DIYbanter - View Single Post

Trevor Wilson

On 27/11/2013 5:59 AM, wrote:
This is my own turntable I've just gotten
out of the closet. I'd like to listen to some of my 70's records. The
unit I'm working on is an old Thorens TD160 turntable with an Stanton
gold body 500 cartridge. The cartridge is equipped with the elliptical stylus
designed to track at between 1 and 2 grams. I'm presently tracking at
1.25 grams without any apparent problems.

I would like to set this up as accurately as possible. I'm hoping that
someone can advise me on this. The manual I have is for a
slightly different unit with a newer tone arm, and all it mentions
about anti skate is to set it just slightly lower than your tracking
weight. It seems to run fine what ever anti skate is set to and
although I've made that adjustment to just over 1, I would like
to be a bit more precise than that if possible.

I thought I recall (way back when) that there was a procedure whereby
you leveled the unit, and then you played this "record" without
grooves. If the stylus remained in one spot without drifting then your
anti skate was correct. If it drifted, then a slight adjustment on the
anti skate was in order. I don't have any such "record" and I can't
think of a way to do something like that without damaging the stylus.
I was wondering if anyone had any further information pertaining to
this procedure? Thanks, Lenny

**The Stanton 500 is a horrible cartridge. It was designed for
ham-fisted DJs, not hi fi reproduction. Get rid it it and use something
better (which means pretty much anything else). As for anti-sakting
adjustments, don't sweat it. Near enough is good enough. Follow the
directions from Thorens. You first step, however, is to GET RID OF THAT
HORRIBLE CARTRIDGE if you value you old recordings.

--
Trevor Wilson www.rageaudio.com.au