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Help re: inner groove sibilance on Nott. Spacedeck

Hello!

Recently bought a used Nottingham spacedeck with the older metal spacearm.

I am unable to get rid of inner groove sibilance/distortion. This is occuring on all my records - new ones and old ones. I am using a Denon 103R cartridge that I had mounted on a Rega 25. Phono stage is supratek Syrah. I had no problems with sibilance on the rega table. I have VTF set at 2.5 grams, and I have checked alignment several times with more than one protractor - it is spot on. VTA is roughly parallel, and I have tried antiskate in various increments. Always inner-groove sibilance and distortion on the dynamics.

Anyone have an idea of what the problem could be?

Also - do you think I could be damaging my records while playing them like this?

Thanks!

Todd
goatwuss

Showing 4 responses by armstrod

armstrod
601 posts
 
I had inner groove distortion with my Denon 103R on my Well Tempered. Even with checked and rechecked alignment, the distortion remained. It turned out the mounting just had too much play in it - apparently a common problem with the mounting scheme on the old WT arms. I changed the cartridge mount so that I could get higher torque on the mounting screws, and all inner groove problems went away, plus I gained much better focus and tighter bass. I'm guessing that low compliance cartidges such as the 103R are particularly sensitive to sturdy mounting. My Shure V15 in the original dodgy mounting had no trouble at all.

David
armstrod
601 posts
 
Goatwuss,

The way the Well Tempered arm was set up, I had to completely change the way the cartridge mounted. Originally, the cartridge mounted to an aluminum crossmember, which in turn mounted with one screw to a slot on the end of the armwand. The threaded hole in the crossmember was stripped out to where there was play between it and the armwand. I changed it to where one of the cartridge mounting screws goes directly through the slot in the armwand, so that with proper torque the mounting is now very rigid.

So the answer is, maybe you need to do more than just tighten the cartridge mounting screws. If your arm has a conventional headshell, and the headshell doesn't fit tightly into the armwand, you may end up with the same problem I did no matter how tight your cartridge screws are. Seems to me everything from the cartridge all the way back to the bearings needs to be pretty rigid, whether you have gimbals, a unipivot, or strings like my Well Tempered.
armstrod
601 posts
 
Goatwuss,

I see you're selling your entire rig. Are you throwing in the towel on the inner groove distortion problem?

David
armstrod
601 posts
 
It's a beautiful rig and a great deal, but I'm still pretty happy with my Well Tempered and am only beginning to tweak. You might want to consider keeping the 103R - they're increasingly hard to find, and when you get back into vinyl it would be a great starting place. Good luck with your sale.
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