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My treasure – "Wrinkles like grooves brings audio wisdom" - 'Playing with LP player (Part 2)' By Otomeijin (Dec 2, 2005) It's about (4)playing with a cartridge and a shell by the classification of the last time. LP used to be expensive like 1,800 to 2,300 yen per record at that time. Since you can only buy 10 LPs or so after you work without eating for a month, you know how expensive it was. (However, the unit price hasn't changed much after our income doubled, you know. It's like the price for egg.) You need to handle it more carefully since the material is soft as it is vinyl and the grooves are so delicate. The stylus pressure is very large for phonograph. So, if you receive it on your finger it will surely sting you and make you bleed from your finger. Even the pressure for LP which used to be said double or much lighter than that can match the one stamped by an elephant according to someone's calculation. Because of these impressions, I have been obsessed with as light stylus as possible.
The main element that decides the sound from a player is a cartridge. Kojien(Japanese encyclopedia) says "Cartridge (hereinafter CA): A part to be installed on the tip of pickup of the record player, and to convert the mechanical vibration into the electric vibration". Yes that's correct. This short description tells all the CA's functions. You know, it would be perfect if the mechanical vibration can be <accurately> converted into the electric signal. Here HIFI has started off. In my way of saying, "CA is a teeny-weeny artistic power generator". Well, there are many CA playing. And among (1) enjoying by replacing CA, (2) modifying as much as possible and (3) making CA as an ultimate playing, my push would be (2). The purpose of the possible modification is to accurately convert the electricity, to modify to reduce the stylus pressure, modify it into the vibration-resistant and to modify to lessen the vibration. As for the stylus pressure, you need (the mobility) to increase the compliance at the stylus tip as lessening the vibration mass of the stylus. Let's see some examples as below.

Example 1. (in the above picture) Quarter century ago, C-2 in the monaural age I tried to lighten the CA by scraping the guidance armature installed on the back of the beryllium cantilever and its tip the stylus chip, and made the rubber damper smaller accordingly. I did it little by little while listening to the sound. I remember that the C-2 stylus pressure was like 7 to 8gr, if I'm correct, though, it eventually became 4gr. I think I didn't like to damage my precious records. If you make the lever soften that much, the resonance point will fall down and damage it in the audible range. After 50 years without checking, the stylus point has gone and the armature has come off and stuck to the magnet. There were not many types of glue that time other than Cemedine, and it wasn't easy to use it since it threaded. So, you may be surprised though, I used nail varnish instead. It looks kind of pink, don't you think? This CA is called variable reluctance type. (Please read the back-number vol. 140 of this Online Newsletter) I think that U.S. GE developed this method if I'm correct. I think the GE's lever was made from mumetal (excellent magnetic substance) and the magnet was installed on the back in the midway of the lever. The Japanese (Sound or Akai?) one had the magnet installed on the lever's stylus tip. So, if you put a mumetal chip on the back of the stylus point, you can choose the nonmagnetic lever with good vibration characteristic. Probably compared to GE, it might have been better with less number of coils and less powerful magnet. It looks like Japan won here. Also at that time many turntables were made of steel plate, and I used to be instructed to pay attention since the stylus pressure would go up by getting pulled by the magnet (my initial CEC).

