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Overhang for Ortofon 2M Bronze on Rega RB301

I just purchased an Ortofon 2M Bronze cartridge and am a bit puzzled about the overhang setting. The people I purchased the cartridge from said they set the cartridge so the front of the cartridge is flush with the front of the headshell. When I checked this with the Rega cartridge alignment protractor it shows the cartridge should be roughly 2 millimeters further back in the headshell. I listened both ways and thought the setting where the front of the cartridge was flush with the front of the headshell sounded the best. The other thing I was wondering about was the tracking force; Ortofon advised from 1.4 to 1.7 grams. I initially tried it at 1.5 grams and then 1.7 grams (as recommended by the people I bought the cartridge from). Surprisingly I like it at 1.4 grams. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
bobgates
bobgates OP
535 posts
 
Thank you Ekobesky and Onetwothreego for your thoughts on antiskate. I guess another way to set antiskate is to pick a record where you know a singer or instument is right in the center of the soundstage. If the antiskate is too weak the singer or instrument will be more on the left channel and if it is too strong the singer or instrument will be more on the right channel. I've also noticed with too little antiskate there seems to be a lack of air or ambience on better recordings. Thank you again for sharing you ideas on this topic.
onetwothreego
54 posts
 
So Bobgates, how is the Ortofon 2M Bronze working out? I don't know if I'm that crazy about the Shibata stylus in the Black and if I get a 2M it might just be the Bronze. How have you found it?
ekobesky
259 posts
 
01-24-09: Onetwothreego
From what I understand, drag/friction of the stylus in an actual groove is about 1.4 times higher than that produced by a blank record. Using the blank record as a "jumping point", once the stylus stops moving he could increase anti-skate by a factor of 1.4 times its current setting to get something that should work on an actual record.

I'll have to give this a try. With so many divergent opinions on antiskating, ranging from "it does more harm than good" to those in favor of one method or another, I tend to just do what the tonearm manufacturer recommends. In the case of Rega, I just set the antiskating to equal the tracking force and pray that I picked the right religion. Of course, just as with that debate, you won't know if you were right until it's too late to do anything about it!

By the way...I haven't heard the 2M Bronze or Black but I love the Blue. I tend to agree with your guess that the Bronze is probably the sweet spot and that's probably the way I'll go sooner or later.
bobgates OP
535 posts
 
Ekobesky - that is really interesting and makes a lot of sense. I had set the tracking force at 1.55 grams and, using the blank record, had set the antiskate at around 1.1, so if you take that times 1.4 you have 1.54 which would imply that the antiskate be set the same as the tracking force. Thank you for passing that on.
ekobesky
259 posts
 
I just noticed while setting up my 2M Blue that there's a little round dot in the top of the cartridge that sits right where the third screw in a Rega cartridge would be. If you align that dot with the center hole in the headshell, you're almost home free. It's a great feature for "roughing in" the position of the cartridge before tweaking with help from an two-point overhang gauge.
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