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Best Counterweight Position?

Some might say "At the opposite end from the head shell" :-)

But how can you be sure if the position that gives you the correct stylus pressure is the best position for your cartridge?

What I recently discovered on my setup is the further back I placed the weight the more lateral resistance was applied to the cartridge, changing the sound for the better.

To accomplish this required me to change the effective mass of the tone arm - several times.

One very simple way to accomplish this was to remove a piece of the outer cable insulation from a thick mains cable. Making a cut down the length of the sleeve allowed me to place it on the arm near the cartridge and the sleeve gripped the arm without allowing any movement.

I then proceeded to recalibrate the tracking force by repositioning the weight more towards the rear of the arm - away from the pivot point

The first attempt made the sound bloated and displayed some nasty effects, so I simply cut off a piece of the Insulation and recalibrated the tracking force.

Once the best sound is achieved you can then make the adjustment permanent by adding a headshell weight that results in the counterweight being placed in the same distance from the pivot point of the arm.

The head shell weight I started with matched the weight of the insulation and then did some fine tuning to get the weight into the correct position.

Now, there are some that will point out that this will change the effective mass of the arm and may upset the delicate balance of tone arm/cartridge compliance matching.

Well, that is true if the cartridge is matched "exactly" to the tone arm, fact is there is most always a fair bit of latitude in this area, allowing for some room for improvement.

If you are of the belief that the effective mass of the arm should not be changed, then, using a lighter counter balance weight will allow you to place it further back.

In my case I have a Rega RB250 and a Denon DL103, which is not "the best" match, but by adding some mass to the tone arm this cartridge really performs extremely well and brought the compliance/tone arm match closer to the recommended settings.

Yes, the compliance match is one reason for the better sound, but getting the counter weight further from the pivot point also made the DL103 perform much better IMHO :-)

What improvements did I notice - much smoother reproduction in the high frequencies, more texture in the bass frequencies, improved imaging and bigger sound.

Cost - just some of my time and the headshell weight, about $10.

Something to try on those cold winter nights :-)
williewonka
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rauliruegas
13,064 posts
 
Dear Williewonka: IMHO what you are hearing as a better/improved sound is more because you changed the cartridge/resonance frequency point that because the counterweight rear position. In the other side I can't be sure if in reality you are achieving real better sound or only different kind or even higher distortions that you like it more.

In terms of tonearm response and control to cartridge tracking grooves needs normally the best counterweight position is nearest to the pivot/bearing point not rear away.

Anyway, the important issue is not my opinion but what you like it.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.
tonywinsc
583 posts
 
What Raul says is correct. Moving the mass further from the pivot point increases the inertia of the tonearm. The Effective Mass calculation for your tonearm actually is based on inertia. So as you changed the tonearm mass in order to move the weight further out, you were changing the Fn, resonance frequency of your cartridge/tonearm system; just as Raul stated. The ideal range is around about 10 Hz. I had the Denon cartridge on my SME tonearm for a time. I had to add some weight to the headshell in order to lower my system Fn. The Denon was relatively light and the compliance put my system Fn out around 16Hz, as I recall. The tonearm was moving up and down and would even skip if the record had a slight rise/fall to it. I found a place in England on the web that sells headshell weights specifically for the Denon cartridge. It worked out nicely for me.
roscoeiii's avatar
roscoeiii
1,155 posts
 
There are also headshell screws from SoundSmith of varying weights that can be very helpful as well.
williewonka OP
3,075 posts
 
I have read posts on other forums that also support moving the weight to attain a better sound. Further back for higher mass arms and closer to the pivot point for lower mass arms.

I do agree that adding weight/mass to my arm would bring the resonant freq closer to 10 hz, which accounts for most of the improved sound from everything I have read - that was the main reason for this exercise.

All I can say for certain is that the sound has improved for the better and as Raul said it's about the music and personal preference.

I'm not saying this approach would work for all cartridge/tone-arm combinations, but it did for mine. It costs very little and it may just sound better :-)
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