straight or S-shaped tonearm

T

TeEm

New member
there is a major pitfall which i think a lot of people miss. It has to do with the cartridge mounting when using the S-shaped tonearm. First of all, if you're using the tt's for anything other than scratching don't use the straight arm. It degrades the sound quality dramatically.
Why is this? When the records are cut, the stylus is moved in a straight line towards the center. A straight tonearm moves in an arc, and to avoid distortion the stylus should always be parallell to the tangent of the record. With an S-shaped arm the arm will not move in a straight line towards the spindle, but will allow the cartridge to stay parallell to the tangent with very little error.
Click to expand...

The quote is from the Numark tt thread but since this question might be applicable on the pdx2000 vs Techs discussion...

Has anyone noticed this diffrence when comparing Techs and pdx2000?
 
Taken from my post on another board... I'm personally against Vestax's approach to marketing their straight-arm tables. There are a number of house (non-turntablist) DJ's that have experience accelerated record wear caused by the ASTS tonearm design.
---snip
Your Vestax straight-arm turntable *is* damaging your records. When Vestax rolled-out the ASTS tonearm design a few years ago, it was being marketed to the turntablist/hip hop segment.

The problem with their table lies in the fact that the cartridge has NO overhang. Think of the last non-DJ straight-arm table you used. Remember how the cartridge was angled a few degrees inward? Recall how it was fairly long? That's overhang. Most tonearms feature some degree of overhang. This creates an inward force (towards the spindle) that is mostly (90%) corrected by the anti-skating adjustment, which applies a force that counters the natural tendency of the tonearm to gravitate towards the spindle during record play. Try it with a blank record. The force is doubled and points AWAY from the spindle during backcueing and scratching, so turn antiskating to ZERO on your Technics when you scratch. An S-shaped arm and a straight-arm of the same logical length/overhang will perform similarly.

The Vestax arm is short, thus has no overhang. The cartridge is inline with the deliberately-short tonearm, but several issues stem from this.... This design totally reduces the lateral forces that need to be corrected via anti-skating on normal turntables. I don't even think the Vestax tables include an anti-skating dial. By shortening the tonearm, they eliminate the need. This helps the needle track wonderfully in scratching and back-cueing situations. However, for playing records (yes, your precious records), the Vestax system is no good. Having no overhang on that type of arm produces azimuth and phase errors between the left and right channels. This distortion is a result of the needle NOT being tangent to the record groove during play (meaning that it points in a different direction depending on it's position on the record). In fact, it changes depending on where you are on the record. At the beginning of the record, there will be increased wear on the inner groove of the vinyl. The needle will track perfectly halfway through the record, then the increased wear will shift to the outer groove during the latter half of the record. So, the distortion will shift from left to right during play. Yes, this fscks-up your records.

So, there's a huge tradeoff. You trade sound quality and record wear for better tracking with those straight-arm Vestax tables. This is of no concern for a scratch DJ, but is an issue if you value your vinyl. I hope this helps.
 
Your reply helped a lot. Thanks a ton.
Though it means that I will have to trade my pdxs for two techs.
 
Damn, this is interesting. I just hope it doesn't turn into the "spherical vs. elliptical" thread where everyone has sound reasons for each to be better. It'd be great if someone could record the same track on a pdx and a 1200 and then compare the waveforms (maybe post pics as well). I'm pming angelic, maybe he'll be able to do this.

-Gene
 
I wonder if this is true for the stanton str8 turntables as well. Im just wondering if mounting a cartridge at an angle to compinsate for the lack of an "S" shaped tonearm would help
 
Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the straight tonearm then?

5SA2400x.gif


A lot like that ^^^ I think.

-Gene
 
i thought i read somewhere that the Numark TTX is not 100% anatomically correct [if you will]. the s-shaped tonearm has the same effect as the straight arm option.

any word whitey?
 
F!uck
so that angled headshell thing defeats the purpose of the straight tonearm?
Because thats the way I have mine setup now.
:confused:
 
ewwhite said:
Yes, that Gemini defeats the purpose.
Click to expand...

The Numark with the S arm is fine for records and record wear. With the stright arm, it'll track better, but give the increased wear mentioned above.
 
I have enough record wear with my deluxe GEMINI cartridges
WOOHOO!
 
gene-pool: you rang?

here is an informative artical about str8 arms vs. S arms:
http://www.kabusa.com/str8_doc.htm

as you can see, as far as angled headshell, it will only make things WORSE, since it will may fix tracking error on the first part of the record, but will increase tracking error on the other part of it...!
 
Good call on that link Angelic, I found it myself just today. :cheers: It'd be nice if manufacturers themselves actually put this sort of information out wouldn't it?

-Gene
 
WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT

So if i have a straight tonearm..and a CURVED headshell or whatever..like in the picture of the SA-600 on the 1st page of this thread..that is worse than haveing a totally straight set up.

EH im prob. ****IN up my records like crazy with all this straight nonsense.:(
 
Dude i am.
But mixed with the G FORCE straight tone arm mechanizm and the DELUXE (forgot that mister) GEM CARTS..they are gona be ****ED to hell and back.

Man oh Man oh Man.
I hope i get some technics so if i **** up my carts it will be CoOOool cuz i got TECHS!
:rolleyes:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top