TT setup woes


I am having some difficulties in setting up a new (for me) analogue front end (Nottingham Hyperspace TT, OL Illustrious arm, Shelter 90X cart.). Intially I set the VTF to 1.9g; dialed in the overhang with DB protractor; and set the anti-skating bias at what the mft. of the arm said was a good starting point. The VTA looked and sounded a little off; but since the arm was as low as I could set it and it would be a week before I could get the collett machined so I could set the arm lower, I went ahead and tried it. It sounded wonderful. I listened to records all weekend. It tracked everything I played. Floated images out in space like I had never heard. Here's the problem. The next week I had another 0.100" machined off the outside of the collett. In my hurry to set the arm back up, I didn't notice that the wire cradle that holds the anti-skating bias bob weight had moved. The result was too much compensation. This was made apparent by the bad break-up, misstracking in the left channel on the inner tracks of one of my favorite albums. The anti-skating problem was corrected, but the buzzing on the albums played while it was off is still there. Records not played when there was a problem, seem to do OK. Also, the damaged (?) LPs seem to play OK on my old rig (MMF7, Clearaudio Vert. Wood). Both cart. have elliptical stylis. The sound now seems to be less satisfying. Female vocals have a slightly glazed or metalic sound to them and the imaging is not quite what I remember from my first sessions. How much of this is psychological due to my hearing it break-up; are the LPs in question damaged or is it still having problems with the TT setup; I don't know. Any help or suggetions will be appreciated. -JT
john_tracy

Showing 1 response by jameswei

I'm not sure whether improperly set anti-skating can cause significant permanent damage to records unless they are played repeatedly. Your stylus pressure of 1.9 grams seems quite standard. I have seen improperly (anti-skate) compensated styli skitter out of a groove and rip across a record with about this much stylus pressure. Of course, if the stylus pressure were high enough, this wouldn't happen, but groove damage becomes more likely.

Your comments seem to suggest that damage to the LPs is a possibility. If so, perhaps the damage occurred only where the Shelter's stylus touched the groove, and this may be a different place than where the Clearaudio stylus touches the groove. I don't really know if the styli actually have different shapes, but if they do, perhaps one is narrower and contacts the groove walls further down, i.e., deeper in the groove, than the other stylus. With this, the Clearaudio is tracking the groove walls at a level that wasn't damaged, while the Shelter would be replaying the groove where it was damaged. Other possibilities exist depending on stylus shape specifics.

I hope you are right about the whole effect being only psychological. Good luck.