Piezo-Azden-Acutex Thread

I'm pretty ignorant on that generation of Acutex cartridges and also another series that looked very much the same, these:

s-l1600.jpg


s-l1600.jpg


The one you have is an MM but appears to have been offered as an IM by some companies since there's an empty magnet hole in yours.

John
 
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I'm pretty ignorant on that generation of Acutex cartridges and also another series that looked very much the same, these:

s-l1600.jpg


s-l1600.jpg


The one you have is an MM but appears to have been offered as an IM by some companies singe there's an empty magnet hole in yours.

John

Yeah, when I first researched it I think it was mentioned that there were IM and MM versions of the stylus you could get. Gary at TVOM has NOS of the Empire version of the stylus. I can't remember the model number off the top of my head at this point.
 
Just got a Concord CMC 300 Tri Pole Moving coil. Came on a head shell too so I feel I got a great deal on this.
It has a Nude Line Contact diamond. It came with documentation as well and original case/holder although I believe the head shell is not what came with the cart
packaging originally. Will probably play hook it up tomorrow with the head shell it came on and see how it compares to the LPM 312
I have been listening to now for the past few months. I believe this is a re branded Acutex MC-100. Another rare bird in the tri-pole world

Here are some pics.

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Athanasios
 
That's a very interesting one, and a moving coil too.

The headshell is a Technics from the pre-MK2 direct drives.

John
 
That's a very interesting one, and a moving coil too.

The headshell is a Technics from the pre-MK2 direct drives.

John


I took pics of the manual. There are three versions of this. Of course as with all Acutex its just the Diamond that is different for the most part.
I'll post them tomorrow. 21 pages .

Nashou
 
Got it mounted onto my SOTA Sapphire with a MMT arm. The head shell it came on is lighter than the Jelco HS 25 one i use normal
so I had to add a weight to it. Tracking at 1.4 gr right now and it sounds very nice, maybe a little bass shy compared the the LPM 312
I have been use to for the past few months. However that could be due to the head shell and not adjusting the VTA. didn't feel like
messing with that right now till I get a different permanent head shell for it. going to keep it on for now to loosen up the suspension since
its been shelved for years from what the seller told me.

Also its a very light cartridge at 2.4 gr !!! So it might not be a good fit for this tone arm.
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I picked up that Akai. Will update with results when I get it.


Get that Akai yet? Curious to see your results with those two styli you got for the M312 body.


As I posted in another thread, I was able to re-tip the M body type styli . I have done two so far and hope to try the other two styles, the long nose and the Piezo YM 310/320
type that Spectrum bodies also use. I have never seen the Acutex body version of that as of yet.

So to keep all things Acutex-Piezo-Azden-Spectrum under one thread I'll re post my first post of my re-tip thread here as well.

Here it is



Well after my first attempt at re-tipping with the Entre' EC-20 with went fairly well I decided to finally get to the much needed Acutex M Square body type cartridge re-tip. These are Excellent sounding carts , especially if they have the original STR ( Symmetrical Tri-Radial ) stylus. Finding one in good shape is a lucky as finding the Holy Grail . The Acutex,Piezo,Spectrum etc lovers have just had to settle with Either .7 conical or .4 x .7 elliptical styli to replace worn or damaged STR styli . None of the after market stylus manufactures would even entertain to do a re-tip for these with a high end stylus . So what is an Acutex fanboy to do? Do it yourself Is what I always say if no one else is willing to!!!!

So here is some photo documentation of part of the process.

Started out with the body from the elliptical stylus I used for my Entre' re tip.
Here is the housing with the tip removed. And the ferrous metal " third pole" drilled out
ready to receive the new Shibata stylus.

40454938064_7bd42d3eb9_b.jpg


Then After I removed the Shibata stylus I had to cut it to length . I made a few cuts measuring each time by
mock installing it to the housing and comparing it to another intact stylus housing. Once I felt I was close enough I placed the new cut stylus into the hole and maneuvered it around to get it to the correct
angle best I could and as square As I could as well. Looking at other new after market styli i think I did as good and even better .

