Trans Temp W, Magic Diamond cartridges - comments

Hi, the only type of demagnetizing I have ever done or plan to do, is with the Cardas sweep record. Not to worry, I don't own an electronic demag device. I am loading at the factory "fixed" setting of 22k. I used this setting as well with the recent Shelter 901 I had. To add resistance, I have to introduce resistors. Part of the reason the Lukaschek phono stage performs beyond it's price range is the lack of gain/resistor switches. I have experienced first hand how that type of set-up degrades transparency. When I had the Klyne, I ran that at 47k with the Benz Ruby and Shelter, so I am one of those that can tolerate the extra zip. And until breakin, I'll just leave the load as is because the sound will definitely change. If I hear a detached vocal and top end from the midrange, then I will go right to a 1k load. I run into a tube linestage, so benign loading has worked great for me in the past. VTF is about 1.85g and anti-skate is approx the same using the Rega magnetic force. Thanks for the good wishes. And I hope my rambling was clear.

Reb -- thank God! The Cardas record is all you need for "cooking" those little coils! And I'm not sure you even have to do that more than once, but it can't hurt them and it also conditions the rest of the system if you have it turned on. Think about trying a lower load impedance at some point if it's not too much trouble. Somewhere between 80 and 120 ohms. I think you'll be amazed at the air and ambience you'll find lurking in those grooves.

Speedy, if you are looking at the cartridge from the side, the top of the stylus (where it attaches to the cantilever) should be closer to the front of the cartridge, and the bottom of the stylus (where it fits in the groove) should be closer to the rear of the cartridge. So too with the cutter head, and so that's the same position the stylus must take also.

The exact wording of the instructions I received with my cartridge is: "When viewed from the side, a stylus does not sit vertically in the groove but 'points backward' slightly." Now, I admit that's somewhat ambiguous -- however, if one reflects on how a record is cut, there can be no question that what they mean is that the TIP of the stylus (the business end -- the BOTTOM end!) points backward.

What has to happen, if one is going to be scientific about cartridge setup, is to establish the known Stylus Rake Angle at a specific tonearm/cartridge position. The easiest position for me to establish (over and over again if necessary) is setting the top of the cartridge body parallel to the record (or platter) surface. There are probably a lot of ways to do this, but here's how I do it:

1.) Tape the platter down in at least two places using masking tape, or something easily removable, but so it won't rotate.
2.) Make sure the platter is level. Place the level next to the spindle, first parallel to the tonearm, and then perpendicular to the tonearm. I use an 8"plastic torpedo level. It doesn't weigh much, but if you have a sprung TT, you might need to use a very short bubble level so its weight won't affect your measurements. They're about the size of a pencil with flat sides like a pencil so they won't roll and about 1.5 to 2 inches long. When using any kind of spirit level, always switch the ends around to make sure the bubble reads the same both ways -- nothing worse than a faulty level!
3.) With the platter levelled, and the tonarm in its rest, place the little spirit level across the top of the headshell parallel to the front face of the cartridge. (I'm assuming here that the top your tonearm's headshell is flat and even with the bottom surface where the cartridge joins it.) Adjust the headshell, or the tonearm base/pillar or the cartridge itself until it is level to match the platter.
4.) Now comes the fun part: Remove any anti-skating force. Make sure the stylus guard is on the cartridge -- better safe than sorry! With the tonearm still in its rest, place the little spirit level on top of the headshell pointing front to back along the centerline of the cartridge (in other words 90 degrees to how it was before) Make sure it lays flat and parallel to the top surface of the cartridge. You can use a little piece of double sided foam tape to stick it in place and dodge any irregularities on the top of the headshell if you have to -- otherwise just let it sit there.
5.) Lift the tonearm and set the cartridge (with the stylus guard in place) on the platter. Read the level. Start adjusting the tonearm pillar up or down until the level reads true. Your cartridge will now be (for all practical purposes) parallel (front to back and sideways) with the surface of a record.

The big question now is, with the cartridge body set up this way, what is the stylus doing relative to the groove? With vdH, no problem. It's vertical. That's the way they're made. You want the bottom of the stylus to point backward one degree? That's easy. With a typical 23 cm tonearm (from pivot point to stylus tip) the geometry works out that you raise the pillar 4mm (from the level setting) for each degree of stylus rake angle you want. With a vdH on an SME V, I started with 5mm and teased it up till the image snapped in, right around 7mm, equal to about 1.5 degrees of SRA.

So what about the Transfiguration? Well they designed it with a stylus that is already raked when the cartridge is level and parallel to the record surface. I wanted to know just how much they'd raked it however (although I had a pretty good idea!) So, I levelled mine as described above, and with my pocket microscope, I could see it was clearly raked (with the bottom of the stylus pointing backward.) So I started dropping the tonearm pillar (keeping careful track of how far) until the stylus was vertical (I do this by checking the stylus with a 50x scope while it's sitting on a front surface mirror on the platter, until it lines up with its mirror image -- you might not want to try this, but I've had a lot of experience!) Anyway, I had to drop the pillar about 6mm to get the stylus vertical, which means it had a preset rake of a bit under 1.5 degrees when level and parallel to the record, and at a tracking force of 1.8g.

