[whubbard]

I've been planning a nice DIY turntable build with all new parts except the tonearm.
The Cartridge is a Koetsu Rosewood Standard, Re-Tipped by Sound-Smith (Ruby Cantilever & Optimized Contour Nude Contact Line Diamond).
It's compliance is 5 x 10^(-6) cm/dyne at 100hz, and my tonearm, RB250 has an effective mass of 11g.

So, I have a low compliance cartridge, with a low compliance tonearm...not good.

Now, the RB250 is going to be replaced in the future, as it is the weakest link in the chain, but I'm wondering if any of you have suggestions for how to add more effective mass, without hurting performance. I should add that I have Pete Riggle's Counterweight and VTAF on the Rega.

-West

[JCC]

I've been planning a nice DIY turntable build with all new parts except the tonearm.
The Cartridge is a Koetsu Rosewood Standard, Re-Tipped by Sound-Smith (Ruby Cantilever & Optimized Contour Nude Contact Line Diamond).
It's compliance is 5 x 10^(-6) cm/dyne at 100hz, and my tonearm, RB250 has an effective mass of 11g.

So, I have a low compliance cartridge, with a low compliance tonearm...not good.

Now, the RB250 is going to be replaced in the future, as it is the weakest link in the chain, but I'm wondering if any of you have suggestions for how to add more effective mass, without hurting performance. I should add that I have Pete Riggle's Counterweight and VTAF on the Rega.

I think that you will find that the compliance has been significantly increased with the Soundsmith retipping. I have the same retipping on my ZYX cartridge and have gradually decreased my tracking force to 1 gram. The Soundsmith retipping with the Optimized Contour diamond, will improve most cartridges, and increase compliance. I started out at close to 2 gram's tracking, and started working down. I eventually reached 1 gram which is what is recommended by The Soundsmith. With the retipping, you will have a very different cartridge, and a greatly improved cartridge. The manufacturers specifications probably won't apply. 

I suggest that you speak to Peter Ledermann at The Soundsmith and get his advice. You might find that you don't have a problem.

[whubbard]

That's good to know. Thanks.

It seems that my Rega is currently 12gm, but that's without the VTAF or Counterweight, so hopefully it's a bit higher.
Only problem is that it would need to be around 26-30gm for it to have a resonant frequency around 11Hz, so hopefully Peter can shed more light on this.

-West

[JCC]

That's good to know. Thanks.

It seems that my Rega is currently 12gm, but that's without the VTAF or Counterweight, so hopefully it's a bit higher.
Only problem is that it would need to be around 26-30gm for it to have a resonant frequency around 11Hz, so hopefully Peter can shed more light on this.

-West

I will be interested in the results of your conversation with Peter. In his cartridges the compliance is referenced as being 28 m/mN which is quite high. With your Rega, that would provide a resonance frequency of ~9 HZ which is very low. So please post the results of the conversation.