tnsilver
Stereo Puppy
I ordered a cheap scale off the bay after suspecting it's the base unit for the new Ortofon DS-3. It was so cheap ($5.6 with free shipping) that I could not resist. Another AK'er that ordered the same product claimed to have gotten a dud that won't turn on, so I was on alert. The packaged scales look like this:
After installing a fresh set of triple 'A' batteries in my newly arrived generic scale, it refused to turn on, or so I thought... It turns out the LCD display is so dim, it's barely visible, so I could not actually see the display until I turned off my desk lamp for better contrast.
So I toyed with it for a bit, and even managed to calibrate it with a 100 gram weight and started the shootout with the same 100g weight:
Moving on to 20 grams:
Then 10 grams:
Finally 5 grams:
So far not too bad, right? Wrong! Dead wrong. One thing I noticed is that the generic scale is very
sensitive to the exact spot of the weight on the pad, more on this in a bit... So now it's down to 3
grams and I'm using a Technics headshell spacer weight for that:
...and just for reference, the DS-1:
Now, watch this:
...and for reference again, the DS-1:
The DS-1 is rock steady consistent, even like this:
Next, I'm gonna do some stylus VTF measurements...
After installing a fresh set of triple 'A' batteries in my newly arrived generic scale, it refused to turn on, or so I thought... It turns out the LCD display is so dim, it's barely visible, so I could not actually see the display until I turned off my desk lamp for better contrast.
So I toyed with it for a bit, and even managed to calibrate it with a 100 gram weight and started the shootout with the same 100g weight:
Moving on to 20 grams:
Then 10 grams:
Finally 5 grams:
So far not too bad, right? Wrong! Dead wrong. One thing I noticed is that the generic scale is very
sensitive to the exact spot of the weight on the pad, more on this in a bit... So now it's down to 3
grams and I'm using a Technics headshell spacer weight for that:
...and just for reference, the DS-1:
Now, watch this:
...and for reference again, the DS-1:
The DS-1 is rock steady consistent, even like this:
Next, I'm gonna do some stylus VTF measurements...