Part 1 of 2; Peter Ledermann of Soundsmith discusses varied stylus shapes and why they exist, as well as how they impact performance and alignment requirements of the cartridges.
Yes..There have been UFO sightings near Peekskill NY. They are attracted to Jackie Gleason's old house...:) I recently utilized Soundsmith for an old SURE stylus re-build and will NOT hesitate to use that service again.
The angle of the "V" groove in records is not constant. The bottom shape of the groove is not constant. It is trial and error as which is best for different recordings ? Who is to say that all conicals are perfectly conical ? Same goes for ellipticals. You don't know how true to shape the stylus is to what it is promoted to be. The micro variation in shape of record grooves is beyond imagination and same for the stylus. Each can fail to pick up what is in the grooves of many records. So to be against one type is not understanding variances.
Excellent talk explaining clearly the differences. The point being that faithful reproduction comes from stylii shapes that cover more of and stay in the groove but that these must be very precisely set up. I have never understood the hype with the Denon DL103 but really rate the Goldring Geiger-s tipped cartridges if well set up. The trade off for most people will be hyper elliptical shapes. Good tracking with less noise than super fineline carts and less record wear at the end of their lives.
I just read in horror this in a forum by a "HiFi fan". This makes me scream! "I thought the styli were industrial diamond coated steel not jewelry" I posted your videos and article about stylus shape as mandatory reading :)
Excellent video, thank you for this. On the subject of conical styli, while I generally agree with your assessment I have had 2 very nice conicals over the years that I loved listening to. The eldest of these is the Stanton 680 and the more recent is the Nagaoka mp-100. I really really wish I hadn't sold the 680s it wasn't until years later that I realized all DJ carts are not that nice to listen to, the stanton 500 AL type does not match up to it's big brother at all.
I really enjoyed this explanation. Thank you. Please do one detailing the old 78 type of needle. Just curious. Mom had the type of player where the speaker was part of the stylus as i recall. The needle inserted into the arm and was secured by a screw. When a real needle was not handy, she would use nails, sewing needles, cut off nibs from ink pens or anything else she could find. Often she would place weights on top - like a coin. I know (now) she ruined a lot of records, but it just seemed normal to me back in the 50's. Your thoughts?
Great video, but I don't think it's reasonable to dismiss the conical design entirely. There are some good conicals that can surpass the more advanced designs in areas such as responsiveness and dynamics. And there might well be other factors at play as well, which we can't measure yet or even have the right words for. I suppose you could say that good conicals can be better at "communicating emotions conveyed in the composition and/or the particular performance of it". To people more used to the advanced designs it can sometimes be almost overwhelming, in a positive sense, to listen to a good conical DJ cartridge or one of the supreme early 1960s conical cartridges such as the Denon DL 103, But in my experience the novelty often wears off, and sooner or later they will probably return to some kind of elliptical design in order to obtain more detail and general finesse. It seems to be a battle between technical and emotional issues over what should take the front seat. Unfortunately, it seems you can't have it both ways so the best solution is probably a compromise that can change from one individual to the other, which appears to be what Ledermann says as well in this video l though perhaps he could have put it more clearly.
