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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
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Terrible, take a deep breath and relax. It is not that hard. Turning tha antiskating control one way increases anti skating pulling the arm more strongly away from the platter's spindle. Turn it the other way and the pull is less strong. Turning the adjustment all the way in one direction will pull the arm very strongly away from the spindle the other way not strong at all although it might not turn it off all the way. You set your tracking force 1st then adjust the anti skating control so that the arm drifts very slowly towards the spindle when you put it down between grooves in the run out area. If you have a record with a blank side even better. You can also do what Chak mentions and get a test record although some disagree with this method. Anti skating is so ambiguous it is really a ballpark measurement. The general felling is less is better than more. The slow drift method is championed by Peter Ledermann of Soundsmith and Frank Schroder the tonearm designer. 

As for cartridges, the Goldring 1042 and Audio Technica VM750SH would be my choices.
terrible's avatar
terrible OP
44 posts
 

@mijostyn Thanks for the recommendation of cartridges. Next month I am planning to pull the trigger on SME 12A. Maybe I'll use the Goldring 1042 with that.

I am going to take care of the Concept VTF and AS on Sunday. Hopefully I'll get it right.

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 

Terrible, if you have problems I will be around all weekend. I can download the manual for that table. You can do it with just a little patience.

The SME is a fine turntable and with the Goldring will be exceptional. 

 

chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 

If you need a proper turntable with VTA on the fly, detachable headshell on magnesium tonearm...  look for brand new Technics SL1200G (or cheaper GR model) and don’t get the advice from a person who listens to his records with dust cover on :)

 

terrible's avatar
terrible OP
44 posts
 

@mijostyn So I did as suggested. It took counterclockwise two turns and one-fourth to reach the correct AS for 1.5g. Less was making the tonearm go out of the record and more made it travel towards the spindle. I might have damaged the record too as I don't have a blank record. However, while the cartridge tracked fine, I found that there was discomforting distortion on highs. The same song through Roon played pleasantly well. I again checked the RPM, it was very close to 33.33. The VTF was 1.5 and thereabouts. I did not mess with it further and left it as is. What do I need to do to correct this distortion on highs?

@chakster I am unable to figure the distributor for Technics in India. The problem with the dealers and distributors here is they seldom are able to provide quality after-sales. They just about sell the turntable, they have no clue about things we are discussing here. One of the big reasons I have opted for SME is because the guys who sell it here are also the owners of SME. It'll help in getting help on turntable issues.

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