Hello Flyingred, hi Raul,
As this might be of interest to you and other Schröder owners, I'd like to give a little advice on how to tighten up the bass and/or add bottom end "authority". I gladly agree that, if not perfectly adjusted("tweaked"), bass tightness and punch might not be up to the rest of the spectrum.
Try the following: Adjust the gap between the magnets until you've reached maximum topend "air" and extension without loosing the focus of individual instruments yet(no more than 0.5mm in my experience). Now tighten the counterweight grubscrew incrementally which will get you a tighter bass. Too tight and the midrange purity will suffer a tad. Now if you find the image too "tightfisted"(foreshortened decays), slightly reduce the torque on the screw that holds the headshell plate. This should result in a further improved rendition of the recording venue's accoustic.
Finally go back to the VTA and gap setting(smaller gap:tighter bass, less bloom). Make sure that for every change in the gap you alter the VTA setting accordingly.
The finetuning of the tracking force should follow lastly, but since the optimum setting is temperature dependent you might want to recheck every three months or so(to some extent true for all carts regardless of the arm in use).
In some cases(cartridges with little inherent cantilever suspension damping) the addition of a drop of silicon damping fluid(wiped off onto the bearing thread so it can "travel" down into the well) will yield a tighter bass. Too much silicon and the rendition of microdynamic differences will suffer(usually not recommended).
And a final note about the wiring. Those customers ordering the arm with the thin solid core wire should know( and I'm telling my dealers to relay that message) that it takes a long time(2-3months, 2hours playtime a day) for this wiring to break in. At first it will sound too thin! So give it a little time, once broken in, the bottom end will not sound undernourished, highs will be pure(not sweet as in sugary), then again, it's what you're hearing, not what I'm telling you to hear, that matters...
Have fun guys,
Frank
As this might be of interest to you and other Schröder owners, I'd like to give a little advice on how to tighten up the bass and/or add bottom end "authority". I gladly agree that, if not perfectly adjusted("tweaked"), bass tightness and punch might not be up to the rest of the spectrum.
Try the following: Adjust the gap between the magnets until you've reached maximum topend "air" and extension without loosing the focus of individual instruments yet(no more than 0.5mm in my experience). Now tighten the counterweight grubscrew incrementally which will get you a tighter bass. Too tight and the midrange purity will suffer a tad. Now if you find the image too "tightfisted"(foreshortened decays), slightly reduce the torque on the screw that holds the headshell plate. This should result in a further improved rendition of the recording venue's accoustic.
Finally go back to the VTA and gap setting(smaller gap:tighter bass, less bloom). Make sure that for every change in the gap you alter the VTA setting accordingly.
The finetuning of the tracking force should follow lastly, but since the optimum setting is temperature dependent you might want to recheck every three months or so(to some extent true for all carts regardless of the arm in use).
In some cases(cartridges with little inherent cantilever suspension damping) the addition of a drop of silicon damping fluid(wiped off onto the bearing thread so it can "travel" down into the well) will yield a tighter bass. Too much silicon and the rendition of microdynamic differences will suffer(usually not recommended).
And a final note about the wiring. Those customers ordering the arm with the thin solid core wire should know( and I'm telling my dealers to relay that message) that it takes a long time(2-3months, 2hours playtime a day) for this wiring to break in. At first it will sound too thin! So give it a little time, once broken in, the bottom end will not sound undernourished, highs will be pure(not sweet as in sugary), then again, it's what you're hearing, not what I'm telling you to hear, that matters...
Have fun guys,
Frank
