Vinyl Engines Cartridge Resonance Calculator

[Simon75]

I've been reading up a bit on cartridge compliance and came across Vinyl Engines cartridge resonance calculator. It seems like a useful tool but I've confused myself a bit with it.
When it asks for the effective mass of your tonearm I am assuming that does not include the weight of the cartridge. I am also assuming that the weight of the headshell is included in the effective mass of the tonearm. When reading the table you look at the weight of your cartridge(plus screws)against the cartridge compliance to get the result. Is this correct?

[Wegamus]

I’ve heard it’s very hard to work out effective mass and some very wellknown manufacturers don’t actually know the true figure for their arms, even though they quote a figure.

[hermit]

Is this correct?

Yes. One point to note: some manufacturers quote compliance at 10hz and others, mainly Japanese at 100hz. The VE calculator operates at 10hz. If the cartridge you are looking at has compliance quoted at 100hz you need to multiply that figure by 1.75 to get a rough figure at 10hz to enter into the VE calculator.

[Simon75]

I’ve heard it’s very hard to work out effective mass and some very wellknown manufacturers don’t actually know the true figure for their arms, even though they quote a figure.

From what I've read manufacturers include the weight of the headshell in the overall weight of their quoted figures but I'm not sure if that's a universal rule.

[Simon75]

Yes. One point to note: some manufacturers quote compliance at 10hz and others, mainly Japanese at 100hz. The VE calculator operates at 10hz. If the cartridge you are looking at is quoted at 100hz you need to multiply that figure by 1.75 to get a rough figure at 10hz to enter into the VE calculator.

Cheers, its good to know I'm not completely useless when it comes to reading technical stuff.
I actually came across your previous thread from a couple of years ago about audio technica carts compliance, it was after reading it that I began to understand how to use the calculator! Seriously considering investing in a MM AT cart later this year so it was very helpful.

[Wegamus]

With cartridge compliance, you sometimes see both dynamic and static compliance listed, each with a different figure. Which is the important one for tonearm matching?

[Simon75]

With cartridge compliance, you sometimes see both dynamic and static compliance listed, each with a different figure. Which is the important one for tonearm matching?

I understand it is dynamic compliance. If only static is listed then you half that number to get a rough idea of dynamic compliance from what I understand. I've only been reading up on this the past couple of days so happy to be corrected if this is'nt right.

[walpurgis]

I've not seen this resonance calculator, but presumably any calculations may go out of the window with fluid damped arms if the damping is applied and to what degree and with which viscosity of fluid?

[tinear]

SME's FD200 booklet gives an idea of LF resonance (with SME 3009 Improved/S2-presumably):-

https://www.theanalogdept.com/images...20FD%20200.pdf

AKG P8ES has booklet-quoted 35cu - weight 6gram.

Hence you should be wary of anything high-compliance in the higher-mass 3009/S2, as its undamped frequency will be even lower.

SME, mid 60's, did advertise 3009/Shure M55E as the best LP playback available.

[Simon75]

SME's FD200 booklet gives an idea of LF resonance (with SME 3009 Improved/S2-presumably):-

https://www.theanalogdept.com/images...20FD%20200.pdf

AKG P8ES has booklet-quoted 35cu - weight 6gram.

Hence you should be wary of anything high-compliance in the higher-mass 3009/S2, as its undamped frequency will be even lower.

SME, mid 60's, did advertise 3009/Shure M55E as the best LP playback available.

With the M55e at 6.7g plus the SME(non improved)tone arm mass at 12.5g and the dynamic compliance at 25×10-6cm it is giving the frequency at the less than ideal 7Hz. I don't know where vinyl engine got the dynamic compliance figure of 25 from as Shure don't provide it. The combination sounds right to my ears. I think the tool can be used as a rough guide rather than gospel.