Cartridge fitting dilema SL 1210 MK2

[Lee Henley]

Morning all

I have recently fitted a AT 95E cart to the SL 1210, this was one of them items I brought as an impulse buy, I guess weve all done this in the past!

My dilema is that when I fitted it there seems to be alot of microphonic noise coming from the tone arm, this is very noticeable when I lift the arm to place it on a record. For fitting purposes I used the little weight that came with the deck. Last night I changed back to the Shure cart which was given to me by a member on here and the microphonic noise has gone?

Furthermore the shure cart sounds better to my ears than the AT 95E cart and is much louder too, for the record the Shure cart is an SC35C.

Am I doing something wrong when fitting the AT 95E cart?

Any help much appreciated

Lee

[freefallrob]

Strange....

In it's standard guise the Shure is a DJ cartridge, which has higher output than the AT, which is some of the reason the Shure is louder for the same volume setting, there frequency balance is likely to be quite different to, the AT will probably sound brighter..

The AT should in theory give 'better' sound as its design is more suited to hifi play back, better stylus and finer cantilever, lower tracking force requirement etc etc. But it's what you like that matters anyhow.

Regarding the tone arm micro-phonics, that sounds odd, i've used this combo myself (sounded good into a Graham Slee phono stage) and my set up didn't do this at all, with any cartridge.
The first thing I would check is that all your cartridge connections are correct, right left positive, negative R L etc, the positions of these do vary between cart manufactures and aren't very clear sometimes....

2nd, I'm not sure what you mean by the 'little weight', do you mean the auxiliary counterweight that goes on the back of the arm or a head shell weight?
If either of these then they are NOT REQUIRED for the AT95e.

Make sure the arm is balanced and hovering with the AT95e installed and overhang/alignment set (use the Technics overhang gauge, it works well) bias set to zero. Reset the counter weight 'black dial' to zero and then dial in 2 grams, set the bias to about 1.75, that should get you going somewhere about right. Adjust the tonearm height so the top of the cartridge is level when on an LP.

Also check the turntable earth lead is attached.

I've highlighted some of the differences between the carts below.


Shure:

Tone Arm Mount: 1/2" standard mount
Cartridge Type: MM
Output Voltage: 5,0 mV
Recommended Load: 47 kΩ; 250 pf
Tracking Force Range: 4,0 - 5,0 g
(Stylus) Cantilever:
Shure Type I
Heat-treated aluminum alloy / tubular
1 mil wall thickness / 30 mil diameter
Diamond Stylus Tip: Sperical 0,7 mil
Compliance: 5 µm/mN
Frequency Response: 20 Hz - 17 kHz
Stereo Channel Balance: 2 dB
Channel Separation (at 1kHz): 20 dB
Net Weight: 6,2 g
Height: 15,9 mm


AT95e:

Elliptical stylus.
Output voltage at 1000 Hz, 5cm/sec.: 3.5 mV
Channel balance: within 2.0 dB
Channel separation at 1 kHz: > 20 dB
Frequency response: 20-20.000 Hz
Dynamic compliance (x10-6 cm/dyne) : 6.5
Static compliance (x10-6 cm/dyne) : 20
Load resistance: 47 k Ohms
Load capacitance: 100 - 200 pF
Stylus type: 0.4 x 0.7 mil elliptical diamond stylus
Tracking force range: 1.5 -2.5 g
Tracking force, recommended: 2.0 g
Vertical tracking angle: 20°
Coil impedance at 1kHz : 2.8 k Ohms
Coil inductance at 1kHz : 400 mH
Cartridge colour, body/stylus: Black/Green
Cartridge weight: 6.5 g

[Lee Henley]

Strange....

In it's standard guise the Shure is a DJ cartridge, which has higher output than the AT, which is some of the reason the Shure is louder for the same volume setting, there frequency balance is likely to be quite different to, the AT will probably sound brighter..

