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A pitch too High!

Recently, I damaged the V2 MM cartridge of Clearaudio Concept Wood turntable, so had it changed with a Grado Prestige Blue. The VTF for V2 is 2.2g while Grado blue stands at 1.5g. I took someone’s help to fix this. He even made azimuth adjustments and it sounded fine. But I soon realised that the sound had become thinner, voice being the primary indicator and just before the stylus landed on the record, it skipped back a bit then hit the record. Sometimes the tonearm would skip all the way out of the record, backwards. I called the guy back, and he felt the VTF should be fixed to around 2g to avoid the backward skip. He did so and that problem was licked and it seemed the voice thinning issue had also vanished. But last night, I put on the first pressing of Aretha Franklin Amazing Grace, and all along I found her pitch way higher, it was all too high pitched and uncomfortable. Seemed the bass had gone missing a little. On my Boulder 866, I could immediately hear the difference when the track was played through Roon. It was not as high pitched, thin as it sounded on analogue. I intend to call the guy again but wanted to know from experts here as to what the issue could be.
128x128terrible
sandstone
358 posts
 
OP,
Kudos for not letting anyone denigrate your system or level of understanding, especially when they offer no constructive advice in return.  For the record, the $2000 Clearaudio Satisfy tonearm is continuously wired, well designed, highly resolving and far from just an entry level tonearm.

- There are some great suggestions above on how to proceed, esp. on returning to first principles with vtf , etc. 

- If you are at all still concerned about actual pitch, your turntable speed can be easily verified with a free phone app, RPM, and adjusted if needed.

- It seems you were pleased with your previous setup before cartridge problem.  If all else fails, you may need to examine whether this Grado is actually a good fit, or maybe not? 

- If you get to that point, you are probably at the right place for a wealth (flood?) of cartridge upgrade recommendations.


mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
terrible, you have a scale for measuring tracking force. Set it to 1.5 with the counterweight. The anti skate mechanism is magnetic and is that knob to the right of the main bearing. I can't tell by looking at the pictures it it is attracting or repelling the tonearm. The instructions will tell you that. You adjust that knob so that the arm drifts very slowly towards the spindle when you place it between grooves in the run out area. 

The cartridge has a suspension like a car. If you bottom out a cars suspension you get a very rough ride. As the suspension compresses beyond a certain point the suspension gets stiffer and it's resonance frequency rises. When a manufacturer gives you a tracking force range what he is telling you is that is the force the cartridges suspension works best at. Don't argue! I usually put might right in the middle.
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rauliruegas
13,060 posts
 
Dear @sandstone  : I'm not denigrating nothing but posting facts. Do you know about Boulder electronics? I know in deep and know not only its price and that Grado cartridge is an entry level mated with non entry level system. Facts are facts. I don't accept that cartridge not even by free.

Kudos to you by your low knowledge levels, at least what you showed in this thread and other threads.

As I said : to each his own.

R.
terrible's avatar
terrible OP
44 posts
 
@mijostyn I know how to set VTF, I even have the scale. Where it gets a little complicated for me is the anti-skating adjustment on a Clearaudio Concept turntable. Unlike say an SME tonearm where it is a knob within the contraption, antiskating in Concept is under the turntable which if I am not mistaken requires an allen key to adjust. And it does not have numbers and I don't know which side to turn it. Just scared I'll screw it up. And Clearaudio does not recomend anyone other than their authorised folks mess with this. I am reading up on VTA and have even ordered the HiFi news test LP.

Thank you for explaining cartridge suspension.

@sandstone Just downloaded the app. Going to use it soon.

Thank you all for the help. I am starting on it, to the extent I can.
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
It is unlikely you will damage the arm. With a stylus cover on and the lift arm raised. Turn the adjustment all the way in one direction. With the table level get a sense of how the arm wants to drift backwards. With the anti skate off it will not drift at all. Now turn the adjustment all the way in the other direction. Do not force. Get a sense again what the tonearm wants to do. With the anti skate all the way up the arm will want to drift vigorously backwards. Now you know which direction is "on" and "off."
You set your anti skate as I mentioned above. Look for videos on how to set up your arm. It is highly unusual for a company to make setting up an arm so difficult as we tend to change cartridges at least once in a while. 
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