Trans Temp W, Magic Diamond cartridges - comments

My V will be delivered on Tuesday. I plan to start with VTA alignment by ignoring the body and taper of the armtube. Concentrating on the angle the stylus is at when VTF is at 1.9gm. I have the ability to infinitely adujust VTA with my set-up. From there, I'll spin the tunes and not be too picky until break-in occurs. I tend to prefer minimal cartridge loading. In my case, the phonostage I'm using allows 22k and down. My experience with loading down MC's has not been very positive.

RE: cartridge loading and stylus rake angle:

Maybe the reason some of you are getting seemingly better response with the cartridge/arm at a negative angle is because that would compensate for the kind of non-linear response created when the cartridge load is set way too high (like 47K ohms)

The recommended load for the W is >9 ohms (>3 ohms for a V)
so I think it behooves one to start at the lower end of the scale and work one's way up. I tried 30 ohms (the lowest preset on my preamp) and the response was great in terms of information retrieval, but not much focus, no "sparkle" and bass was a little "wooley." A friend who tried 50 ohms said that 50 ohms wasn't quite enough either, and that I should try a little bit higher setting. Well, my next two higher presets are 100 ohms and 825 ohms. I had already tried 825 ohms when I installed the Temper W because that's where the preamp had been set for my vdH Frog. But that had sounded very bright and lacked bass and body. So this time I only went up to the 100 ohm setting, and it was magic -- HOWEVER -- please bear in mind that all this was with the arm/cartridge parallel to the record, meaning the stylus was raked back (from the side it looks like it's leaning forward) the standard 1+ degree or so that the cutter heads are set for.

Groove undulations not only wiggle from side to side, they also angle forward, because a cutter head has to point backward (at 1 degree) like a chisel, so the wax cuttings will fly away as it's making the goove. If you have a spherical or elliptical stylus, it doesn't matter a lot if the stylus is vertical, or leaning a little forward or backward, because it fits in the groove more or less the same (inaccurate) way in all three cases. BUT, with the new generation of micro-ridge styli, vdH being one of the first in the early 1990's, (if not THE first) it's a whole 'nother matter. These styli are chisel or "spade" shaped, almost like the cutter head itself. If they sit vertically in the groove (or -yikes!- tilted backward) then their sharp side edges actually scrape over, or "clip" the tops of the forward-slanting groove undulations! Paradoxically, even "mis-set" that way, they still sound better than conventional (old-type) styli because their very tip (at the bottom of the groove) can still "see" information that elliptical styli miss.

To extract all the information in the groove, these new styli must "see" the groove from top to bottom, and the only way they can do that is if they can lock into the groove by leaning forward at exactly the same angle as the cutter head.

Now, one can go on and on expounding on the vagaries of different systems and components and tubes and rooms ad nauseum -- however, there are certain scientifically proven mechanical and electronic rules that must apply "across the board" regardless of the equipment or the room. I have just described a couple of them.

Happy listening.

Nsgarch,are you tellig Transfiguration owners that,when the cartridge instructions indicate one should view the stylus tip as "leaning slightly back",when viewed from the side,that the stylus is actually leaning forward,with the tip angling towards the rear?Wouldn't the instructions have said,"tip raked back",as this would then more closely follow your choice.I'm asking,not questioning.In my case I have the arm leaning back(cart. body too),because I understood the instructions to mean tip backward slightly,as lowering the body towards rear!

Temper 'v' is in the house, arrived today! Took me about two hours to set-up and dial in. Already listened and the first thing that I noticed is LOW groove noise. This is one one quiet in the groove transducer. The next thing that is readily apparent is the lack of grain, grit, glare, gross colorations and frequency imbalance. I also hear precise db balance between channels. Given the vinyl is encoded, the bass goes deep with a high level of control and damping. That tiny stylus at the end of the cantilever will point straight down at the vinyl of your arm is tilted back at all. I heard some etch that way. Just kept lowering VTA until the stylus did indeed point backwards. To my eye this is when the flat undernearth of the cartridge body is level with the record surface. Even looks like it might be a fraction of a mm nose down. I would like to add that on paper the Temper is a perfect match for the RB1000. With my pair of ported speakers that are flat to 28hz, I have no woofer pumping problems that haunted me in the past. Also, I am noticing that this MC sounds good out of the box. A first in my experience. I just hope that the top end stays open(highs) and the Temper will not be subject to frequent need of de-magnetizing.

Reb, I want to respond to your post first, (because it's easy :~) First of all congratulations! I agree with all the wonderful things you discovered as you began using this little gem -- especially the lack of noise and grain.(What is your preamp load setting and anti skate setting?)

Second, please, PLEASE, don't even think about demagnetizing it! I don't know what son of Satan started that idea, but just think about it for a moment:

1.) Only ferrous (iron-bearing) materials can become magnetized.

2.) They haven't used ferrous formers on which to wind the coils in MC cartridges for years -- so that just leaves the pole pieces (in conventional designs like vdH), and you wouldn't want to demagnetize them or you'd ruin the cartridge!

3.) The coil former (the little square or cross-shaped thing the coils are wound on) in the Transfiguration is made of this snazzy new SS mu metal which is totally impervious to magnetism, so it can't get magnetized in the first place.

4.) The other parts: boron, diamond, and copper also cannot become magnetized. So what the hell are we talking about here?!

5.) On the other hand, the innovative Transfiguration design employs double "ring magnets" -- literally magnetic rings fore and aft of the coils which sit right inside of them. If you apply an AC demagnetizing current to the coils, you will weaken the ring magnets and reduce the sensitivity of your cartridge.

DON'T DO IT! You have absolutely nothing to gain and a whole lot to lose!

If you want to "tune-up" or "break-in" the coil wires, get the Cardas sweep record and leave the cartridge over night tracking the "locked" white noise groove. It won't hurt the cartridge, and the record is, as stated, made with a particularly hard vinyl for just that purpose. I did it for a couple nights and my Transfig was ready to go in no time.

I'm going to leave another post later for Speedy in which I'll attempt to explain this whole "stylus rake" thing and how to do a "reference setup" from which you can experiment, but always return to if desired.

Neil