IS THIS NORMAL? WHAT CAN CAUSE THIS? CARTRIDGE STYLUS QUESTION

EDUBAG

Hello guys,

I currently own a pioneer pl100 and have it fitted with a denon dl 110 and love this combo (for my untrained ears). while cleaning the stylus (carbon brush basically) I noticed that the stylus or I guess cantilever? is bent sideways to the left side. the stylus lands on the middle and I have not noticed any performance difference (it still sounds good to me) but got me kind of worried as to what could have caused this and what can this cause.

would playing the records with a 0 anti-skate do that with time, could it have been factory (doubt it since I have a brand new backup and everything looks straight) ? can it be fixed and should I fix it?

anyways just looking for some input since these babies went from about 140 to 300 bucks sometime between my last purchase and now. I would like to protect or prolong my investment as long as I can.

regards,

Eduardo

oldrocker

I am not sure.

One might think the dynamics of motion, pressure and force could have something to do with it. Perhaps the overall design is supposed to act that way when in use. Lots of "school of thought" on this I'm sure.

Can't wait for those way smarter than I am to share their thoughts.

[Deleted User]

Hello,
Is the cantilever straight before you lower the tonearm and then deflects to the side? Or, is the cantilever bent after the arm has been raised and remains that way?
Regards, Ken

EDUBAG

Kenneth Swauger wrote: »

Hello,
Is the cantilever straight before you lower the tonearm and then deflects to the side? Or, is the cantilever bent after the arm has been raised and remains that way?
Regards, Ken

all the time after I noticed. I actually noticed cleaning it and it was not placed on the turntable.

[Deleted User]

I'm afraid something happened to your cartridge, I don't believe the unit itself caused the problem. It may be an optical illusion, but your first photo looks like the cartridge's reflection on the surface of the record isn't aligned with the cartridge itself. The left side of the cartridge seems closer to the record surface than the right side.

Jhayman

To me it looks like your tonearm is off kilter meaning it's a twisted to the right a bit and not perfectly centered.
When the needle grabs the record it has to twist itself a little which looks like a bend while playing but not while it's not..
Straighten your arm IMO

Dawgfish

It looks to me like the cart is not level with the record surface left to right also. You can twist the headshell a little each way to level it out. I like to lower my stylus unto a small mirror, and look at the reflection of the cart to the cart itself. Twist the headshell one way or another in the arm until it is level and the reflection is completely level with the cart itself. One thing to keep in mind though is a lot of the times the stylus is not perpendicular to the bottom of the cartridge body itself. This is more than likely the case with your stylus now. In that case twist the headshell till the reflection of the stylus is straight up and down with the actual stylus and it looks like one continuous stylus when looking at it from the front. You may not be able to do this with your current stylus with the bend, but it will work on future carts. If it still sounds good, just get it as level as possible and enjoy until you replace it down the road.

[Deleted User]

Another potential problem is that you are not using the anti-skating feature of the tonearm. If you had a blank non-grooved record (this used to be one of the test bands on some record setup discs) and began playing your table the arm would drift or "skate" towards the center. But on a regular record the spiraling groove prevents the arm from skating inward, but the force is still there. If sufficient this would bend the ultra thin wall of the cantilever over time. Try setting the arm's anti-skating to match the tracking force used, this will place another force directed outward counter-balancing the force moving inward. This should also improve the channel balance when playing records.

EDUBAG

Kenneth Swauger wrote: »

Another potential problem is that you are not using the anti-skating feature of the tonearm. If you had a blank non-grooved record (this used to be one of the test bands on some record setup discs) and began playing your table the arm would drift or "skate" towards the center. But on a regular record the spiraling groove prevents the arm from skating inward, but the force is still there. If sufficient this would bend the ultra thin wall of the cantilever over time. Try setting the arm's anti-skating to match the tracking force used, this will place another force directed outward counter-balancing the force moving inward. This should also improve the channel balance when playing records.

This to me makes sense. The turntable is old and i do not know if it works. But now i made sure is set to the same tracking force. Before i think i ran it for a while in 0.

I will check all the leveling info mentioned here to make sure. I will ekeep you posted.

polkfarmboy

If it plays well and works fine then there is nothing wrong with it having a slight bend, right guys?

[Deleted User]

With the bent cantilever there will be a slight channel imbalance since the deflection causes the generating mechanism, inside the cartridge body, to be biased in an opposite direction from the bend. Kind of like driving with a misaligned front end, the car is always wanting to veer to the left or right. The driver is always steering to correct for the drift. Yes, it works, but isn't optimized.

soundfreak1

From the picts offered it "appears that the cartridge isn't mounted correctly of your set up is in error. Ck your overhang, ck headshell is straight, rebalance the tonearm. And make sure your antistatic is set properly. Has me curious how you can play at all with 0 antistatic if set up is correct.

Erik Tracy

You mean anti-skate, right?

That would be cool if TTs came with anti-static settings!

[Deleted User]

In a way turntables did have some "anti-static" capability. At one time it was thought that records would sound better if they were played "wet". In fact anti-skating compensation dials on Dual changers had two scales, one for "dry" and the other "wet". This scheme was popular in Europe and people applied a slight coating of moisture (usually distilled water) to the record's surface before playing. One attribute to this method was it would reduce static. I don't believe it received much "traction" in the US, however. We Americans prefer our records played like our martinis, "dry".

soundfreak1

Yes I mentioned anti-skate damn auto correct.

PolkieMan

There was a Watts Dust Bug back in the 70's that was sometimes moistened when playing them I always felt that playing them wet might be like driving a stylus thru microscopic mud and might sound better for just one play.

Kenneth Swauger wrote: »

In a way turntables did have some "anti-static" capability. At one time it was thought that records would sound better if they were played "wet". In fact anti-skating compensation dials on Dual changers had two scales, one for "dry" and the other "wet". This scheme was popular in Europe and people applied a slight coating of moisture (usually distilled water) to the record's surface before playing. One attribute to this method was it would reduce static. I don't believe it received much "traction" in the US, however. We Americans prefer our records played like our martinis, "dry".

[Deleted User]

The Watts Preener is my oldest single component, probably I've had it for over 45 years and use it to give a "final sweep" just before the needle hits the lead-in groove. Cecil Watts was the great grandfather of every manual record cleaning device now used.