Cat jumped on turntable

@geoffkait

+10,000 points

😹😹😹

”... and she’s coughing a hairball, on Steven.” 🎶

Woke up in the middle of the night and thought I'd go the listening room to play some music.. it's across the hall from the bedroom and I've weatherstripped the door so I can listen without disturbing others.

When I found the NAS was down and Roon not happy about it, I decided to play a record. Picked one out and when I was putting it on the turntable caught the cart in the sleeve of my bathrobe. Tried to play the record and the stylus just skated across the surface. 

A quick look at the Rega Apheta 2 showed the cantilever at a rakish angle. I tried to push it back into alignment by eye but it didn't move enough. I was afraid to try too much and so dismounted it and spent the day reinstalling the Benz Micro Gold that the Rega cart had replaced. The Benz only has 2 mounting holes so is somewhat fiddly-er to align than the three-hole Rega. My cheapo USB microscope showed that the the tracking angle was close to the recommended 24 degrees, and setting the the tracking force and anti-skating we simple enough

Sent the cart off to Soundsmith and in a couple of days received this message:

status: Eval. Cantilever badly bent and should be replaced. To match the Vital stylus and up-grade the cantilever, I would suggest our Boron cantilever with CL stylus for $450.00. Please advise.

So I gave the go ahead and will wait 8-14 weeks. The Benz sounds better than i remembered it and the stylus on the Apheta may have needed replacement anyway.

My wife's son is coming to visit with his cat so I am forewarned.

Obviously listening to cat scratch fever

I second the recommendation of technik60 for getting your cartridge retipped by Joe “cartridge_retipping-5” on eBay. He is highly qualified and also comes highly recommended by other expert re-tippers. I have firsthand knowledge of his work, which is both superior and reasonably priced.