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Ugh....dropped the stylus on the platter

I was adjusting my turntable level which somehow was slightly out of level and the cue lever was down and arm resting on arm rest. The arm rest has a small magnet that is supposed to keep it there, as there is no locking mechanism. Any how somehow the tonearm fell off the rest and bounced across the non moving platter and leather mat coming to rest near spindle. This is a moving coil sumiko blue point no 2. So,  I took a look and listen and it seems ok to me, but being anal about my audio and system I cant but help stressing over it and thinking I damaged something....in 30 plus years this is the first time I’ve done this...lesson learned I guess, as next time I will ty wrap the darn arm to the rest when making adjustments.
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roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
The same thing has happened to me! Clumsy fingers! If you see no damage to the cantilever you should be good to go!
moonglum
619 posts
 
They do tend to bounce when an accident happens. :(
It’s a horrible feeling and you have my sympathy.

Looking on the bright side, from what you describe, if you can still hear both channels as normal, then I doubt that any significant harm has been done.

This has happened to me on 2 occasions. Once by my own clumsiness when it bounced across a record during setup. The second was when a 4-year old (not even mine - the next door neighbours) ran headlong (with my daughter in pursuit) into the turntable knocking it backwards off the stand and causing the unsecured tonearm to fall and bounce. It was like a train crash in slow-motion. The cantilever ended up wedged in a small gap between the arm board and the top plate. “Ugh” is definitely the word.

The turntable was lifted back onto the table before I realised where the cantilever had parked itself.

All those years that my daughter respected the hi-if only to be undone by an outside force. :(
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,156 posts
 
Just Twice? Shoot, I've been doing this since 1958 and I can't count how many times a tone arm has gotten away from me. Happened just the other day and with a Clearaudio Da Vinci no less. I've never had a cartridge damaged by this. It just looks a whole lot worse than it actually is. Keep on spinning:-)
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