Why Cartridge set up is so important!
I posted this elsewhere and then thought this may be helpful to others in the future.
I thought I was pretty clued up on setting up cartridges on my turntable having been swapping them around for over 9 years on various arms and TTs, but then I came across a rather interesting talk on the subject on a YouTube video on another forum, the link is below.
What the chap in the video clearly highlights is that getting a cartridge set up correctly is not necessarily as straight forward as you may think. It may be that you follow the whole process correctly setting up a cartridge to the correct settings only to find it does not sound quite right in some way. For example the answer to this may be that the actual stylus on the cantilever is slightly out of alignment on the cantilever. In this case even if you perfectly aligned the cartridge in the head shell and set Azimuth and VTF perfectly it will still not be quite right in the groove.
So below is what I did and my thoughts on the subject.
Here is the video that prompted my investigations....
I ordered a Pro-Ject Digital VTF gauge which arrived this morning, not expensive £20, it comes with calibration weight, which I checked and is spot on 5gm, the spec says it is accurate to 0.01gm and will not deviate.
I first calibrated the gauge as in the instructions and then before doing anything else checked the existing tracking weight which I thought to be set at around 2.0gm using my balance gauge, the new Pro-Ject gauge indicated 2.18gm, so quite a bit higher than I thought I had set it to. No big issue as still within the recommended 1.8-2.2gm tracking force advised. I did check the tracking force again with the anti-skate removed, this in fact added 0.15mg, so a reading of 2.33gm without anti-skate. So the effect of anti-skate devices on tracking force is possibly something to consider when setting up a cartridge, I seem to recall reading this somewhere once.
Next I adjusted the tracking weight to the originally intended 2.0gm, and then had a listen to two favourite test listening tracks. Result was a subtle improvement in clarity.
I decided to completely check on the cartridge set up, playing particular attention to VTA, azimuth, and cartridge alignment(Zenith Error). I had heard that a stylus could be incorrectly mounted at the wrong angle causing 'Zenith Error" but had not really understood this before. Obviously without a very powerful microscope it is impossible to determine if this is the case or not, however using the starting point of getting the cartridge perfectly aligned so that it is parallel with a set up gauge is where I started. What I found was it was minutely out of alignment, having adjusted this I set VTA, and azimuth and rechecked everything, then set VTF. I listened to my two favourite test tracks Ravi Shankar - 'Tala Rasa Ranga' on Portrait of Genius and Eva Cassidy - 'Fields of Gold' on Nightbird, what I noticed was a slightly more focused soundstage, and more top end clarity.
Maybe I was lucky and just happened to get the cartridge set up better, who knows?, I certainly think that if a cartridge doesn't sound quite right that minute changes to the alignment that improve the VTA and Zenith can be worthwhile, but this can be a very tricky and an exacting process, requiring patience and very minute adjustments and listening after each to see if it improves.
I wonder if anyone has had their stylus checked to determine how far off it is mounted on the cantilever?
Having done the above this then lead me to mount my Goldring 2500 MI cartridge which was already on another head shell. I have been pleased with it in the past but always returned to the Benz-Micro as I felt some detail was missing with the Goldring. I carefully checked the cartridge alignment in the head shell and this was slightly off, once on the arm I went through the complete set up process, checking all alignments and setting a 1.8gm VTF. On went the previous two test listening tracks and I was immediately taken aback, the Goldring had come alive in the top end, detail that previously I thought was missing was now present and the soundstage was great.
So to sum up I think that spending time to carefully get your cartridge right is very important, I doubt it matters how much it costs, probably a badly set up expensive one will sound no better than a perfectly set up cartridge a 1/10 the price. If it does not sound right then adjust it by very small increments and listen carefully to it using easy to listen to tracks with clear instrumentation, and highs and lows(good dynamics), rock music is probably not the best for this, and use a clear female vocal recording to listen for sibilance and try and minimise it. I've certainly learnt something and the result is very well worth the effort.
The Goldring is staying on the turntable for now as I am rather enjoying it.
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Originally Posted by walpurgis
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