From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad


Hello,

as to tracking weight, I promote an approach I use myself: use a tracking
weight so that when you play the record the stylus shank appears to sit in
the centre of the well it comes out of. If you add weight the cartridge sinks
deeper, and the shank gets closer to the top of the well, and the position of
the little armature, magnet, or coils inside the magnetic gaps become
unsymmetric, and that will provoke distortion for large amplitudes.

If the record is warped I may indeed wish for higher tracking weight, and
then I use a brush that runs in front of the stylus, fixed to the cartridge
shell. I then add weight to the top of the headshell until the stylus shank
condition is again fulfilled. If you have not washed your record you will
have to flick the brush before you play the next record to get rid of the
dust.

Best wishes,


George

---------------------------------


> Well, the preamp in this thing ain't "lab grade" by any means, and the
> output level via the digital
> is conservative by my description, too low by some reviewers online.
>
> As for tracking weights and Stanton 500's, the documentation says 5 grams
> max. I never track 78's
> any heavier than that, and usually not that heavy. 3 to 3.5 grams seems to
> work best for me. Need
> more for badly warped records, though.
>
> The next feature needed on one of these turntables is a switch to disengage
> the RIAA circuitry so
> that the digital output is flat. This gives the spinner of 78's software
> options for the various
> curves.
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dan Nelson" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2011 9:28 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Technics is exiting the turntable business/ Stanton
> preamps
>
>
> In regards to "whimpy" pre amp..... National semi conductor developed a
> series of lo-noise hi gain
> LM3xx series of chips that became a workhorse in all kinds of stereo and
> audio systems.
> The chips have hi-gain and 75khz band width so equalization doesnt degrade
> the performance with .05%
> distortion.
> I bought some on ebay for about 22¢ each think of what a mfg would pay for
> them.
> dnelson
>
> --- On Sat, 3/5/11, Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > From: Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>
> > Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Possibly another reason why Technics is exiting
> the turntable business
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Date: Saturday, March 5, 2011, 8:08 AM
> > No level control, and it's been
> > complained about in various online reviews. I think they put
> > in a pretty wimpy preamp (1 IC with the EQ network before
> > the chip and/or in the feedback loop) and run it full-bore,
> > which nets out to safely low level not to overload the
> > non-great A-D chip and USB/SPIDF sections. As I said, this
> > is not transfer/archive grade, but it's better than other
> > multi-purpose USB turntables I've seen and read about. The
> > better isolation and S-tonearm alone make a good case for
> > it. As I said, I prefer the sound quality avoiding the
> > built-in electronics but they aren't so terrible that I
> > wouldn't use them to make a quickie digital dub of
> > lower-fidelity material.
> >
> > -- Tom Fine
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lou Judson" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Saturday, March 05, 2011 10:54 AM
> > Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Possibly another reason why
> > Technics is exiting the turntable business
> >
> >
> > > Thanks for the info, Tom. I always thought that USB
> > TTs were trashy quality, but this seems better. I wish
> > they would do 24 bit! But one question - is there some
> > provision for level adjustment pre-A/D?
> > > <L>
> > > On Mar 5, 2011, at 7:27 AM, Tom Fine wrote:
> > >
> > > Since your only choice is 44.1/16 digital output, you
> > don't want too low levels, but this thing seems to
> > strike a decent balance with most records and using
> > standard-output moving-magnet cartridges.
> > >
> > > -- Tom Fine
> > >
> >