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Recent retip(canti also) Dude where did my soundstage width go

I'm trying to not get worked up because it's a huge trade off. I've put 10hours on it so far. Crisper and more detailed. There's some bass on a couple jazz records that I know and that I very thrilled about. But, everything is bunched up between speakers comparably. In anybody's experience will my Grado Reference1 open back up.  I've not done this before and I'm kinda thinking this is the side of my "new" cart that I'm gonna have to learn to live with. I was warned by plenty of researching that it would change and be a different cart but in my optimism I didn't realize a better (boron cantilever/micro ridge stylus) replacing a previously considered lower quality cantilever/stylus would turn out to be disappointing. Thanks

128x128fourwnds
terry9
2,338 posts
 
What kind of lube seems to be personal preference.

OK, back to serious. Can't quite believe that I wrote that stuff without realizing where it would lead - must be older than I thought.

The refinement was presented to me after I tapped a backplate made of 7075 aluminum. Apparently I had not removed all of the cutting oil (which is VERY light), and tightening the screws revealed a new level of control. (Gawd - here we go again!) So any light machine oil should do the trick (and again!!!). But just a really tiny amount - try a little cotton wool to remove the excess - you don't want oil on your records.
fourwnds's avatar
fourwnds OP
277 posts
 
I was thinking about @lewm mentioned about crosstalk and as I was looking at the pins, thinking that maybe there was something back there that might be the culprit, I noticed the right pin wire had broken through the outer sheath and in I fact noticed a stray little wire. A wire only really observable with a magnifying loop. Not a complete seperate on of the whole thing but maybe that's enough to disrupt everything. Gotta be the culprit right?
lewm
13,087 posts
 
Are you looking at one strand of a stranded wire, sticking out from the pin?  That could cause a problem only if it is touching any of the other pins.  If not, just take a fine wire cutter and snip it off. Or fold it so it cannot possibly contact the other pins.  If it was touching the hot pin of the opposite channel, THAT would wipe out your stereo effect and leave you with a narrow soundstage.

Am I correct in surmising that you ARE getting a wider soundstage after adjusting azimuth only in relation to the LP surface, without regard for the Foz?

I apologize for my inability to resist puerile humor, back there up the thread.
fourwnds's avatar
fourwnds OP
277 posts
 
Lewm, it's cool, I'm all about being lighthearted and trying not to take too much too seriously. So anyway, nah it wasn't touching anything(the little wire). And yes I did set Azimuth in relation to surface of an LP.  My thinking about the exposed hot wire and the stray strand was that the minuscule little signal may not be transferring 100% as well as it could be either through some oxidization of wire and/or signal loss from a broken strand. Lastly "wider" at this point is still not as I had it and the more I listen I'm not sure the retip is as successful as I'd previously imagined. But, more time will tell. 

vpi's avatar
vpi
223 posts
 
@fourwnds  We need to go back to basics for a moment.  If you have a respectable cartridge to begin with (which your Grado is, or was) all of the components in that cartridge were designed to work together.  Magnets, coil windings, cantilever, etc.. The designer spent a lot of time choosing the right components that would work well together at a given price point.  Now, you take that cartridge and replace the cantilever with one that was not designed to work with the other component parts.  It won't be the same cartridge.  Even if your replacement cantilever is far more expensive (better) than the one it is replacing, the other cartridge components were not designed to work with it.  
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