Tonearm pivot lube


Does anyone know if it is a good idea to lubricate tonearm pivot points? If so then what should a person use?
80stech

Showing 4 responses by 80stech

Thanks for the info. The arm is a Bio-Tracer on a Sony linear tracker. I was a little hesitant to mention this as either Sony, or it seems linear tracking, get very little respect from the audiophile community. There does not appear to be lube on the pivots but I think I might try a very small amount of teflon grease. My thinking is that I may be able to run the pivots with a slight amount of pre-load if they have some lubrication. The service manual says nothing about the tonearm pivots. Any opinions on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again
Rainer s.
If I understand correctly the pivots must have zero clearance to transmit vibrations effectively. By giving a slight pre-load to the pivot points and would be making sure that the arm stays tight even when the temperature changes. I may be splitting hairs but isn't the abiltity for the pivots to have zero play and very little friction the main difference between a cheap arm and a very expensive one?

The Bio-tracer arm uses the standard pivots but also has an electromagnetic sensing-drive system to keep the needle centred in the groove. It's like an on-demand dynamic tracking force and anti-skating compensation. Thanks for the input

Rainer S.
Thanks Dan_ed, I downloaded the Psx-800 manual but it doesn't mention anything about lubricating or adjusting the tone-arm pivots either. They are probably assuming that anyone getting that involved would know what to do.

I still would like to know exactly what makes a tone arm "good". Maybe I should start a new thread?