Stylus force digital scales

I made something similar out of two pieces of acrylic and a long bolt to use with a lab style full size top loader. Works great.

Although a bit pricey, you might consider checking out this
Ortofon gauge. It puts the stylus at lp height and its flat measuring surface works well with cartridges with very short cantelevers like my Transfiguration. Good luck.

I used the Shure for decades, but earlier this year purchased the Ortofon. Seemingly good build quality and very easy to use. My only criticism is that the platform doesn't have any markings to indicate the center point.

The Ortofon confirmed that the Shure is more than adequate for the job as far as accuracy goes. This makes the Ortofon more of a luxury item as opposed to an essential accessory.

Ortofon gauge looks nice but it's basically a standard digital scale with an alloy platform adapter/extension. You can buy a good digital scale that's (probably) more durable with better button layout and easily make your own platform adapter/extension for a third of the price.

It won't say "Ortofon" though. :-)

I'm using a DIY platform extension with a Dynavector 17D3, which also has a very short cantilever and the setup works great.

Regards,
Tom

PS: I'm not intending to "dis" the Ortofon gauge; I'm sure it works well for measuring VTF. But the original question was "Why cant I use one of these [inexpensive digital gauges] instead and save big bucks?" The answer: You can.

Johntracy and Dinster,

My apologies for not making a long post even longer to thorough explain how magnetic attraction:
1) may increase the downforce recorded by a scale, and;
2) will increae the compression of cantilever and suspension beyond the downforce applied by the tonearm.

Tom,

Thanks for adding the details... bingo.

BTW, my scale is also a My Weigh. Bought it 10+ years ago and it's as good as new... and just as accurate as Ebm's $300 Winds, lol.


P