Example 2: Let's see AT-1 the first CA from Audio-technica that introduced itself as an audio manufacturer after stereo came into the market. It has the exact basic structure of MM type. A cylinder shaped magnet is glued to the aluminum cantilever and inserted into the stylus holder wrapped in the square rubber damper. This silicon type(?) synthetic rubber damper is to decide the sound. I tried to lighten it by folding the magnet half and thinning it down with a grind stone. I remember that I shortened the pipe appropriately as well. (as in the picture) I made the rubber damper from cutout of an eraser, synthetic rubber, etc. My original rubber damper had a good aspect though, overall it had a certain habit in high sound and couldn't outstrip the manufacturers' dampers that easily. Since the pants got loose as much as the magnet got thinner, I installed the Araldite spherically so as to be wrapped in the damper. While I was grinning and thinking that the center of the vibration would become clear since the ball vibrates (spins) inside the damper, a certain manufacturer released MMCA the sphere-shaped magnet, which surprised me a lot. Thus and so, I succeeded in decreasing the stylus pressure down to 1.0gr and used the stylus of 1.5gr practically. The sound of AT-1 which was really bunchy became delicate and natural. Like this the MM type is "easily playable", so Grace and Technics ones besides Audio-technica one got sacrificed(?). Each of them is smooth in sound quality mostly and stretches out in high range. Let me speak on behalf of the manufacturer (?). The products have to be heavy-duty even if some characteristics get sacrificed since they are used by all sorts of people. If they pursue the delicacy too far, such products will have higher risks. Therefore, you need to take full responsibility for any modification. As far as you touch audio equipments, you need to have some "affection" for them. Since you want them to work properly as expected even if you don't modify, you must know their characteristics and features well. Please understand the limit of equipment roughly analogue-wise even if it's out of your hands and impossible for you to do so digital-wise. Most limits are in the commonsense range. A car will get broken if you load too much stuffs or press down on the accelerator too much, wont it? You know, there is no exact boundary from where the stuffs get broken. And the stuffs in the pictures are old and dirty with glue and so on through my experiments though, it produces beautiful sounds still. Yeah?

Example 3. The MC type includes the typical ortofon type(?) or Denon type mostly though, these are too difficult to modify for laypeople. Besides I had an armature inside the coil in order to increase the output by improving the magnetic efficiency, I didn't use it unless it was magnetic flux hysteresis and HIFI. The same went for MM though, the truth was MC was expensive.. (-_-;) In the meanwhile, stylus replacement MC type CA which is principle-wise straightforward and high-power and even laypeople can modify was released. It was Satin. I bought it in a flash. As you can see in the picture, it uses very clear-cut power generation system. It feels very HIFI. After some improvements, the what-generation Satin created very natural and soft sounds. M117 was the late-stage Satin. Some people said the separation was good and stiff though, I felt it was good and soft in my house. The stylus replacement for Satin used to be done by snapping with a small screw cramp or an action from the plate spring at the beginning though, in the end it came to be done by the magnetism absorption using the magnet of the power generating magnetic field as in the picture. This is just perfect to modify and play. This playing was to pick up directly from grooves. I made it generate power directly avoiding the flexure of a pipe by picking up right beside the grooves'(stylus's) vibration so as to receive it right near the stylus instead of the cantilever in the power generation mechanism receiving in the midway (inside the circle in the below right photograph) of the pipe lever. The position of the stylus gets deeper and the body gets scraped while I'm working on it, so I opened the head to prevent it as in the picture. Since the coil receives the amplitude twice as much as of the regular product which works by leverage, the stylus pressure won't lighten, though the output goes up. The sound was really good too. Then, I thoroughly tried expecting that it would become a direct PU by pulling it with the ultra thin wire and attaching the aluminum pipe chopped off at the stylus tip onto the cantilever. The sound produced in this way could be described like "I feel as if I am listening to the master tape" the hip phrase of that time by the critics (though this is my guess since it's totally unlikely for us to listen to that master tape). However, the stylus blew away about 5 minutes later because its strength wasn't enough and then the cantilever got also broken. The left cantilever in the above picture is the one I repaired. There was Victor CA for CA called direct whose concept was the same as this. It looked like they made a coil with the technique of making IC and put it around the stylus tip like a frill-necked lizard. Now "IKEDA" seems like the direct type though, I don't know about the details like its structure etc.

Example 4. Now I use low-priced Audio-technica MM since I learned to listen with CDs mostly, the CA manufacturers folded up and besides it costs ridiculously expensive if I get obsessed with the sound quality. However, its vibration system seems amazingly tiny and light, so it won't require any modification. Besides the stylus is super elliptical called line contact stylus whose surface noise is soft and short. It would seem that the position that stylus goes through is different compare with existing products. And other than that, the sound is excellent. You can't make light of it. I guess Audio-technica is not manufacturing any more CA recently though, I want to know what the truth is. Since there is none to modify here, I removed the stylus guard (shore type?) disliking the unwanted parasitic oscillation from it and cut elastomer resin (in gel) for anti-earthquake measures of the latest fad to glue it onto the back and sides of a shell and the sides of a CA. (in the right picture) The stability of the separation and sound increased, which is wonderful. This turned out very effective. It is worth tens thousands yen. Why don't you try it on your own! To be continued.

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