I have a Technics SL-L3 the replacement cartridge in manual is the EPS-33ES elliptical....I put in a Conical version without knowing..it was distorted and no low end. Is this what happens when you put in a conical where an elliptical was? Having a hard tome finding a elliptical. Thanks
You have a p-mount turntable which makes it very easy to swap cartridges without having to align them. The stylus you mention is for the very common technics line of MM p-mounts. I would suggest the Jico elliptical, or for a very nice stylus, the Jico sas www.jico-stylus.com/product_info.php?cPath=10&products_id=621 www.jico-stylus.com/product/eps202-sas-b/
hello Sir.. could you explain to me what type of stylus the VITAL is .. as i have one on my Linn K9 cartridge & i still love the sound from it.. & would like to try the AT-95 VMN range as a backup.. hope you can help me out .. Paul
In principle you can make a solid diamond into any tip shape. The advantage of a nude or solid diamond over titanium bonded diamond diamond Is far lower tip mass. Typically you will not find conical nude diamonds However conicle nudes are used in various designs such as the denon 103. Conical Designs have high force per unit area Which is An advantage in terms of tip damping but a negative in terms of high frequency performance especially at the end of record and because of the high force per unit area lower tip life. If I get time I will do a new video soon with some additional hopefully interesting information on tip design
7EP/LPclose-in video is unflattering,(Boris of MIB3-look :) butits ab awkward subject to tackle. for convenience,cost viewpoints, most people wil want one good cart&stylus for averagingly good quality playback of old/new, stereo/mono,45/EP/LP - everything except 78s'(which need specific stylus size) I think its a case of experimentation. NHK-Japan still think Denon DL103 w/spherical(conical) stylus, is bees knees. after some years of using an expensive MC cart w/ vital(fine-line) stylus, now happy with moderate-priced MM w/ .7mil spherical. on average, groove noise is lower. there are lierally '000s of cart/stylus combinations by type/brand. I wish good luck to all, in finding a combo which suits the tone arm/overall sound of your system. - the most expensive cart with, say, a micro-ridge stylus, may not sound best, be good value.Soundsmith won't like this, but its best not to blow too many $ at start of your search. oh, and get a good alignment protracter, if fitting cart yourself.
What do you mean by wear a diamond doesn't wear out! do you mean losing its surface polish what can be repolished with green Emery or safety box match striker. Have you got any techniques on repolishing.
Diamond doesn't wear out? You are a true romantic, Mr John sweda. In reality, you can drill a hole in stone with water. Thus, the profile cut in diamond is worn out and down in, say, 5000 h.
Franck Sonata diamond is the hardest material on earth you're not going to wear it out with a bit of plastic but you can take the surface polish off in 1000 h
So diamonds are forever, you say? Sorry, but only in the movies ... Diamond stylii on cartridges do get worn out by the vinyl friction; many hours and miles but eventually there always is diamond dust in your grooves. That is why there are re-tipping services: the worn-out diamond is replaced by a new diamond. Of course, the old diamond is not entirely worn out to extinction but its shape and profile is damaged by wear. Not really a subject for discussion, Google can provide more detail about cartridges and diamond wear.
Franck Sonata the natural life of a diamond is 500000 years especially man-made Diamonds are harder than natural diamonds it will not wear out the diamond hearsay, but take its surface off this can be polished, usually counter lever suspension will fail before the diamond would. There's no diamond dust in the grooves why should there be. Will we have to see if he gives us a definitive answer till then the jury's out. As he says in part 2 the surface of the stylus gets rough and damages your record polishing correct this error the talking about microscopic jarring
Diamond is a very hard and useful substance, but it absolutely wears. With each play, atoms are stripped off the surface of the diamond slightly changing its shape. You can see the damage under a microscope and stylus wear microscopes used to be a common tool in hi-fi shops. If you took a plastic wheel and let the edge spin against a diamond surface long enough, you would eventually see a scuff and then a groove taking shape. Of course, you might go through many plastic wheels before this happened and some of the wear would come from the introduction of other contaminants picked up from the air (which is why we clean records). When a record side is played, the stylus has one contact point per side but the vinyl contact point is always moving. So, all the wear happens on one constant microscopic spot on the stylus and is spread over 1400 feet of groove on a record side. The record takes more wear, but the diamond has it all in one place which files down the intended profile.
Mr. Ledermann -- eloquent, succinct, and anxious to inform and teach as usual -- plus, warm and friendly. Thank you.
Essential viewing if you want a concise explanation of how styli interact with your vinyl records - great presentation.
Peter, you’re the greatest explainning cartridges issues, easy to understand and convincing.
Been into this hobby for over 40 years and still learning.What you say explains so much.
Thank You !😎
Thank you Peter. Very illustrative which sure sends the message home to me. Well done!
Excellent discussion on a very complex subject about which I wanted to get a clear idea. 👍👍. Many thanks. Loved the learning.
Yes..There have been UFO sightings near Peekskill NY. They are attracted to Jackie Gleason's old house...:)
I recently utilized Soundsmith for an old SURE stylus re-build and will NOT hesitate to use that service again.
thank you for explaining this slowly and clearly, its been a great help!