Once I felt it was in its optimum location I put a drop of Super Glue on my work table mat and used
the leg from a 1/4 watt resistor to dab into the glue and them apply very carefully onto the
mating place of the collar and new stylus. I then allowed this to dry, a minute or so then I went and
added more glue around the entire circumference of the collar/stylus joint.

Here is the end result.

You can actually see my cantilever is straighter than the EVG 707-DE on the left.

41123135742_e23b50f8ed_b.jpg


And here it is in action on A Rega RB300 Arm on a custom TT I built maybe 17 years ago with old parts from
a BPC kenwood TT. Its what I had the M312 mounted to so thats what I am testing it on for now. As you can see in the photo I need to get the SRA right. I can try to bend the very tip of the cantilever
behind the needle tip to get the correct angle . Or on a TT with adjustable VTA it can be addressed . It might be a couple to few degrees off. I bent the end on my Entre' to get it the right angle so I am sure this will be possible too if the tubing is as malleable as the Entre's .

41123135522_9f025d4e76_h.jpg


Listened to The Catherine Wheel " Adam and Eve " Album first side that has Future Boy as its first track which is excellent for testing carts and Styli with its large transients from very quite to its loud crescendos .
It was very quite where it should be and was able to track the loudest parts without skipping a beat !!
I then put an original STR stylus on with unknown hours and I have to say the re-tip was quite and
more dynamic . Maybe the old STR is worn beyond its better days . The old STR had a few cradles and pops but the new Shibata was very very quite.

Now listening to my MOFI version of Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother" and its doing a great job on this record as well.

I think I'm beginning to get a hang of this !!! :D


PS: One thing that I do need to figure out is a way to set the compliance . There is a set screw that holds the larger tube that the suspension is attached to. This set screw holds the tube in place. To make the suspension a bit stiffer, and therefore it may fix my SRA issue, you need to pull it from the back side to compress the suspension a bit then tighten the set screw. Trouble is its not easy to keep the suspension compressed and cantilever aligned while tightening the set screw.

Thats the neat thing about these styli, it has a somewhat adjustable suspension/compliance.


Athanasios
 
Get that Akai yet? Curious to see your results with those two styli you got for the M312 body.


As I posted in another thread, I was able to re-tip the M body type styli . I have done two so far and hope to try the other two styles, the long nose and the Piezo YM 310/320
type that Spectrum bodies also use. I have never seen the Acutex body version of that as of yet.

So to keep all things Acutex-Piezo-Azden-Spectrum under one thread I'll re post my first post of my re-tip thread here as well.

Here it is



Well after my first attempt at re-tipping with the Entre' EC-20 with went fairly well I decided to finally get to the much needed Acutex M Square body type cartridge re-tip. These are Excellent sounding carts , especially if they have the original STR ( Symmetrical Tri-Radial ) stylus. Finding one in good shape is a lucky as finding the Holy Grail . The Acutex,Piezo,Spectrum etc lovers have just had to settle with Either .7 conical or .4 x .7 elliptical styli to replace worn or damaged STR styli . None of the after market stylus manufactures would even entertain to do a re-tip for these with a high end stylus . So what is an Acutex fanboy to do? Do it yourself Is what I always say if no one else is willing to!!!!

So here is some photo documentation of part of the process.

Started out with the body from the elliptical stylus I used for my Entre' re tip.
Here is the housing with the tip removed. And the ferrous metal " third pole" drilled out
ready to receive the new Shibata stylus.

40454938064_7bd42d3eb9_b.jpg


Then After I removed the Shibata stylus I had to cut it to length . I made a few cuts measuring each time by
mock installing it to the housing and comparing it to another intact stylus housing. Once I felt I was close enough I placed the new cut stylus into the hole and maneuvered it around to get it to the correct
angle best I could and as square As I could as well. Looking at other new after market styli i think I did as good and even better .

Once I felt it was in its optimum location I put a drop of Super Glue on my work table mat and used
the leg from a 1/4 watt resistor to dab into the glue and them apply very carefully onto the
mating place of the collar and new stylus. I then allowed this to dry, a minute or so then I went and
added more glue around the entire circumference of the collar/stylus joint.

