read about here: page 1 in my longest post " Dear friends ":
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/do-you-think-you-need-a-subwoofer ).
Now always exist the bass frequency intermodulation distortion and you can read about here:
https://books.google.com.mx/books?id=L38MrvScG3gC&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=low+frequency+reso...
read specifically on tonearm/cartridge resonance.
So, right now I really care that in my tonearm/cartridge combinations I can stay inside the " ideal " resonance frequency range: 8hz-12hz, but even here we have those bass/subsonic modulations.
If we are out of that resonance frequency range the distortion levels goes higher and this is what I was hearing over several years. Today I still have distortions but at low levels.
So we have to take in count that kind of BID before decide which tonearm or headshell weight we are using it.
That BID is an additional kind of distortion that we can’t avoid 100%.
Through the years some tonearm designers/manufacturers were/are trying to have better ways/mechanisms to design a better DAMPED tonearms. I don’t know if they are aware of that additional kind of " problem " or are not.
That BID is other form of generated distortions that we have to avoid and one way to do it is not buy or use NON DAMPED or NOT WELL DAMPED tonearms: ANY.
That we can like those kind ( and other ) of distortions is not the subject and only can tell us that we are wrong in what we like.
Lewm, you can use almost any well damped tonearm with any cartridge if the combination is inside that " ideal " resonance frequency.
One problem with the tonearm specs about effective mass is that the manufacturers just give the EM value with out any sign of where the tonearm counterweight should be positioned for that EM can be meeted.
Btw, independt of all that acomplish with that resonance frequency value and when we are outside we are not helping the cartridge ride on the LP grooves and we can exite subsonics bass frequencies that make that the cartridge " jumps " at micro levels in a higher level that's normal way of tracking and in extreme cases even we can see how the tonearm/cartridge jumps over the LP. I had only one time this extreme experience and I can't remember with what cartridge/tonearm or LP track.
Regards and enjoy the music,
R.