Effective "effective mass" primer for dummies


Hello. I'm having trouble getting a handle on effective mass. It would be great to have this thread be a an "Effective "effective mass" primer for dummies"

Questions:

* I understand that VTF is the vertical force applied from the stylus to the record groove. Does effective mass have any effect on VTF, or any other forces?

* Is the sole point of optimizing effective mass to get the resonant frequency of the arm/cartridge to be in the right range? (8-10 hz or whatever) Or is there something else that optimizing effective mass contributes to? If the only point of optimizing effective mass is the resonant freq., then assuming resonant frequency is good, what is the point of Tom's HiFi mod for low compliance carts?

* Is there a notion of "vertical" and "horizontal" effective masses, or just 1 "effective mass" variable? If they're segmented, what are the differences?

* How can effective be mass measured?

* Is there anything else I'm missing?

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback
goatwuss

Showing 1 response by reinderspeter

I once asked the same questions here:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2981&highlight=
The answers are no simple read but they do explain most of your queries
Peter