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The Arm/Cartridge Matching Myth

When I began my journey in high-end audio 36 years ago….no-one ever wrote about arm and cartridge matching nor tonearm resonant frequency…?
Over the last 10 years or so…this topic has become not only ubiquitous, but has mutated beyond its definition, to THE guiding principle of matching cartridge to tonearm….❓❗️😵
The Resonant Frequency can be calculated using a complex formula relating Tonearm Effective Mass to the cartridge’s Compliance….or it can be simply measured using a Test record of various frequency sweeps.
The RECOMMENDED Resonant Frequency of any tonearm/cartridge combination is between 8-12Hz.
But WHY is this the recommended frequency and WHAT does it really mean…?

The raison d’etre of this Resonant Frequency…is to avoid WARPED records inducing ‘resonance’ into the tonearm…..
Say what…❓😵
WARPED records….❓❗️
Yes…..ONLY warped records❗️😎
But doesn’t it have any meaning for NORMAL records…❓
None whatsoever…..😊👍
Let me explain….🎼

A badly warped record induces the tonearm to rise and fall rapidly on the ‘sprung’ cantilever of the cartridge.
Depending on the severity and frequency of this warping…..a subsonic frequency between 2-5Hz is induced so if your tonearm/cartridge Resonant Frequency dips into this frequency range….it will begin resonating and thus miss-track and/or induce hum through your system.🎤
Keeping the lower limits of your tonearm/cartridge Resonant Frequency to 8Hz simply insures against this possibility.🎶

So what about the 12Hz upper limit…❓
This simply insures against the possibility of any ultra low-level frequency information which MAY be on the record, also inducing this same miss-tracking or hum. For instance if your tonearm/cartridge Resonant Frequency was 18Hz and you had an organ record or one containing synthesised bass going down to 16Hz…..your tonearm may miss-track or you MAY develop a hum❓😢

So how many badly WARPED record do you possess…❓
I have three out of a thousand or so……and have NEVER experienced miss-tracking or hum even on these three…❗️😍

Yet these days….everyone (without exception it seems)…even tonearm and cartridge designers….happily follow the dictum of this Arm/Cartridge MATCH as if it affected sound quality…..❓
This Resonant Frequency has ZERO affect on the sound quality of a particular tonearm/cartridge combination and I have proved it hundreds of times with a dozen different arms and over 40 cartridges.

The best match for ANY cartridge ever made….is simply the very best tonearm you can afford…whatever its Effective Mass…😘
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lewm
13,168 posts
 
My dear mother was an opera singer. When I was a medium size child, she had a very close friend who was a refugee from Nazi Germany and an opera singer as well, Wagnerian type, maybe a mezzo soprano. The two of them would often sing operatic duets whilst my mom played the piano in our living room. Our 50s vintage home had very large "thermopane" (double glass) bay windows. Believe me, those windows audibly rattled when the two of them got into it during a crescendo. I was always frightened that the windows would shatter at any moment. They probably did not shatter only because there were two panes with an air space in between them.

Harold, I don't think VTF has anything to do with tonearm effective mass. The effective mass does not change with changing VTF. I've got to side with Halcro on the FR66S; that is one high mass tonearm for sure.
harold-not-the-barrel
895 posts
 
Fleib, Great ! That link works.

Luckily our Luckydog is a scientist and listens vinyl. My hat off to him as well.
I have measured the effective mass of my SME III for SHURE´s topdog (excuse the clumsy expression) at 1.2 g VTF and yes, this formula gives 4.3-5.6 g depending on the weight of the counterweight ass´y (I can´t remember it precisely) but the value is as I was expecting. Increasing VTF to 1.5 g (with JICO/SAS stylus) it gives 4.2-5.5 g. Fine !

It would very interesting hear what Stephen Hawking would think of and this hobby of ours, wouldn´t it. I can´t email him ´cos I haven´t his address :/

I tought my URLs work as they generally have worked so far... Or maybe we live in paraller universes and the wormhole connecting our worlds is getting weaker...
This may very well be my last message. If so, I wish best of times and hope we will solve this mystery sooner or later.

The answer, however may be quite different for both of us because our universes have different laws of nature and thus our psychics are different, more or less ;_)
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halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
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howardalex
64 posts
 
I’ve just bought an old Shure V15 111 with elliptical stylus; an impulse £150 buy off eBay based completely on an old Stereophile review. Obviously a total risk as it could have been totally knackered, but also because my arm is a Fidelity Research FR 66s, a very high mass arm which I got because I have several Koetsus, SPU’s, FR7s Denon 103 s and a (Decca) London Reference cartridge. So the chances of getting a decent sound appeared small...
It came in a Jelco headshell. It needed a good clean but looked good under eyeglass and aligned on my Brinkmann Balance very easily using Brinkmanm alignment tool.
I set VTF at 1.25 gm and first ran the Hi Fi News cartridge lateral and vertical resonance tests. It didn’t actually resonate at any frequency detected on these tests (no idea if that’s good or bad !).
I then left the world of theory and measured tests and actually played some records.
All I can say is that while there may be some improvement possible in another tonearm (who can say there won’t be without trying) what I am hearing is quite astonishing at any price let alone £150, so my penny’s worth is that what the technical specs and calculations say is not necessarily going to be an issue in real listening mode.
This Shure is amazing and I haven’t even started fussing over VTA etc. Given that I’m lucky enough to have a Koetsu Jade with diamond cantilever and London Reference both in Arche headshells and the fanciest silver headshell wires and the Shure is in a  basic headshell with wires from the 1920s it’s even more surprising how good the Shure is. I’m going to try it in the Arche and then really get OCD about VTA and see what happens.

lewm
13,168 posts
 
The problem with your conclusion based on your observations is that you can have no idea what the actual compliance of your Shure cartridge is at this point in time. By now, it may be a low compliance cartridge which is actually a fairly good match for the FR 66S. I have very successfully mated an Acutex cartridge with my FR 64S, and the combination works beautifully, but the Acutex is 40 years old at this point and probably no longer exhibits its original super high compliance. So all I can say is it works, but I think that is weak evidence for throwing out the customs related to tonearm matching. On the other hand, I am all for trying things out in my own system before disavowing them.
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