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Cartridge Mounting Hardware

I recently upgraded my tonearm to the Clearaudio Universal. This is a great arm and worth tweaking and experimenting a bit to get the best out of it. My cartridge – Concerto V2 (7 gr.) – came with several sets of cartridge mounting bolts: 5 mm nylon and aluminum flathead screws, and 8 mm stainless hex bolts. No nuts since my cartridge is tapped for the bolt threads. For years I've been using stainless bolts. With those I use a 49 gr. stainless counterweight and it sits nearly as close as it can go to the fulcrum when VTA is dialed in. When I play the Hi Fi News test record the resonant frequency of the arm is more or less at ~10 Hz as far as I can tell.

Conventional wisdom – AFAIK – says that's all good. 

I recently saw a Clearaudio photo of my arm with another one of their cartridges in the line (also 7 gr.) and it's mounted with the nylon screws. That got me to thinking about trying it, and maybe trying the aluminum ones too. With the nylon screws I can no longer use the 49 gr. stainless counterweight, and have to change to the aluminum 31.5 gr. counterweight, but that sits farther out away from the tonearm fulcrum (although it looks cooler, IMO). I'm trying that now. With the test record the tonearm resonant frequency is still right around 10 Hz. I'm playing music now and don't notice a difference, but my aural memory for such things sucks, so I have to live with it for a bit, and then revert to see how I feel. This weekend I'll play some records I use to test out setup changes and see if I hear anything for better or worse.

So that makes me wonder what others know and experience about cartridge mounting hardware (and techniques). What's your wisdom on the matter?
dwette
sleepwalker65's avatar
sleepwalker65
832 posts
 
Accuracy of torque wrenches is relatively unimportant compared to getting consistency of torque when it comes to tightening lug nuts (or wheel bolts if we’re talking German cars). There, a Harbor Freight torque wrench will suffice. On the other hand, if you are assembling an engine, you need a much more accurate torque wrench for nuts on bearing caps on connecting rods, bolts on main bearing caps and head bolts. 

Jumping back to thr topic, yes, a high precision torque screwdriver is required to properly tighten the mounting screws of a cartridge to headshell, especially when we’re talking about a $500+ cartridge. 
terry9
2,223 posts
 
Fremer trusted it enough to use it, whatever his initial impression.

Do you really think that the force holding two mating surfaces together has no impact on their dynamic behaviour? Really? Do you not think that variables such as material (plastic or wood or metal), mating surface, lubrication, and human habits of tool use, might make a difference? And that posted values are for guidance, but that ultimately experimentation is definitive?

As I said, the torque values suggested came from a post by a Linn engineer who had studied the matter in some detail. You declare that he is "full of it". What is your evidence, please?

You also seem to be saying that all tools are equally reliable, accurate, and repeatable. But remember Fremer.
terry9
2,223 posts
 
Sleepwalker, thanks for the correction. I'm a little anal-retentive about tools since I saw a VP vaporize a prototype because of faulty instrumentation.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
I sometimes wonder, do people bother reading any more? Or is it why bother, when reading in (ie, just making stuff up) is so much more fun?

Oh well, the words are still there, for anyone who cares to bother to try and understand their literal meaning.

As for the rest, while nothing like what I said, nevertheless is worth discussing. Of course these things matter. Of course they affect the sound. I say that not because I've done the comparisons in this particular instance, but because I have done the comparisons in enough other instances to know there is ALWAYS a difference. 

Unfortunately, this blows out of the water the whole idea of following torque setting guidelines! Because, if torque makes a difference to sound then obviously the correct way to tighten is by ear.

Think it through. 

Yes he is full of it. QED.
sleepwalker65's avatar
sleepwalker65
832 posts
 
The correct way to tighten something is according to the manufacturer’s specifications. They know more about their products than anyone else does. 
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