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Electronic stylus force gauge question

I recently bought my first electronic stylus force gauge. It's a generic type made in China, but looks and feels a surprisingly decent quality. It was purchased from Mehran at SoraSound for those who happen to have it.

I noticed that when I try to measure the VTF, the gauge begins to display a minus reading of -0.01-03 g as I'm lowering the tonearm to place the stylus on the black dot. It then displays a steady reading once the stylus is placed on the dot, which appears to be accurate by comparing with the Shure gauge I used in the past.

I make sure that the platter is secured so I'm not quite sure why the gauge displays the minus reading before the stylus lands in the measuring spot.

Has anyone else experienced this with their electronic gauge? I realize the minus value is arguably negligible, and the issue might be of no practical significance, but I'm trying to get my Delos to track as close to 1.75 as possible so I wonder whether I need to adjust for the minus value. I'm also curious why this is happening.

actusreus
theo's avatar
theo
2,680 posts
 
It may just be the way that scale reflects the change of adding weight to the scale surface. I would say that as long as it provides an accurate reading once it locks onto a weight, go with it. By the way I have a Kleos and have it set to 1.75 and sounds great, I have tried 1.70 and 1.80 as indicated the extremes of the suggested range by Lyra and the 1.75 works fine. I agree with you that the suspension system employed by the Delos and Kleos make the VTF crucial to optimum performance. How ever some may dis-agree, you only yourself to please.
mofimadness's avatar
mofimadness
4,982 posts
 
You might try to unplug the table from AC power and unplug the tonearm cable, (and ground wire) from your preamp/phono stage. This will isolate the table.

Seems to me that you are getting some type of an electrical interference from either the tonearm wires or the coils in the cartridge. See if this solves your problem. Worth a try.
philb7777
401 posts
 
I've actually had this happen before with a digital scale - probably the same one you are talking about that has the same cosemetic design as several sold by Acoustech, Audio Additives and Pro-ject among others.

Believe it or not, the darn thing would not only register weight as the cart apporached the scale, but would fluctuate in its readings by 0.1-0.2 grams each time I weighed the cart without change of the VTF.

I changed the batteries in the scale and presto - everything was fixed. I think if the batteries in the scale are not fully charged, you can start to see funny things happen to this scale. Wish there was a better digital scale that didn't cost $200 or more.
actusreus OP
733 posts
 
Thanks for the input, guys. I will try unplugging and replacing the batteries. I agree with Phil that it's a shame quality digital scales sell for so much. In addition, the design of some of the expensive scales such as Clearaudio (Mapleshade seem to have the same design with a lip for placing the stylus at record level) is not very practical with the Classic platter (and I suspect many other platters) because of the slight "cutout" in the platter for the label. I tried the Clearaudio scale and it was very awkward to use as I had to angle it on the platter to have it stable and perfectly level. That in turn made placing the stylus on the lip quite tricky. $250 is a lot of money for a scale that needs five minutes of setting up to take a measurement.
sunnyboy1956's avatar
sunnyboy1956
424 posts
 
I have also had poor experience with those generic scales that sell under various brand names. I now use a Ortofon scale approx SGD 130 or so. It has a lip that extends beyond the platter so you are measuring pretty close to the right spot. Only downside is that it doesn't go beyond 0.1gm.I am supposed to track my Lyra Atlas at 1.72gm. So I measure to 1.70gm and then fine tune by ear.
Have ordered a relatively inexpensive scale from dx.com. You need some kind of makeshift stand to get it level with the platter.Hopefully it will work
Cheers
Pradeep
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