How do I find a stylus for my turntable?

[knb226]

Okay so first of all I have a Tecnics SL-220 turntable I need a new stylus now but don't know what to get can someone on here please help me find what I need? I also don't know the type of cartridge I have either. Thank you in advance!

[jackfish]

http://www.lpgear.com/product/TSTSL0220.html

[knb226]

Thank you! Are there other options? That seems kind of pricy to me.

[beat_truck]

I get all my needles and cartridges from Ebay. Much cheaper.

[dlaloum]

Just to be sure, first check the cartridge on your arm to make sure it is in fact the original, and not some other cartridge due to an upgrade. (sometimes the manufacturers varied things along the way too)

If in doubt post a photo...

The cartridge/stylus the previous link pointed at is originally manufactured by Audio Technica - a range of styli are available:
http://www.turntableneedles.com/search. ... &search=GO

The original AT ones are consistently high quality.

As you can see from this link you can start with a conical and upgrade to an eliptical...

You can often find bargains for this type of stylus on ebay, but not all are of high quality... so some caution is advised.

bye for now

David

[13oots2]

Thank you! Are there other options? That seems kind of pricy to me.

That price is very low, higher end cartridges have non replaceable stylus and can run to tens of thousands of dollars.

[knb226]

Wow I really wasn't familiar with the wide range of styluses and cartridges available. I will post a picture of the cartridge soon. Thanks for the help.

[knb226]

Here are a couple of pictures, sorry not great quality.

[13oots2]

It is possible someone could identify the cartridge from the pictures. Best bet is to carefully remove the cartridge from the headshell and I am guessing the make and model will be printed on the top of the cartridge. You will then be able to make a correct choice rather than edumicated guess

[dlaloum]

The Shots aren't too clear, but that is definitely not an AT71 type - it is not the original cartridge for that turntable.

In fact it looks to me like an ADC of the XLM/VLM/QLM family...

This is probably your cartridge:
http://www.turntableneedles.com/Genuine ... _3866.html

If that is the case, you have a lot of stylus choices to go with that body:
http://www.turntableneedles.com/search. ... &search=GO
http://www.turntableneedles.com/search. ... &search=GO
http://www.turntableneedles.com/search. ... &search=GO
http://www.turntableneedles.com/search. ... &search=GO
http://www.turntableneedles.com/search. ... &search=GO

They range all the way from the basic conical types, to very high tech, fancy items like the Astrion:
http://www.turntableneedles.com/113-DRS ... p_865.html
Which at $190 is very good value for a stylus of this level of performance...

Given the type of turntable and arm we are talking about the optimal stylus would be one that tracks at around 2g. (between say 1.5g and 2.5g)

I would try to choose an eliptical rather than a conical - under most circumstances and eliptical will sound better.


eg:
http://www.turntableneedles.com/Needle- ... p_859.html
http://www.turntableneedles.com/Needle- ... p_853.html
http://www.turntableneedles.com/RK8E-ty ... p_854.html
http://www.turntableneedles.com/ADC-VLM ... p_844.html


Hope that helps

bye for now

David

[knb226]

I did find out it was ADC, the other letters you mention are those 3 different options or is that all the same family, and where can those letters be found? I did not realized how in depth this can get, thanks for the help!

[dlaloum]

The letters (XLM, QLM, VLM, K8, ZLM) were different ADC cartridge models... but the interesting thing is that the bodies manufactured were always identical - all that varied is the stylus. (there are a couple of exceptions, but...)

So you could take a bottom of the line K8 and turn it into a ZLM by fitting the appropriate stylus.

So what you have is an enormously versatile cartridge body.

Now that you know that it is so versatile, you also need to know that the best way to optimise your setup is to ensure that the compliance of the stylus cantilever (softness of the suspension) - needs to be matched to the mass of your TT arm.

The legendary top of the line ADC models (XLM, ZLM) were very high compliance and were designed for very low mass arms.... which yours is not!

However there were other models in the range which were designed to match mid-mass arms.... your best way of identifying those models is by looking at the VTF (vertical tracking force) specification of the stylus.
As I said previously the ones that will match your arm best would be those with a VTF of between 1.5g and 2.5g.

Once you choose your stylus, your cartridge will be "turned into" whatever stylus spec you have chosen (Magic!).

The ADC's by the way are quite excellent... and although not in production now for many years (ADC got out of Vinyl a long time ago!) - many of us continue to enjoy the sound of these cartridges.
Their designer is/was one of the legends of vinyl engineering...

bye for now
David

[knb226]

Great! Thanks for all the help, kind of seems over my head though, so I sit here scratching my head....But really thanks for all the help, it really is appreciated. I bought a stylus off of ebay, as my budget for a stylus is not that deep. I bought a needle QLM30/III Mk III RSQ31 K8 111-D7C (that maybe overboard with the infor but that is what was the item was listed as). It further says it is a .7 MIL diamond that plays 33 and 45 RPM records and has a 2 to 4 grams tracking force (which after reading your last post gives me some good thought).

Also I had another question where can I look on my cartridge to determine the model?

And how do you know what to adjust the cantilever to?

Thanks again for all the help and advice, I can now see that this site will be a frequent on my browser. I have a small collection of vinyl and really enjoy listening to it all!

[Bran Kulez]

Also I had another question where can I look on my cartridge to determine the model?

I think dlaloum addressed the model number question. I have an ADC cartridge that looks just like the one you have and there is no model number on it.

And how do you know what to adjust the cantilever to?

The "cantilever" is the teeny-tiny aluminum tube that holds the diamond tip. The thing you want to adjust is the "tonearm", the tube that holds the headshell and cartridge on one end and the "counterweight" on the other.

Adjusting the counterweight will affect the stylus force onto the record. I would suggest removing the stylus from the cartridge until you are familiar with how everything works, this way if you bump the tonearm and it goes flying across the turntable, you won't damage the stylus.

1) install the headshell onto the tonearm

2) set the antiskate to zero (small black disk to the right of the tonearm)

3) remove the tonearm from the resting post and let it hang freely between the resting post and the platter

4) adjust the counterweight so that the tonearm "floats" parallel to the turntable base, disregard the numbers on the counterweight for now

* the counterweight has 2 parts to it, one is the actual weight, the other is the scale. The scale has the numbers on it, usually 0 to 3 or 3.5, this refers to the tracking force in grams.

5) hold the weight of the counterbalance in one hand and adjust the scale to zero with your other hand

* the tonearm with the headshell and cartridge (no needle) should now hover horizontally over the turntable with the counterweight set to zero

* once you are comfortable adjusting the tonearm, you can install the stylus onto the cartridge and repeat the steps above to compensate for the additional weight of the stylus.

6) with everything installed and floating parallel to the turntable and the counterweight set to zero, you can now adjust the counterweight to the correct tracking force

* when adjusting the tracking force make sure the entire counterweight assembly is turning, i.e. the counterweight and scale

7) adjust the antiskate. The antiskate and tracking force are directly related, you should refer to the owners manual for the correct setting.

Hope this helps!