Now that's really good information to know, don't you think? You now know, for instance, that if you do want to lower the back of the tonearm, you don't want to go further than 2 or 3 mm down from level, or you can be sure the edges of that micro-ridge stylus are going to clip the tops of those groove undulations -- and ditto in the other direction. So what I'm saying, is that somewhere in that 6mm range, 3mm up or down from level, you should be able to find that magic spot. Having done so, you can then fine tune it even further if you want, with minor adjustments in VTF, which will micro-adjust the SRA as well as VTA.

I'm leaving mine as is for now (meaning level, at the factory preset SRA) and 100 ohms loading. It's apparently breaking in quickly, as Reb observed. It seems to get better with every record (or am I just over-enthusiastic?) Anyway, I'll need time to really get used to it with many records I know well, before I would be able to judge if additional adjustments produce better results. When it stops blowing my mind the way it is, I'll consider it!

Nsgarch,just had a really great breakfast,with the EGG THAT I PEELED OFF MY FACE.You are correct in your description/advice,and(well the instructions were a bit ambiguous to me)the tip now rests as you describe it,with better sound,obviously.Too bad I already named my kids,or I'd be obligated to name one after you!Thanks!!

Nsgarch, I'm some what puzzled by your comment about loading at 80-100ohms. You state amazement at the air and ambience. My experience is the exact opposite with a mc loaded to this level. Loading below 1k IMO significantly reduces air and ambience. It also reduces output and therefore dynamics. The only benefit that I ever heard was improved stylus resonance control. But I'll try it again anyway.........

Hi Reb -- well what I know about cartridge loading, I know mostly from experimenting with my vdH's over the years. The required load impedance (or preamp input impedance) for any given MC cartridge is generally a function of its internal coil resistance. The 0.5mV Colibri, for instance, with a coil resistance of approx. 30 ohms has a required load impedance of "greater than 200 ohms" (which presumably means 200 ohms up to infinity!?) but then, they do specify an "optimum" load of 500 to 1000 ohms (which is why I always used the 825 ohm setting on my Levinson phono preamp.)

Now, the Transfiguration folks are even less specific than vdH, (greater than 9 ohms? duh!) but after looking at the specs for a lot of MC cartridges, I've come to realize that the specs for cartridge loading vs. coil resistance are pretty much proportional across the board, for example: The average optimum load for the Colibri described above would be 750 ohms (halfway between 500 and 1000) If you divide 750 by the coil resistance (30 ohms) you come out with a multiple of 25. OK the internal resistance of my W is 6 ohms (Isn't it amazing how the Temper W gets about the same output as a Colibri with what appears to be only 20% the number of coil windings!) OK, so if you multiply 6 ohms times our multiple of 25, you come out with 150 ohms as the optimum loading for the Transfig W. For a V, at an internal resistance of 3 ohms, the optimum load would be around 75 ohms.

Now none of these numbers are cast in concrete, however, they do represent a fairly solid point of reference, and will apply to any step-up device, whether ss, tube, or transformer. Assuming the cartridge is set up so the stylus is in reasonably correct relation to the groove modulations, and taking into account some other minor sonic variables (like your speakers) you shouldn't have to deviate more than, oh I'd say 50% up or down from the theoretical mid-point to find the best response. In the case of the Temper V, that works out to somewhere between 40 ohms and 120 ohms.

There's something else I've noticed sonically in loading MC cartridges. Let's use the Temper V as an example. There is never a huge difference, sonically, between the top end of optimum (120 ohms) and infinity (lets say 47K ohms) so it's sometimes easy to miss that high optimum point because everything above it sounds about the same. But not below the low optimum however! That sounds like crap! This is why it's best I think to start at the low end of optimum and slowly go up until things start to sparkle, bass tightens up, and then stop! That is the point where you will get the most output and flattest response across the frequency spectrum. Right now, I have my Temper W looking at a 100 ohm load which is one of the preset loads in my phono preamp. It's probably a little low, but I'll leave it that way for now. Maybe in a couple hundred hours, I'll get off my ass and try 150 - 200 ohms using some really good Vishay resistors. But no higher. I already tried 825 ohms when I first installed the cartridge because that's where my preamp had been set for my vdH Frog, and it sounded pretty screetchy, almost unlistenable.

A long time ago, I had a vdH TWO cartridge. It had an output of 2.25mV! I had an ARC SP-14 preamp. It had a really great tube (lo-gain moving magnet) phonostage with a built in standard MM load impedance of 47K ohms. The internal resistance of the TWO was 96 ohms, so the optimum load should have been about 2400 ohms. I put in some shunt resistors to drop the impedance down (I didn't solder them) Well, it did get just a tad louder, but it didn't sound that different (to my ear at that time.) I decided not to mess with it. But had I known then what I know now, I would have dialed it in!

I guess my main advice, based on what I've learned over time, is don't paint all MC cartridges with the same brush when setting them up. How your previous one worked best is not necessarily how your new one will work best, even though they may have similar outputs, VTF, etc. In my opinion, the most important things to set properly before attempting any fine tuning, are VTF, SRA, anti-skate, and load impedance in that order. Once those parameters are correctly set for a specific cartridge's electrical and physical properties, I believe very little additional fine tuning will be required to reach the very best performance.

In fact, I would suggest listening for a 100 hours at the initial settings, until the cartridge is broken in and you are really used to it's performance as is. Then, at least, you'll be able to better tell what effect any changes you make are having, better or worse.