Excellent video, thank you.
The angle of the "V" groove in records is not constant. The bottom shape of the groove is not constant. It is trial and error as which is best for different recordings ? Who is to say that all conicals are perfectly conical ? Same goes for ellipticals. You don't know how true to shape the stylus is to what it is promoted to be. The micro variation in shape of record grooves is beyond imagination and same for the stylus. Each can fail to pick up what is in the grooves of many records. So to be against one type is not understanding variances.
Excellent job on describing stylus shapes.
Such a great informative video just what I was looking for! Thanks for the upload 👌🏻
Excellent talk explaining clearly the differences. The point being that faithful reproduction comes from stylii shapes that cover more of and stay in the groove but that these must be very precisely set up. I have never understood the hype with the Denon DL103 but really rate the Goldring Geiger-s tipped cartridges if well set up. The trade off for most people will be hyper elliptical shapes. Good tracking with less noise than super fineline carts and less record wear at the end of their lives.
Very interesting. Thank-you.
Thank you very much for a useful lecture .
Very interesting
I just read in horror this in a forum by a "HiFi fan". This makes me scream!
"I thought the styli were industrial diamond coated steel not jewelry"
I posted your videos and article about stylus shape as mandatory reading :)
Excellent video, thank you for this. On the subject of conical styli, while I generally agree with your assessment I have had 2 very nice conicals over the years that I loved listening to. The eldest of these is the Stanton 680 and the more recent is the Nagaoka mp-100. I really really wish I hadn't sold the 680s it wasn't until years later that I realized all DJ carts are not that nice to listen to, the stanton 500 AL type does not match up to it's big brother at all.
I’ve always liked the fine line. Like he popular 2M red I never was fan of but the 2M Bronze is much nicer
Great video..learned alot
Wow, I would describe and Audio-Technica VM540ML 2:20 as "esoteric" or "used a long time ago".
Nothing wrong with conical stylus, I have a micro line and a conical. Both perform excellent
I really enjoyed this explanation. Thank you. Please do one detailing the old 78 type of needle. Just curious. Mom had the type of player where the speaker was part of the stylus as i recall. The needle inserted into the arm and was secured by a screw. When a real needle was not handy, she would use nails, sewing needles, cut off nibs from ink pens or anything else she could find. Often she would place weights on top - like a coin. I know (now) she ruined a lot of records, but it just seemed normal to me back in the 50's. Your thoughts?
Great video, but I don't think it's reasonable to dismiss the conical design entirely. There are some good conicals that can surpass the more advanced designs in areas such as responsiveness and dynamics. And there might well be other factors at play as well, which we can't measure yet or even have the right words for. I suppose you could say that good conicals can be better at "communicating emotions conveyed in the composition and/or the particular performance of it". To people more used to the advanced designs it can sometimes be almost overwhelming, in a positive sense, to listen to a good conical DJ cartridge or one of the supreme early 1960s conical cartridges such as the Denon DL 103, But in my experience the novelty often wears off, and sooner or later they will probably return to some kind of elliptical design in order to obtain more detail and general finesse. It seems to be a battle between technical and emotional issues over what should take the front seat. Unfortunately, it seems you can't have it both ways so the best solution is probably a compromise that can change from one individual to the other, which appears to be what Ledermann says as well in this video l though perhaps he could have put it more clearly.
I have a Technics SL-L3 the replacement cartridge in manual is the EPS-33ES elliptical....I put in a Conical version without knowing..it was distorted and no low end. Is this what happens when you put in a conical where an elliptical was? Having a hard tome finding a elliptical. Thanks
You can use alternative cartridge brands. The Needle Doctor can likely help you out
You have a p-mount turntable which makes it very easy to swap cartridges without having to align them. The stylus you mention is for the very common technics line of MM p-mounts. I would suggest the Jico elliptical, or for a very nice stylus, the Jico sas
www.jico-stylus.com/product_info.php?cPath=10&products_id=621
www.jico-stylus.com/product/eps202-sas-b/
hello Sir.. could you explain to me what type of stylus the VITAL is .. as i have one on my Linn K9 cartridge & i still love the sound from it.. & would like to try the AT-95 VMN range as a backup.. hope you can help me out .. Paul
like a enlong inverted pyramid
Ultra noob question, is the sole purpose of the multi arm turntables to suit it's compatibility to the record?
