Is my Mayware headshell bent?

[hdjii]

Bear - Thanks for the input. I guess I have nothing to lose by trying it.

planet10 - What would you recommend for a cartridge in the same price range?

Howrd

[planet10]

Something that works with a low mass arm. When we were selling these (100s) we put a lot of Grados on them. Grace F9 and Nagaokos worked well. I have a Garrott P77 i'll likely put on mine.

dave

[oshifis]

Originally Posted by planet10

A DL103 is not the best match for a Mayware.

dave

I use exactly the same combination (on a Thorens TD-160 Super). Is this combination not recommended because of the low compliance of the cartridge combined with the low effective mass of the arm? In other words, the resonace of the two is too high? I measured the resonance with the HFN&RR test disc, and it is around 14 Hz.

Or the unipivot principle or the thin wall of the arm is the problem? The low effective mass can be increased by using a piece of flat lead sheet between the headshell and the cartridge (which is quite heavy by itself).

[Hotsauce]

You can shim between the front of the cart and headshell to get the pivot point lower.

John C.

[planet10]

Originally Posted by oshifis

Is this combination not recommended because of the low compliance of the cartridge combined with the low effective mass of the arm? In other words, the resonace of the two is too high? I measured the resonance with the HFN&RR test disc, and it is around 14 Hz.

Yes. Isn't 14 hz a bit on the high side?

dave

[kevinkr]

Originally Posted by planet10

Yes. Isn't 14 hz a bit on the high side?

dave

My take on it too.. Something between 6 - 10Hz is usually considered acceptable IIRC.

[corrieb74]

Ok, so let me bring you up to date a little on developments... is this the kind of forum where we can admit stupid mistakes? I hope so! I'm feeling a little sheepish...

So I got a little impatient when I got home and decided to see what might happen if I just applied a little manual pressure to the headshell. Just enough so see if it might bend. What could possible go wrong? Of course it snapped clean off... Sigh.

So then I got to thinking - I have other headshells - even if it's just temporary, I can try a different one out. Of course I knew that the diameter of the arm tube would be a problem as it's pretty thin. So I sawed off the end of the original headshell and machined it into a shim (sort of collar) so that I could fit a Sumiko headshell that I'd bought (originally to attach to the SME 3009 I have).

It took me a while to get it all set up. It's considerably longer than the original headshell and it's not angled correctly, so I knew it would have to be a bit of a bodge. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained! I had to mount it a little way down the arm and I could only fix the cartridge with one screw due to the angle it needs to sit at in the headshell (did I say it was a bodge? )

I tried a few different setups and quickly realized that the movable weight would need to be the whole way back down the arm to reduce the effective mass at the headshell, given that this headshell already weighs 12g.



The overall effect is extremely interesting. Unsurprisingly, it has changed the character of the arm completely. Previously, it had an astonishingly fluid and transparent midrange which had me completely sold. It was slightly light on bass response and occasionally sounded a little uncontrolled, but it was very involving with a superb soundstage. With the heavier headshell, the bass response has improved dramatically, but at the expense of midrange detail. It sounds much more controlled than it did which is still exciting, but in a different way... less immediately impressive, but probably better balanced overall.

Once thing is for sure, it's tracking the inner grooves SO much better now - I suspect that this is more likely due to the fact that the arm is sitting horizontal now.





I'm going to live with this setup for a while and see how I feel about it. It definitely looks a little odd, but I'm prepared to live with that, at least for now.

[bear]

Does it really weigh that much more than the stock?

How about a good couple of pix of the broken one?

Maybe you can do the kludge repair that I suggested earlier, whereby you replace the center section of the bent headshell?? I would go for that...

Btw, another material of interest for this repair would be fiberglass PCB material... it can be epoxied, cut, sawed and drilled, sanded too and painted...

_-_-bear

[corrieb74]

Hi Bear,

The headshell is of no further use as I chopped it up to make the collar for the Sumiko. The Sumiko is significantly heavier than the old one - in fact, the combination of headshell and cartridge is close on 20g. You can see I have the counterweight and collar weight both all the way back to counterbalance it.

I've been experimenting with this setup all day (whilst also working from home, of course ) and oh MAN has it responded to tweaking. The heavier, more rigid headshell is clearly making the stylus work harder and is transmitting less resonance through the arm. Reducing the amount of silicone damping has allowed it to open up again and compensate somewhat. The bass response with the heavier headshell is like night and day - the kick drum sound on the White Stripes is huge - the double bass on the Iron and Wine album I'm listening to really warm and rich.

It's funny just how subjective this stuff all is. I've been experimenting with setups now for the best part of 10 years - it's always fun to read people's opinions of what works with what - but nothing beats the sense of achievement of finding something that just sounds "right"... even if it looks a bit stupid

So I'm sticking with this for now. It is working very nicely indeed.

Ben

[bear]

Yes, Watson, another case solved!!

An idea might be to lighten the headshell you have now by drilling along the length and judiciously filing back at the part where it holds the part that goes into the arm wand...
Might be worth 15-20% of the added mass... you can always put mass back via lead or another metal...

Also, consider making another counterweight so that it can sit closer to the pivot.

_-_-bear