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Cartridge Loading and Compliance Laws

After reading into various threads concerning cartridge/arm compatibility, then gathering information from various cartridge manufacturers I am left feeling confused with head spinning a bit.... Ok, cart compliance I get, arm and total mass I get, arm/cart compatibility and the whole 8-12 Hz ideal res. freq. range I get. But why on earth then do some phono cartridge mfgs claim their carts are ok to use with med. mass common modern arms when they are in the highish 20-35cu compliance range? Am I missing something??

Ie. Soundsmith, VanDenHul, Ortofon and who knows, maybe more??

From what I gather, below 8Hz is bad and above 12Hz is bad. If one is less ideal than the other, which is worse I wonder, too low res. freq. or too high?
jeremy72

Showing 2 responses by emil_f

emil_f
33 posts
 
"Some arms have multiple weight systems, so if you can use a heavier counterbalance weight closer to the arm bearings that will get you lower effective mass as opposed to lighter weights further out."

What is the theory behind this? The heavier counterweight increases the effective arm mass. Also having the counterweight closer to the bearing gives a more stable tracking. This is what I did with my 11g tone arm and now the low compliance Koetsu grooves fine.
emil_f
33 posts
 
Hi Toni,

I agree about compliance and cartridge suspension.

The questions are:

1. Does a heavier c/weight increase the eff. arm mass?
2. Is the tracking better with the c/weight closer to the pivot?

The above is my experience and I'd like to read other users' opinion.

Thanks,

Emil
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