If you shifted 6 inches to the left the UFO would fly away... but thanks for the info!😂😊
so, which one shape is really the best ?
So... is a nude stylus considered fine line? I'm trying to figure out the difference between elliptical and nude.
In principle you can make a solid diamond into any tip shape. The advantage of a nude or solid diamond over titanium bonded diamond diamond Is far lower tip mass. Typically you will not find conical nude diamonds However conicle nudes are used in various designs such as the denon 103. Conical Designs have high force per unit area Which is An advantage in terms of tip damping but a negative in terms of high frequency performance especially at the end of record and because of the high force per unit area lower tip life. If I get time I will do a new video soon with some additional hopefully interesting information on tip design
Are they still in business? Is Peter OK
😊
7EP/LPclose-in video is unflattering,(Boris of MIB3-look :) butits ab awkward subject to tackle. for convenience,cost viewpoints, most people wil want one good cart&stylus for averagingly good quality playback of old/new, stereo/mono,45/EP/LP - everything except 78s'(which need specific stylus size)
I think its a case of experimentation. NHK-Japan still think Denon DL103 w/spherical(conical) stylus, is bees knees. after some years of using an expensive MC cart w/ vital(fine-line) stylus, now happy with moderate-priced MM w/ .7mil spherical. on average, groove noise is lower.
there are lierally '000s of cart/stylus combinations by type/brand. I wish good luck to all, in finding a combo which suits the tone arm/overall sound of your system. - the most expensive cart with, say, a micro-ridge stylus, may not sound best, be good value.Soundsmith won't like this, but its best not to blow too many $ at start of your search. oh, and get a good alignment protracter, if fitting cart yourself.
The have suddenly got me fixated on the ufo
This dude is the Neil deGrass Tyson of audio
Playing vinyl has become a lost art.
What do you mean by wear a diamond doesn't wear out! do you mean losing its surface polish what can be repolished with green Emery or safety box match striker. Have you got any techniques on repolishing.
Diamond doesn't wear out? You are a true romantic, Mr John sweda. In reality, you can drill a hole in stone with water. Thus, the profile cut in diamond is worn out and down in, say, 5000 h.
Franck Sonata diamond is the hardest material on earth you're not going to wear it out with a bit of plastic but you can take the surface polish off in 1000 h
So diamonds are forever, you say? Sorry, but only in the movies ... Diamond stylii on cartridges do get worn out by the vinyl friction; many hours and miles but eventually there always is diamond dust in your grooves. That is why there are re-tipping services: the worn-out diamond is replaced by a new diamond. Of course, the old diamond is not entirely worn out to extinction but its shape and profile is damaged by wear.
Not really a subject for discussion, Google can provide more detail about cartridges and diamond wear.
Franck Sonata the natural life of a diamond is 500000 years especially man-made Diamonds are harder than natural diamonds it will not wear out the diamond hearsay, but take its surface off this can be polished, usually counter lever suspension will fail before the diamond would. There's no diamond dust in the grooves why should there be. Will we have to see if he gives us a definitive answer till then the jury's out. As he says in part 2 the surface of the stylus gets rough and damages your record polishing correct this error the talking about microscopic jarring
Diamond is a very hard and useful substance, but it absolutely wears. With each play, atoms are stripped off the surface of the diamond slightly changing its shape. You can see the damage under a microscope and stylus wear microscopes used to be a common tool in hi-fi shops. If you took a plastic wheel and let the edge spin against a diamond surface long enough, you would eventually see a scuff and then a groove taking shape. Of course, you might go through many plastic wheels before this happened and some of the wear would come from the introduction of other contaminants picked up from the air (which is why we clean records). When a record side is played, the stylus has one contact point per side but the vinyl contact point is always moving. So, all the wear happens on one constant microscopic spot on the stylus and is spread over 1400 feet of groove on a record side. The record takes more wear, but the diamond has it all in one place which files down the intended profile.