The AT should in theory give 'better' sound as its design is more suited to hifi play back, better stylus and finer cantilever, lower tracking force requirement etc etc. But it's what you like that matters anyhow.

Regarding the tone arm micro-phonics, that sounds odd, i've used this combo myself (sounded good into a Graham Slee phono stage) and my set up didn't do this at all, with any cartridge.
The first thing I would check is that all your cartridge connections are correct, right left positive, negative R L etc, the positions of these do vary between cart manufactures and aren't very clear sometimes....

2nd, I'm not sure what you mean by the 'little weight', do you mean the auxiliary counterweight that goes on the back of the arm or a head shell weight?
If either of these then they are NOT REQUIRED for the AT95e.

Make sure the arm is balanced and hovering with the AT95e installed and overhang/alignment set (use the Technics overhang gauge, it works well) bias set to zero. Reset the counter weight 'black dial' to zero and then dial in 2 grams, set the bias to about 1.75, that should get you going somewhere about right. Adjust the tonearm height so the top of the cartridge is level when on an LP.

Also check the turntable earth lead is attached.

I've highlighted some of the differences between the carts below.


Shure:

Tone Arm Mount: 1/2" standard mount
Cartridge Type: MM
Output Voltage: 5,0 mV
Recommended Load: 47 kΩ; 250 pf
Tracking Force Range: 4,0 - 5,0 g
(Stylus) Cantilever:
Shure Type I
Heat-treated aluminum alloy / tubular
1 mil wall thickness / 30 mil diameter
Diamond Stylus Tip: Sperical 0,7 mil
Compliance: 5 µm/mN
Frequency Response: 20 Hz - 17 kHz
Stereo Channel Balance: 2 dB
Channel Separation (at 1kHz): 20 dB
Net Weight: 6,2 g
Height: 15,9 mm


AT95e:

Elliptical stylus.
Output voltage at 1000 Hz, 5cm/sec.: 3.5 mV
Channel balance: within 2.0 dB
Channel separation at 1 kHz: > 20 dB
Frequency response: 20-20.000 Hz
Dynamic compliance (x10-6 cm/dyne) : 6.5
Static compliance (x10-6 cm/dyne) : 20
Load resistance: 47 k Ohms
Load capacitance: 100 - 200 pF
Stylus type: 0.4 x 0.7 mil elliptical diamond stylus
Tracking force range: 1.5 -2.5 g
Tracking force, recommended: 2.0 g
Vertical tracking angle: 20°
Coil impedance at 1kHz : 2.8 k Ohms
Coil inductance at 1kHz : 400 mH
Cartridge colour, body/stylus: Black/Green
Cartridge weight: 6.5 g

Many thanks for the response the little weight I was referring to is the headshell weight and I did have it installed when I set up the cartridge, I also installed the headshell weight when I put the shure in.

The wires I am pretty shure have been wired correctly, as I checked them several times. What I will do is re-insert the AT95E without the headshell weight and see what happens then. Just out of curiosity what does the headshell weight do?

Very best

Lee

[ikaruga]

I recently changed one of my Ortofon Pro S DJ cartridges for the AT95e on my SL1210. I used the protractors on Vinyl Engine to set it up properly - well at least as best as one can get using printed protractors!

Do you mean by microphonics that when you touch the cart etc you hear the noise through the speakers? I get exactly the same on the AT95 but can't recall getting it through years of DJing with the Pro S. I didn't really think much of it and just got on with listening.

I can 100% say mine is cabled correctly. Maybe a characteristic of that cart? I knew nothing of this microphonics before this thread though :scratch: :lol:

[Wakefield Turntables]

My dilema is that when I fitted it there seems to be alot of microphonic noise coming from the tone arm, this is very noticeable when I lift the arm to place it on a record.


Lee

Can you define what you are hearing? AT cartridges are buggers for exagerating surface noise on less than clean records, brilliant carts but this is one of their flaws.