Originally Posted by
nickbaba
Hi all. Quick question to hopefully help my paranoia!
Setting up a new cartridge today I was using a bubble level on the headshell to check VTA.
I had already set the tracking force at 2g (range is 1.8 - 2.2g)
The bubble level has a weight of 1g, but I forgot to roll 1g off the tracking force before lowering the stylus onto a record. So the cart was resting on the record with a force of 3g.
It was only there for a couple of seconds before I lifted it, and the record was not spinning. I probably did that a couple of times before I realised my mistake.
So my question is, could I have accidentally damaged the stylus
/cantilever suspension by adding that extra 1g to the recommended tracking force, even for such a short time? Or is that not enough extra weight to cause any problem?
If you were playing a Peters and Lee album your stylus is irretrievably damaged and you need to use only a cassette player from now on.
Thorens TD550, Ortofon 12", Ortofon Jubilee or Koetsu Black; Rothwell MCL SUT, VTL 2.5 pre, XTC POW 1 power; Naim CD5x; KEF Reference 3.2's; Van den Hul interconnects and speaker cables.