[Zero One]

Having come across the posts on the longhorn mod I am quite intriqued, I feel it probably does work well and the feedback seems  positive.  So  I thought I'd try a little variation on the theme, which I did listen too at lunch time but I need to hear more to make a call....anyway here is my idea.

My cart is mounted on a DIY version of the Cart Isolator so this idea goes hand in hand with that.

It is easy to conceive that there would be a slight rocking of the cart causing vibrations that interfer with HF sound, I imagine that with the isolator this effect may be greater than a normally mounted cart.

In my quick experiment I used a short lenght of solder with a blob of blutac on each end, the arms are bent down so the lay in a plane just above the level of the stylus.  My reasoning is that the solder will offer some damping in itself and the bluetac wont feed anything back in reverse along the solder.  The lowering of the arm will lower the centre of gravity making the set up more stable and less prone to overshooting the mark.

Now ths seems to work, the highs are very nice, but I have so many tweaks already applied I really need to listen a lot more to be sure.  Naturally the ounterweight was readjusted to suit.

Thinking about it, the rocking would be centered around the axis of the stylus cantilever up in the body of the cart not at the front, so ideally the arms should come out from the sides of the body just above the bottom face of the body.  I will experiment with this and try wooden toothpick instead of solder, though I suspect the solder would be better.  Most of the weight would I feel need to be concentrated on the ends of the arms.

It might also be advantageous to have another arm that hangs in front of the cart to counteract clockwise rotational tendencies as the needle drags through the vinyl, though I need to give this more thought.

I feel that the ideal arrangment with cartidge isolators would be to stop all movement except for vertical movement with a tiny tiny bit of reaward movement, a bit like the front suspension on a car.  The Isolator can supply the required movement, but it needs close matching for the weight of the cart/complience/arm weight and the longhorns can maintain the stability.

And just when I thought I tweaked that TT and cart as much as possible!

[Zero One]

I have had a further listen to the mod this evening and also found original article via a link on this forum.

I am now convinced it does sound better, smoother highs mainly, I also feel quite sure there is still a lot to be gained by fiddling with actual location of the longhorn, distrubution of the weights and the amount of them and also the composition of the cartridge isolator.

Here's a thought though, what if all carts are actually mounted the wrong way in the first place.  You see all carts are mounted at the top, obviously this makes setting up the cart easier, but maybe carts would be better if mounted half way down the body with with the mounts in the vertical plane rather than the horizontal plane. This way the cart would not have the rotational leverage it does as the mounting point could be lined up with the centre line of the cantilever.

Or how about this,  how about mounting the cart in the headshell, one with edges that extend a bit down the sides of the cart body, mount it so there is a thin soft washers between the cart and headshell and line it up with the screws etc as normal....then use a little silicon to glue the cart in place around it perimeter.  Wait for the silicone to go off properly and lock it in place, then remove the screws and nuts, the washers will stay in place.  THen fill the headshell with silicon and layer it up around the cart.  Sounds radical! pretty permanent but if you have a cheap cart it wouldn't matter too much.....I suspect this would actually sound pretty good, especially if the stylus holder is glued into the cart body.

The silcon will damp resonances and control movement in all directions I'd say and of shouldn't weigh too much.

I might just try it as I have some new cheapo carts spare, I'm currently using a modded one at present and it sounds lovely.

Well thats it off to tweeky byes for me.

[TheChairGuy]

The Vinyl Tweek King at work!! 

[Wayner]

Easy now, you'll get your knees and hands dirty!

W

[Psychicanimal]

I am now convinced it does sound better, smoother highs mainly, I also feel quite sure there is still a lot to be gained by fiddling with actual location of the longhorn, distrubution of the weights and the amount of them and also the composition of the cartridge isolator.

Probably shorter, end-heavy stabilizers as low as possible and in the same vertical plane as the diamond tip.  The stabilizers could use little upright fins like those at the end of jet wings!!!

THen fill the headshell with silicon and layer it up around the cart.  Sounds radical! pretty permanent but if you have a cheap cart it wouldn't matter too much.....I suspect this would actually sound pretty good, especially if the stylus holder is glued into the cart body.

The silcon will damp resonances and control movement in all directions I'd say and of shouldn't weigh too much.

You can play all you want, but I would go for a clean shot solution: a 1/8" thick wood cartridge isolator made from non resonant, Caribbean Moca wood and sticking Marigo dots on selected locations.

The stylus tube of the KAB modded Groovemaster is soldered onto the cartridge body, FYI.