Ok, this is for the guys who aren't afraid of tweaking their equipment.
I had to make a comparison between different phono cartridges. If you want THE cartridge, the Ortofon Concordes are the absolute #1.
But (there is always a but), I noticed some problems with some replacement styli (and some new ones too, but very very few). It seems some series of the styli are rather loose. This doesn't affect normal playing and rather heavy scratching (strangely), but when you cue the record and hold it still with your fingers (or move it back and forward quite slowly), the stylus makes huge skips. Initially the stylus stays in the groove (ortofons are the best for that), but because it's loose the cart sways back and forth and because of the inertia the cart pushes the stylus out of the groove. I was ordered by the guys who wanted me to do the comparison to find a solution (yeah I found the problem, I had to solve it, pfff). Well, lucky for you I did, but it's rather tricky to do. If you take off the stylus and hold it in front of you, you'll see a little hole where the stylus cantilever (the actual stylus part in fact). The trick is to fill the hole on both sides of the stylus (on both sides, because the stylus has to stay exactly in the middle when you look from above, otherwise you'll know the real meaning of sliding). But the real tricky part is that the stuff (I suggest glue) you put in the hole must fit in completely, because if the stuff you put in the cavity comes lower than the base of the cartridge (the plastic, not the stylus), the needle won't the grooves at all.
So you will have to use very few amounts of "stuffing".
Once this is done (and you're sure the stylus is exactly in the middle and that it doesn't come lower than the plastic base of the stylus cart), you can put the cart back on and see the difference.
TIP : if you have a turntable with height adjustment (like the SL1200), max it out. Reverse the weight and set a weight of approx. 4.5 g. After that the needle will be almost unskippable!!!

Hope this helped the few ones out who encountered this prob.
But I warn you a last time : THIS IS A VERY PRECISE MANIPULATION, HANDLE WITH EXTREME CARE!!!

Peace
Dj Thy

[This message has been edited by Dj Thy (edited 19 March 2000).]