Grado Sonata

LeeS · Post by **LeeS** » 26 Jan 2006 12:39

I have been using one of these for about 12 months now. I am not sure if it is because it has all settled down and loosened up, but I am now noticing a fair bit of what I can only describe as tracking distortion, mainly getting worse as it starts to traverse the dreaded inner grooves. I am worried that this will damage my stylus and vinyl. I have had the cart off and under my microscope, and the stylus is perfect. I have tried two or three different alignment techniques, and settled on the Baerwald. My question is this; would it damage anything if I increased the recommended VTF from 1.5g to maybe 1.6g or 1.75g. Will this cure the problem, or just make things worse ?

bastlnut · Post by **bastlnut** » 26 Jan 2006 12:51

hallo Lee,

what arm are you using? it does sound like there is an alignment problem. IME, the vtf is usually +/- 10%.

regards,
bastlnut

LeeS · Post by **LeeS** » 26 Jan 2006 14:26

I am using a Rega. I have aligned the cart at least ten times using different methods, and none of them seem to make much difference to the mistracking. I have played with the anti-skate until I am blue in the face, and it seems best at about 0.8g. It is worse on some records than others, which I am putting down to actual inner groove distortion on the record rather than the cart, but it is also appearing on records that I have never noticed it on before.

bastlnut · Post by **bastlnut** » 26 Jan 2006 14:46

hi,

try something for me. use the stevenson points, and keep the cantilever parallel to the (screw) slots in the headshell and use first the outer point for the overhang. do not change this angle that the headshell gives you, and align the cantilever parallel to the grid of the outerpoint.

another thought,
does this distortion happen with other cartridges too? have you tried the grado on another turnatable?

and again,
how is the vta? this is important for a grado cartridge.

and still again,
what turntable are you using?

regards,
bastlnut