Stylus help

[timster]

Hi there I've recently bought a used Technics hi fi with a SL-J100R turntable. Unfortunately the stylus was knackered so I bought a replacement which seemed to be the same as the one fitted

https://shop.mantra-audio.co.uk/acatalog/National-...

It seems to have suffered through same fate as it looks like the stylus has sagged after playing only a few records.

I've been looking around and came across this on eBay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/302113375866?mkcid=16&a...


Any thoughts on this? It's a long time since I've delved into the world of records, thanks

[w1bbles]

I don’t know what you mean by ‘sagged’ but have you checked the appropriate counterweight and dialled it in?

https://www.audio-technica.com/en-eu/support/setti...

[Lucid_AV]

The style of cartridge for your turntable is referred to as P-mount, but within that, there's a subset that are T4p compliant. Audio Technica falls into this category.

The T4p standard means that the cartridge should weigh 6gm, and track at 1.25gm (+/- 0.25gm adjustment range*). The rest of the settings are all taken care of such as overhang, anti-skate, vertical tracking angle etc. Any T4p compliant cartridge can be put on any T4p compliant turntable.

The tonearm is statically balanced. This means there's a counterweight to balance out the weight of the tonearm and cartridge. The weight of it results in the correct tracking force being applied. This weight is non-adjustable for most of these T4p turntables, so it's not like it can be badly adjusted. If your new stylus suspension has collapsed, then before dropping some more wedge on another stylus (or cartridge), I'd get a set of stylus tracking force scales and just check what the current styluses are tracking at. These scales start at around £10 on Amazon. They're all much of a muchness, so there's no need to go mad.

My guess is your turntable dates from the mid-to-late '80s. It's somewhere in the region of 40 years old. That's not a problem in itself. I'm running a Linn and a Roksan that are of a similar age. We all hope that anything we buy used has been cherished and transported correctly during its life to date. From time to time that won't be the case. The stylus scales will help tell you if there's a problem with the tracking force. If there is, then it'll show up as a higher force.

The stylus suspension is designed for a maximum of 1.5gm tracking force. If you find that the force is significantly higher (2gm would be a lot), then it's time to open up the deck and find out if the counterweight is still attached. Don't buy a new stylus until any tracking weight issue has been resolved.


'* not all turntables offer tracking weight adjustment.

[timster]

w1bbles said:

I don’t know what you mean by ‘sagged’ but have you checked the appropriate counterweight and dialled it in?

https://www.audio-technica.com/en-eu/support/setti...

It seems to have "gone flat" in effect so the back is touching before the stylus

[timster]

Lucid_AV said:

The style of cartridge for your turntable is referred to as P-mount, but within that, there's a subset that are T4p compliant. Audio Technica falls into this category.

The T4p standard means that the cartridge should weigh 6gm, and track at 1.25gm (+/- 0.25gm adjustment range*). The rest of the settings are all taken care of such as overhang, anti-skate, vertical tracking angle etc. Any T4p compliant cartridge can be put on any T4p compliant turntable.

The tonearm is statically balanced. This means there's a counterweight to balance out the weight of the tonearm and cartridge. The weight of it results in the correct tracking force being applied. This weight is non-adjustable for most of these T4p turntables, so it's not like it can be badly adjusted. If your new stylus suspension has collapsed, then before dropping some more wedge on another stylus (or cartridge), I'd get a set of stylus tracking force scales and just check what the current styluses are tracking at. These scales start at around £10 on Amazon. They're all much of a muchness, so there's no need to go mad.

My guess is your turntable dates from the mid-to-late '80s. It's somewhere in the region of 40 years old. That's not a problem in itself. I'm running a Linn and a Roksan that are of a similar age. We all hope that anything we buy used has been cherished and transported correctly during its life to date. From time to time that won't be the case. The stylus scales will help tell you if there's a problem with the tracking force. If there is, then it'll show up as a higher force.

The stylus suspension is designed for a maximum of 1.5gm tracking force. If you find that the force is significantly higher (2gm would be a lot), then it's time to open up the deck and find out if the counterweight is still attached. Don't buy a new stylus until any tracking weight issue has been resolved.


'* not all turntables offer tracking weight adjustment.

Thanks for the info, very detailed. I'll buy one of those trcking force scales before commiting to another stylus.

[timster]

Okay so I've had the scales but inadvertently left the stylus in work ( I had to use my magnifier to see what remains of it )

I weighed it anyway and it comes back at 0.56 grams.

[Lucid_AV]

The stylus might weigh half a gramme, but that's not really what you're interested in. What you want to know is the tracking weight i.e. what's the downward force applied to the stylus tip from the tonearm. If you're still unsure, look up some YouTube videos of measuring the tracking force.

[timster]

Ahh I should have been clearer, the tracking force is 0.56.

[timster]

So I've measured this as a complete unit (stylus attached) and it's between 1.45 and 1.50 measured over a few times.