What considerations apply to material selection for cartridge mounting bolts?


I have found myself needing some longer bolts to relocate a Shure V15 Type 3 cartridge to a Holbo air-bearing system.

The Holbo tone-arm is a tangential tracker with a rigid rectangular 'launch pad' for the cartridge.  The pad is 3-mm thick which is much more than the fixed SME head-shell my dad bolted the Shure to some 45 years ago.  If it was supplied with longer bolts, they disappeared decades ago!

I will most likely have a similar issue with my Audio Technica VM540ML cartridge which is probably a better fit for the Holbo.  It was supplied with a head-shell 4-mm thick, but the bolts slots are recessed by over 2-mm.

A quick internet search turned up bolts made of stainless steel, titanium, aluminium, brass, plastic and nylon.  Some brass bolts are gold-plated (for corrosion resistance presumably).  As a one-time metallurgist, I know that stainless steels can be non-magnetic, or magnetic.

Plastic and nylon are lightweight insulators and immune to electro-magnetic effects like induced eddy currents.

The lower the material density, the lower effective mass of the cartridge.  Here brass is clearly the worst, being denser than steel and weaker than the other metals.

I presume that the main engineering requirement is to firmly couple the cartridge to the tone-arm but I have no idea how firmly.

The Funk Firm has an opposite view with its Houdini coupler which in effect splits the bolts in half, with an elastic suspension between the cartridge body and the tone-arm.  It seems to allow the cartridge body to swing easily to the left or right side.  Does anybody here use these?

richardbrand

@lewm 

I cannot discuss T without risking a cardiac death

Nowt wrong with that provided it is T's and soon!

I’d like to find nylon screws and nuts, but the ones I’ve seen on Amazon and eBay have standard hex nuts. It’d be nice if there was a set out there with circular nuts. It’d make it easier with some carts.

@audphile1 

"I really like the Riverstone Audio gauge. You should check it out."

I've seen good reports about it previously elsewhere I'm sure but if I was going spring for "digital" I'd probably go with the Rega Atlas and get it right the first time.

@lewm 

"In my several decades of experience with it, the SFG was imprecise and results were often not repeatable. Plus it could damage a cantilever if one were not careful. These days it makes no sense not to use a digital scale, just making sure that the one you choose has its weigh pan in the plane of the LP surface."

Well maybe you're rather fumble fingered and just don't have the touch but I've found the SFGII to be exactly how I described it upthread. If it ain't broke...

If any of you lived nearby and had the privilege of hearing my systems playback I seriously doubt, if you evaluated it honestly and unbiased that you could be critical of the sonics in any way! 

It should be obvious which coast I live on if you consider reaching out.

@faustuss 

It should be obvious which coast I live on

Seems like we are both on the East Coast.

Just half a world apart ...