Aaaaaagh - Trashed me Cantilever

This DL160 - will it work OK into an RB300? I was reading somewhere on here (I think - cone flap/DSOTM??) about the Ortofon 520/RB300 being "near the brink" of safety re resonance, but I've had no problems with either of my Rega TTs and 5x0 series tips???

 

Yup in the DSOTM/cone flap thread. Theoretically (and I mean theoretically) the RB300/250 and the 5x0 are on the edge of the safety zone. I have run a 510 and a 530 on an RB250 with no problems whatsoever - never had a flappy cone. If you aren't noticing a problem then most likely you haven't got one.

Currently got the DL-160 on the Space arm, but it should work perfectly with the RB300. Theoretically it would have an arm resonance of about 10, which is not far off perfect. The fact that it works fine on the Space (mass of 10 grams, I believe) would indicate that it should also work fine on the Rega (mass of 11g, I think) - they are pretty close anyway. Also its a fairly light cart and it comes with an optional balancing plate to up the mass a bit if necessary.

I keep saying theoretically because different cart manufacturers give compliance figures which are measured in different ways, which can make a nonsense of the calculations. The only real way to tell would be to use a test record to determine your arm resonance figure.

 

Wasn't going to admit this but for solidaritys sake I will, when fitting my new DV17 on Saturday I managed to pull a cartridge tag off my tonearm cable, this after being offered a free fitting service by my dealer (Oh no.. I'm perfectly capable you know, I have all the tools I need etc etc).

Bodged up a fix using the little cables you get with a cartridge and some blu tack!! Had to go cap in hand to the dealer with my deck this morning and beg some swift resoldering.

Felt a complete twat!

Coud have been worse though I used to have a sumiko BPS which lasted all of a month before the cantilever was toasted, never cue up when your very pissed.

.

 

Yeah those fiddly litte dynavector pins are a pain in the ass, much smaller than everyone elses. I knocked a tag off when I was fitting a 17d2. I have a soldering iron though

 

My cartrdige stylus accident was with a goldring 1012Gx. It was brand new in the box. I was lying in bed just about to go to sleep after a night shift but just couldn't wait to look at it. I trashed the Cantelever whilst putting the stylus cover back on ! I went to sleep in the hope that it was just a bad dream- it wasn't. Total ownership of brand new cart before trashing , Hmm... probably about 3 minutes !

I managed to claim about £20 off my credit card company,(another good reason for buying things on plastic)
I then also hit upon the idea of asking Goldring if they could repair it , and so after a quick phone call to their customer services i sent my trashed cart plus a begging letter detailing how stupid and clumsy i was to them . They sent me a brand new cart by return of post.
Now, Thats what i call service.....

 

I've had less problems using turntables when pissed over being sober! I treat decks with kid gloves when sober (always use arm lift etc) and can be TOO careful. When drunk, I still (generally) use the arm lift, but seem to be less "jiggly" with my hands so have less potential for error.

Henryt actually let me use his Orbe/VdH Frog when I was at the point of falling over once - and unbelievably enough no harm came to it - just don't ask him about what happened at the end of that track, when Gareth went to use the deck and didn't use arm lift etc (used to his DJ decks) - Henryt was NOT best pleased, although luckily nothing got broken Lots of rather loud scratching noises as Gareth took the arm off though - d'oh!!!

 

DJs shouldn't be allowed anywhere near vinyl!

 

....ah, but in their defence, without them, there'd have been no 12inch market (which kept the presses open)...

You're right though - on NYE we rang in New Year with "The queen is dead" by The Smiths on vinyl - and my other mate (also a DJ) was on the wheels of steel. The record was covered in fingerprints when he'd finished! Ditto the debut Sex Pistols lp (for "God save the queen" - a bit of anti-royal feeling in the house that night!!!)...

 

Oh yes. I'd go so far as to say that if it weren't for DJs and the dance music scene's continuing love affair with black plastic through the 90s, there wouldn't be any new vinyl now. So what if they stick their grubbies all over their discs - so long as they don't get their grubbies on mine eh

PS. I've never had any problems sober or drunk/stoned - until now - and I was decidely sober.

 

It does render most used dance vinyl useless though

 

ah, but then most of it was useless when new

 

Sigh I was waiting for something like that.

