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Off center (not bent!) stylus?

Relative newbie here - just looking for some thoughts / experiences from all you resident experts. 

I have been buying used carts for my vintage setup exclusively. It certainly seems like every stylus is not perfectly parallel with the cantilever and always seems to lean ever so slightly to one side or another. Seems like new ones can be like this too. So I assume a bit of a lean is normal / not an issue.

My question is, is there a limit to this? Can a more extremely off center stylus cause problems in sound quality / record damage? Could it be a sign that the stylus / cantilever assembly is about to fail? Or is it more a matter of if you don’t hear anything wrong don’t sweat it.

Here are some pics of what I’m talking about:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2m9FhU9VumD6uss6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/kMLyfhba4pFxKMGJ7

Again I don’t see any visible bend or kink in the stylus. The stylus itself is straight but i comes out of the cantilever at an angle. 

Any experiences (positive, negative or neutral) with this? 

Thanks in advance!

Hauie
hauie88
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
I have nearly all top Pickering cartridges including your model, nice cartridge, but you must find a new replacement stylus, your cartridge is damaged, this is NOT normal! 
hauie88 OP
23 posts
 
@chakster you mean the stylus / cantilever is damaged not the cartridge, right? And in your experience how do replacement styluses affect performance on this cartridge? (btw I got this cart on your recommendation from a separate thread so thanks!)

Lastly same question I had before - what types of sound issues should I hear if this is in fact damaged like you and @mijostyn are saying? Imbalance between channels? Distorted / overly bright sound? Bad bass reproduction? Skipping?
hauie88 OP
23 posts
 
@millercarbon based on your (and Peter Lederman's) description of the physics at work here, it seems to me that the cartridge is the far more important factor in sound quality - would you agree with that? What percentage would you put on that? Like 75% cartridge / 25% stylus? Or something more balanced?
ebm
9,311 posts
 
Buy a good new cartridge not used junk.
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
@chakster you mean the stylus / cantilever is damaged not the cartridge, right? And in your experience how do replacement styluses affect performance on this cartridge? (btw I got this cart on your recommendation from a separate thread so thanks!)

This model, but not this cart to be correct.

Stylus and cantilever is the most important, your cantilever is off and I’m not sure how can you align it, some people on audiogon are crazy about alignment even a new cartridge, but your cartridge cantilever is damaged.

Since it’s not an MC you can replace the stylus assembly yourself, you need a genuine Pickering stylus (very hard to find,  and cost as much as the new cartridge or close).


Expert Stylus Company in UK can fix your damaged cartridge, they are specialized in Stanton / Pickering repair.

As I said many times on this forum it make sense to buy ONLY NOS or gentry used cartridges in perfect condition when it comes to those gems from the 70’s.
It seems like the seller rip you off (or, if it was too cheap, now you know why).
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