[Little J040]

hey all,

my current setup is a music hall mmf 2.1 with an audio technica 440MLa cart, and have noticed something a little weird about the stylus. When playing a record, the stylus itself seems to be riding very low, and it almost seems be bending almost up to the cartridge body. The sound has not changed since i put it on... it sounds great on my good lps. However, im concerned that the bending of the stylus may lead to a short life and possibly breaking it.... My tracking force was set with both the balance gauge that came with the deck, and a small digital scale to the proper tracking force...

Is the compliance of this cart very low? or should i not worry that much?

 

[Uncle Erik]

Can you adjust the VTA on your deck? If you can, you might want to adjust it to see if that changes anything.

 

[Little J040]

it is adjustable on the mmf, but im not completely sure how to do it, as the instructions that came with the deck are pretty vague. anyone have this or a different music hall deck know how to adjust this?

 

[britishbane]

Well if your TT is anything like my MMF-5 (specifically the arm) there should be 2 very small allen wrench bolts along the base of the arm spaced evenly apart near the back. One should be very near the base of the arm lift. Loosen them very carefully and that allows you to adjust VTA. What I do is stick playing cards in the gap between the cuff that holds the arm rest and the base of the table so that when you do loosen the bolds the arm doesnt emediately fall to its lowest VTA. This method also allows you to roughly mesure how high your VTA is set. For example say its at 15 cards right now and you bump it up the 20 cards and thats to high, but then you try 18 and thats perfect. This way you always now VTA should be set at 18 cards. After you do this you have to readjust VTF.


edit: If you post a picture of the cart in action it will be much easier for us to diagnose the problem.

 

[Little J040]

thanks for the info, ill try to get some good shots when i get out of work early today... i might need some clarification with the card trick, as im not positive what your referring to, ill have to be looking at my arm and reading your post to figure it out probably.

 

[Little J040]

im going to have to borrow a roomates camera to take this, as my sh**** cell phone camera isnt going to cut it.,

 

[Little J040]

heres the pic...



not sure if thats good enough, i took a bunch so let me know if this is any help in deducing this issue

 

[drk]

well dude, i'm by no means an expert, just recently got into vinyl myself and am enjoying my first deck/cart, but from the pic, it looks perfectly fine to me.

i have a rega p3-24 with rega elys cartridge and the position of my stylus is very similar. not that this means anything, as we have different TTs and carts, but still.

anyway, wait for more answers from people who know more than me, but i think you just worry too much

.

 

[Little J040]

i suppose i could be just a little anal... i cant help it

... I guess what im making comparisons to is the "music tracker" that was originally on the mmf 2.1 deck, that i put on an older deck for a friend... its a crappier pic but you may see the difference..

 

[fran]

You need to double check your VTF - that is, your down force. See if you can get something that you can check out he balance you were using with. I have access to HQ balances in work and I weighed a little plastic nut that worked out at 1.5g. I use that to check my balance each time before I use it.

From the pic above, it doesn't look all that low. Its hard to tell though just from a pic.

Sorry I can't give you more!

Fran

 

[Little J040]

ive pretty much triple checked the tf, however i dont have any super duper expensive scales to measure it, just a balance one that came with the deck and a small digital scale, thats accurate to .1g.... the recommended TF for the cart is 1.4g and im right around that mark give or take .1g

 

[britishbane]

Looks to me like your tracking angle is alright, hard to really tell for sure. I agree with the others, see if you cant double check the tracking force.

 

[Little J040]

im getting a shure tf measurement balance, maybe thatll work better.

 

[britishbane]

Thats what I use. I'd just leave it how it is now...lowering the TF too much is worse than having it too high. Good luck

 

[3x331m]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Little J040 /img/forum/go_quote.gif heres the pic... not sure if thats good enough, i took a bunch so let me know if this is any help in deducing this issue

I think you're alright. My setup is also like that. Yours looks very good. The needle of the stylus looks almost perpendicular to the vinyl.