To be honest, doesn't everyone use a digital scale nowadays rather than trust a knob and markings? BTW, even though VTF is by spring, you can zero out dynamic force and apply static force with the weight only.
SME V service manual/parts list
I had no problem finding these for an SME 3009 S2, but SME V?
My google-fu is weak. I can't find a single page or image anywhere.
Anyone throw me a bone here?
I just bought an SME V and the VTF knob isn't calibrated. 1.5 gm is really 1.75-ish. Yeah, I'm sure I could send it back for R&R, but I figure there's a set screw somewhere and don't really want to go poking at it just yet without having a schematic.
Plus, I like having as much information as possible on my stuff.
Thanks.
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I think that’s about right. The digital scales are So much better than the old beam-balance devices in general. Ortofon makes a digital for around $120 that is accurate to about 0.001gm - 1 mg - (IIRC, there are several cheaper digitals that boast this level of sensitivity), I’m not sure the difference is audible or at all significant, the two beams I have I’ve compared at lower numbers and they’re about equal. A thirty dollar SME scale with a 1.5 gm upper limit and a plastic Ortofon scale (free with $2875 cartridge or $15 from Amazon) both as accurate with visual interpolation as a $20 Amazon digital scale. But that $3,000 tonearm has a dial that SAYS 1.75gm, which actually weights about 15% more (off the top of my head). One would think a simple mechanical spring gadget would have an easy fix, a calibration mechanism, which leads back to my original question. It’s my professional nature to worry about small details like this, and an academic question I find interesting at its core. I recall a story - many say apocryphal - about some poor sod who was summarily let go from a job at Rolls Royce auto when he used the expression “good enough.”
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@normb Can't argue with you about small details. I'm in that unforgiving business too where it either works or it doesn't. |
Here's a suggestion - what about reverse calibrating the dial - Set the VTF to 1.75g using the dial. Now adjust the counterweight so that the VTF is actually 1.75g at the stylus tip - using your scales. Now check 1.5g & 2.0g using the dial and scales to see if it is accurate enough to rely on. Personally I prefer to set VTF with a combination of static and dynamic VTF. A ratio of 2:1 works very well - for example if you want 1.5g tracking force - set static downforce using counterweight to 1.0g and then spring force of 0.5g to bring it up to 1.5g. This is recommended by Grado after conducting tests - and JCarr also has found a mix of static & dynamic to be optimum.
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