JWM10 with TNT Cartridge help PLEASE

Kehut - Am not a champion of ignoring compliance, am curious though. A lot of times system matching doesn't work out & for a lot of different reasons. Also you are not the first to find a Lyra Helikon to sound a little lean for their ear on their system. Is there a reason to conclude that the lean sound on your system was definetly a compliance issue?
If you have this type of compliance mismatch, is a lean sound the typical sonic flaw or are there other telltales to listen for?

Hi Jeff,

Its true that system matching involves more than cart/ tonearm matching..poor sound can result from any one or combo of factors such as not having a level platform which is so very important with the VPI JMW or any unipivot more so than gimbal or fixed bearing types. Another contributing factor would be under or overdamping of the cart,improper VTF, VTA,Overhang, and lateral Azimuth or tilt of the arm skewed to tilt from true perpendicular

All the above would be concidered fundimental basic parameters we do to set up the cart...so assuming everything is aligned, recommended VTF is set and the parameters are correct..The one factor that cannot be fixed is having a low complianace( very stiff) suspension trying to track in a groove on an arm that is prone or tends by its nature to want to move with the groove tracing itself!

Its like having a stiff suspension car speeding down a bumpy road, and trying to keep contact with the road at all times...same idea with the cart stylus..it cant do its job of tracing the groove perfectly because the the suspension's too stiff and in an arm that wont allow it to keep from crashing into the side walls of the groove..

Now the resulting sound that is heard from all this is typically a bright, thin upper mids and highs and lightweight bass response. Highs tend to sound spitty as well. Sometimes increasing the VTF or downforce can help make it sound a bit less lean..but the problem is still the mismatch and the result is poor sound and accelerated record wear.
This is very much my experience with how this type of mismatch sounds. Hope this helps..

Dougdeacon.. TWL.. or 4Yanks.. if your out there please feel free to add some thoughts here..

Kehut - Have been thinking about your note above.
The Helicon is spec'd at "Compliance: Approx. 12 x 10 x (1/1000000) / dyne at 100 Hz" , haven't found spec's yet on what would be ideal for a jmw10, but I thought the Lyra's spec's were middle of the road & it should tend to be forgiving for most arms?
Other thing, I stold the following from audio asylum;
"Compliance figures given for cartridges don't always tell the whole story. They are usually dynamic compliance at 100Hz, which may have little similarity to compliance at 10Hz resonance. For example, I have a Denon DL-301II, which is specified by Denon to have 13 mm/N compliance at 100Hz. However, this cartridge actually has a static compliance of 35 mm/N and a compliance at resonance of about 26 mm/N. It is really a high compliance moving coil, as is the DL-S1."
Which kind of mirrors a gut feel that a single compliance number was maybe an oversimplification.
Still haven't come to comfortable terms on the issue, my gut tells me that some notes I read about woofer pumping being a potential compliance issue (and sometimes fixable by adding mass to the headshell and rebalancing) might also be on track (no pun intended).
Best Regards

Jeff,

I would tend to agree with you on that single number of dynamic compliance as being perhaps a broad generalization or simplification in absolute terms as the only issue of compatability. But, certainly not one to be ignored as you stated previously.

Intersting to note that indeed the Helikon's Dyn compliance figure of 12 puts it in the area of acceptability and middle ground for use on the JMW...Lyra also recommends mounting the Helikon in a rigid, fixed bearing or linear tracking type tonearm of med. mass. This perhaps lends to suggestion that UniP's are not welcome players for this cart...A sentiment I tend to believe and as others have attested to...

Anyway..I sold my Aries/JMW to return to the more conventional designs once again as there has been much activity on that front and no shortage of many great arms nowadays to try out!..Thanks and happy listening!

Dear radrog: The Sumiko Celebration is a top pmusic performer and at its price a " bargain ": highly recomended over the Benz, ZYX or Shelther.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.