Here is the end result.

You can actually see my cantilever is straighter than the EVG 707-DE on the left.

41123135742_e23b50f8ed_b.jpg


And here it is in action on A Rega RB300 Arm on a custom TT I built maybe 17 years ago with old parts from
a BPC kenwood TT. Its what I had the M312 mounted to so thats what I am testing it on for now. As you can see in the photo I need to get the SRA right. I can try to bend the very tip of the cantilever
behind the needle tip to get the correct angle . Or on a TT with adjustable VTA it can be addressed . It might be a couple to few degrees off. I bent the end on my Entre' to get it the right angle so I am sure this will be possible too if the tubing is as malleable as the Entre's .

41123135522_9f025d4e76_h.jpg


Listened to The Catherine Wheel " Adam and Eve " Album first side that has Future Boy as its first track which is excellent for testing carts and Styli with its large transients from very quite to its loud crescendos .
It was very quite where it should be and was able to track the loudest parts without skipping a beat !!
I then put an original STR stylus on with unknown hours and I have to say the re-tip was quite and
more dynamic . Maybe the old STR is worn beyond its better days . The old STR had a few cradles and pops but the new Shibata was very very quite.

Now listening to my MOFI version of Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother" and its doing a great job on this record as well.

I think I'm beginning to get a hang of this !!! :D


PS: One thing that I do need to figure out is a way to set the compliance . There is a set screw that holds the larger tube that the suspension is attached to. This set screw holds the tube in place. To make the suspension a bit stiffer, and therefore it may fix my SRA issue, you need to pull it from the back side to compress the suspension a bit then tighten the set screw. Trouble is its not easy to keep the suspension compressed and cantilever aligned while tightening the set screw.

Thats the neat thing about these styli, it has a somewhat adjustable suspension/compliance.


Athanasios

It's coming from Greece so it's a "It'll be here when it gets here," kind of thing. :D
 
Hi,
I just found this cartridge. ACUTEX M 310 II E. Where can I find a good replacement stylus for it? Also how does it compare with an Empire 1000, shure m75, m97xe, at95e.
Thanks
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zJnqwhJ.jpg

EBM7Rgp.jpg
 

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Found another of the Akai version on eBay for a good price and picked it up. Hopefully I'll have two with working bodies now. :)

Yeah I should have got that one, you beat me to it !!! But I have SPECTRUM ER-312X/III and another M312 body on there way. The M312 is waiting for me in the mailbox, just checked.

I was going to Get on another Concord, the CMC 200. If you like the Tri Pole sound Nate go grab it before someone else here does ;)

Nashou
 
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tri-poles are extremely fussy about downforce, antiskate and alignment. If the cartridge seems ok.. start with a very fussy Baerwald alignment to two known null points based on the mounting distance of your tonearm. With that variable fixed.. you have to determine if the effective mass of your arm is a good match for the compliance of the stylus.
Usually , the older brick tripoles based on the Piezo ym-308 body ( akai pc-100 etc) track best at somewhere between 1.6 - 1.8gm and will require a lowish to medium mass arm ( around 11gm effective mass maximum) to work best. You have to tune anti skate and downforce by ear as you are not just optimising the suspension of the stylus to cope with the mass of the arm and to ensure stable groove tracking... you are actually changing the relationship in distance of the three poles relative to the armatures that create the induced magnetic field between all 3 x-y-z axis. Obviously for it to work reasonably well.. you can assume there is at least some similarity in distance between the poles and the armatures when the cartridge is under load and moving in a groove with no signal ( hence the need to fine tune antiskate by ear also). If the arm is level to the platter when the styuls is in the groove , and , the stylus sits vertical when anti skate is set ( around 1.5gm as a starting point should be good) then you can fine tune the downforce by ear until channel balance seems equal , and of good quality resolution in the high treble, in both channels. ( headphones are more useful here than speakers.. and a good mono track might help, as you can reverse the headphones quickly to see what difference exists. Also, try to do any measurements of audio quality at ( or close to ) one of the null points while a record is playing. With a generic eliiptical , and assuming the cartridge is ok , downforce and very fussy alignment to a 'known' geometry should enable you to unlock the tripole magic when it comes to channel separation and detail.
 
