Headshell Upgrade? Worth it?

[LostChild1]

Hi all,

I have a stock Technics SL1200-MKII which I recently purchased a used Shure M97xE cartridge for (less than 10 hours play from jpstereo).

Anyway, I'm wondering if having the stock plastic headshell can cause unwanted vibration / noise during playback and if it'd be worth it to upgrade it?

And the obvious noob question, is it even possible to upgrade -JUST- a headshell? I see that it's detachable, so I would assume so. Is it essentially one size fits all?

 

[Lazarus Short]

A lot of (mostly) Japanese turntables with S-shaped arms use a "universal" headshell. Plastic will do, but more rigid ones of metal may be better. Most are aluminum or magnesium. Some are made of ebony, but are hyper-expensive. I am currently restoring a Yamaha YP-B4 and opted for a metal headshell, but only because I happened to have one lying around.

There are tricks to get around the slight wobble of plastic - a teeny drop of wood glue on each side of the stylus guard will hold the whole assembly more rigidly, but allow removal. Removal of the rubber washer at the back of the headshell will also eliminate a source of wobble.

There are probably lots of other things to worry about in your system...

Laz

 

[LostChild1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazarus Short /img/forum/go_quote.gif A lot of (mostly) Japanese turntables with S-shaped arms use a "universal" headshell. Plastic will do, but more rigid ones of metal may be better. Most are aluminum or magnesium. Some are made of ebony, but are hyper-expensive. I am currently restoring a Yamaha YP-B4 and opted for a metal headshell, but only because I happened to have one lying around. There are tricks to get around the slight wobble of plastic - a teeny drop of wood glue on each side of the stylus guard will hold the whole assembly more rigidly, but allow removal. Removal of the rubber washer at the back of the headshell will also eliminate a source of wobble. There are probably lots of other things to worry about in your system... Laz

I HEAR THAT!

I think that's a good point though, I should focus on upgrading much more major things before worrying about something that may just be a placebo.

 

[memepool]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LostChild1 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi all, I have a stock Technics SL1200-MKII which I recently purchased a used Shure M97xE cartridge for (less than 10 hours play from jpstereo). Anyway, I'm wondering if having the stock plastic headshell can cause unwanted vibration / noise during playback and if it'd be worth it to upgrade it? And the obvious noob question, is it even possible to upgrade -JUST- a headshell? I see that it's detachable, so I would assume so. Is it essentially one size fits all?

The stock Technics headshell isn't plastic, it's a very light alloy. It's not a bad headshell at all although the Vestax one is probably better.
The ones Lazaraus mentions are more usually used to increase the tonearms rigidity especially for use with moving coils carts as they dump a lot more energy into the arm.

Your Shure cart is the exact opposite. It's designed to work with lower mass tonearms so you would need to find a very low mass headshell for it to be beneficial and reduce the mass of the Technics tonearm. ADC made headshells like these in the 1970s and they turn up on ebay from time to time. But there are are serveral versions. The LMG-1 is fine but there is a lighter one still. Unfortunately mine has no marking so I can't tell you the correct model number.

More common is the Stanton HS-4 which you'll find in DJ shops and this is magnesium and variable mass, with little screw-in ballasts, so you could try one of these without any ballast.

You should also play with the stabiliser brush down as this helps control the cart on an arm of this mass. KABUSA offer a silicone damping tough which is also a worthwhile upgrade using high compliance carts like this.

In the longterm though you are better off upgrading the tonearm to a Rega RB250 which is a much better sounding option.

Also try removing the washer between the arm wand and headshell as this tightens up the sound.