 

That'll teach me for taking the piss, guess fu**ing what !

Owning expensive (imho) cartridges carries far too much responsibilities for my liking. Talk about pissed off. My stylus isn't detached but it is definately cracked. In the hands of Norwich Union right now, I am covered by my insurance. £60 excess plus 14% loss of NCD at next renewal if i decide to persue the claim.

Not content with just giving the stylus a quick (but gentle) 'swish' with a brush, Oh no 'smart arse and coke' had to remove the stylus assy to give it a really good clean, and dropped said item into other hand, you try and stop that reflex action of closing your fist when you catch something, it's like keeping your eyes open when you sneeze! Impossible,
Did i stick to my golden rule of never 'doing' anything to a cartridge without the stylus guard in place, of cource i didn't, shit like that only happens to stupid, clumsy people......

How do people with VdH Grasshoppers and suchlike sleep at night ?

(Stupid and Coke runs down road, screaming and swearing..................)

 

My sympathies - a bad bit of luck, for sure. Hope you get it sorted soon.

Chris.

 

Cheers Chris, although no doubt it will be a good bit of luck, for shure.....

 

Believe me, you have my sympathies. I must admit, if I had a £1000 super cart on the end of my arm, It would make me very nervous indeed and if I was there when Auntie put on a record, I'd probably be hopping about on one foot having the coniptions. After trashing the Shure I am still nervous (though I have to say, I am daring fate to come and get me by removing the stylus guard on the new Denon - it gets in the way when trying to cue up)

In a previous post you asked to let you know how I was getting on with the DL-160. For £95 it is a bargain IMO. Its probably got about 40 hours on it now and is well broken in I'd say. It tracks like a demon - way better than the Tracer and dare I say it pretty much as good as the Shure. No end of side distortion that I can detect. VERY quiet so far as record noise is concerned. Plays old shagged records with aplomb. Like the Shure the top end is very smooth but possibly a bit more prominent and overall its a bit warmer than the Shure.

I think its just right for me to be honest. Its not so expensive that I have babies whenever anyone goes near it. It does all the practical stuff (good tracking, no end of side distortion, low noise, plays shagged records) that I want and it sounds great.

I spent 5 hours last night just playing stuff - A stack of Motown (Marvin Gaye and Tammy Tirrell's - Easy among others); Green Day (Again ); Billy Bragg - Workers Playtime; Max Romeo - War in a Babylon; and some Jerry Lee Lewis to go with the OMM article on Jerry Lee I was reading at the time (great article btw)

It wasn't until I was going to bed that I realised that in all of the five hours, not once did I try to analyse how it actually sounded - I just thoroughly enjoyed the music. This tells me its doing it right.

 

Although my needle was slightly bent to one side I bent it back expecting it to snap off but it didn't.


But on closer inspection:


Amazingly it still plays records. I've only tried it with my very old tatty worthless records that are very rarely played, and certainly not serious listening , just as an 'I wonder.....'

My Insurers have been on the phone today and I should have my replacement in a few days.

Great news about the Denon, sounds like the whole family are good sounding carts.

 

Nice photos (even if the subject matter is a bit sad ). What did you use - a microsocope?

So, are you going to use the insurance money to get a new V15 stylus or something else? According to someone over on the asylum, they think that if you just send shure the stylus and credit card details WITHOUT asking if the scheme is still in place (like I unfortunately did), then they will still supply a new one for $50, but if you explicitly ask them then the answer is that they don't.

If you look here you will see they are still listing the VN series styli for $50. Might be worth a whirl?

 

Ask HenryT, he has a Frog, and, err, can speak from experience... At least his wasn't only one of fifty in the universe Damn!

Uncle Ants - what's the bass on the 160 like compared to, say, either an Ortofon or Dynavector (if you know)? The 540 I have is just about right in bass, but not-so-hot for end-of-side on shagged records... Gets a tad screechy... If I give up on the Dynaudios speaker thing, I could order a Denon in May, since a 160 costs only about £four pints worth more than a new stylus for my 540...

BTW, when I bust my 520 stylus back in 1999, I bend it back manually; the cantilever was literally folded back on itself like a Z shape, but still worked - sort of. I only tried 3 tracks with it looking like that though!