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Rega planar 8/Apheta : Tiny needle arm collapsing on itself

Hi,
It took me a good few weeks to finally be able to extract the enormous potential of my new Planar 8 on my system. Today a Hifi news setup LP arrived in the mail in perfect virgin condition and 10 seconds after I played it I heard a silent crack sound followed by an eerie silence. I looked at the Apheta and realized that the tiny arm holding the needle is twisted sideways.
There was no hit, scratch or any violent motion that could explain how it happened. I listen to LPs for almost 40 years and I never had such an experience.
My biggest fear now is that this is not covered by the warranty :-(

 

triskadecaphobic
middlemass
919 posts
 

Not going to help your problem but "tiny arm holding the needle" is the greatest synonym for a cantilever... Ever. Congrats.

 

 

 

jasonbourne52's avatar
jasonbourne52
2,863 posts
 

Cantilever tie-back wire broke. It is repairable. Rega should cover it under warranty. Send the cartridge back to Rega.

triskadecaphobic OP
81 posts
 

I just played the same Hi-Fi news test LP on a 50$ TT and the same thing happened. The record is a TT killer.

jcoehler's avatar
jcoehler
230 posts
 

I recall you had an earlier thread started about anti-skate setting. I'm wondering if you've torqued your anti-skate setting so much that when it encounters one of the test LP toruture tracks it's causing this issue? Happening on two separate turntables is very odd. 

And you're positive there are no blemishes on the actual LP?

triskadecaphobic OP
81 posts
 

Antiskating was set to 0.5 and right left balance was ok.

Using a stereoscope I was able to picture the broken tip of the Apheta inside the groove. Can anybody explain the copper wires. Is the diamond tip connected to any copper wire?

 

 

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