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tri-poles are extremely fussy about downforce, antiskate and alignment. If the cartridge seems ok.. start with a very fussy Baerwald alignment to two known null points based on the mounting distance of your tonearm. With that variable fixed.. you have to determine if the effective mass of your arm is a good match for the compliance of the stylus.. USually the older brick tripoles based on the Piezo ym-308 body ( akai pc-100 etc) track best at somewhere between 1.6 - 1.8gm and will require a lowish to medium mass arm ( around 11gm effective mass maximum) to work best. You have to tune anti skate and downforce by ear as you are not just optimising the suspension of the stylus to cope with the mass of the arm... you are actually changing the relationshop of the three poles relative to the armatures that create the induced magnetic field betwenn all 3 axis. Obviously for it to work reasonably well.. you can assume there is at least some similarity in distance between the poles and the armatures when the cartridge is under load and moving ( hence the need to fine tune antiskate by ear also). If the arm is level to the platter when the styuls is in teh groove and the stylus sits vertical when anti skate is set ( around 1.5gm as a starting point should be good) then you cn fine tune the downforce by ear until channel balance seems equal and of good quality in the high treble in both channels. ( headphones are mor e useful here than speakers.. and a good mono track might help as you can reverse the headphones to see what difference exists. Also try to do any measurments of audio at or near one of the null points while a record is playing. With a generic eliiptical and assuming the cartridge is ok... donwforce and very fussy alignment to a known geometry ( forget the roughly square in the headshell with a little overhang method) should eneable you to unlock the tripole magic when it comes to channel separation and detail.


Interesting observations. I haven't had issues with most of your findings except for the head shell alignment part in your post. This is true . On my LPM 312 str I need to cock it about 3 degrees to the right ( looking at the cart head on in the shell) it looks odd but i get the best sound from it this way. On this one I believe the suspension might be tweaked as the stylus looks straight when lifted off the record surface but as soon as you let it down it moves way left. Anti skate isn't the issue as another stylus for the same cart stays straight.

But now that I have re tired the square nose type I do prefer them over the LMP models. They just seem smoother and tighter as well.

Nashou
 
Am joining this thread as a follow up to an old thread I started 2 yrs ago about my Acutex Saturn V headshell and the cartridge within. Boreas and others tried to help my thick head, but Some still nagging questions I have:
Is my cartridge an M312III STR or an LPM 312str? What are the distinguishing characteristics? And does it matter when looking for a stylus? I thought they were compatible. Mine says 312. Here are the pics:
Left to right is the 312 stylus, presumably the M312III STR which is how Boreas ID'd it, and finally the Saturn headshell. I know I promised to drop this 2 yrs ago, but since this thread is recent, and it seems that some people seemed to have a LITTLE success in finding expensive stylii, and someone on another website told me that I have the LPM version, gleaned from the pics. Dipping my toes back in this cold water, the Saturn V is sitting ion my desk laughing at me.
 

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Boreas had said the ff:
Please note: no other Acutex styli will work. The 200 and 400 Series LPMs look quite similar but they won't fit and, despite advertising to the contrary, absolutely no aftermarket styli will work.

Im assuming that besides a possible mechanical or structural difference, the other differences are in the tri pole vs bi pole. That is why the 400 stlyus will fit the 200, but not the 300? Or is there another reason?

Also there is a notation onj Adelcom/BluzBros website in the Acutex section that says:
N312 STRN-312STR N312-STR N 312 STR n312str n-312 str n312-str n1312 str
  • 0.3 mil. x 1.6 mil. x 0.6 mil. Standard STR (Shibata Type)
  • 20 Hz - 35 KHz Frequency Response.
Your Cost

$107.62 Each

But I notice it does not say N312III STR. If this is not compatible with my cartridge, I 'm going to hold my breath until I'm Grado blue.
 
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