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Acutex 312 Stylus info?

I just jumped on the Acutex bandwagon and last night mounted it to my Dual 1019. First impressions are as others have said excellent imaging and fantastic suppression of surface noise. No sibilance or IGD of any kind. I am tracking it at 2.1g. I started out at this setting and haven't tried going up or down but it sounds great at 2.1g so I'll probably leave it for now. The VTA ended up with the flat bottom almost pefectly parallel to the record.

I was so impressed with this cartridge I went and ordered another. Maybe its just synergy with the 1019 arm but it really sounds nice. The previous cartridge was a Grado m2+ with 8mz stylus. That combo just never seemed to perform 100% on this table.
 
Well.... could someone explain something to me about arm mass and all that ... :D Because I decided to experiment a bit more with this cart, so I tried to add mass - I used 4g of bluetack on the headshell at first. Seemed to improve things or maybe it was just my imagination... wanted to see what was the effect on the resonance frequency. None - still at 13Hz. So I took that mass off, and instead taped a coin and a screw on the arm on two different places, near the headshell and somewhat near the pivot. No effect - resonance still at 13Hz... I'm confused :scratch2: 4g should be enough mass to have an effect I'm sure... so what gives? Probably I'm overlooking something simple or made some stupid mistake, or I'm just very confused about the subject at hand and you should ignore my ramblings? :D

........ Then again.... what's this tri-pole magnet stuff??? Could the 'Z-axis' magnet have an effect on the resonance frequency and null the effect of arm mass up to a degree? Is this totally crazy?

I have no clue what's going on, but I think I'll try the cart in a different table and see what happens!
 
muovimies said:
Well.... could someone explain something to me about arm mass and all that ... :D Because I decided to experiment a bit more with this cart, so I tried to add mass - I used 4g of bluetack on the headshell at first. Seemed to improve things or maybe it was just my imagination... wanted to see what was the effect on the resonance frequency. None - still at 13Hz. So I took that mass off, and instead taped a coin and a screw on the arm on two different places, near the headshell and somewhat near the pivot. No effect - resonance still at 13Hz... I'm confused :scratch2: 4g should be enough mass to have an effect I'm sure... so what gives? Probably I'm overlooking something simple or made some stupid mistake, or I'm just very confused about the subject at hand and you should ignore my ramblings? :D

........ Then again.... what's this tri-pole magnet stuff??? Could the 'Z-axis' magnet have an effect on the resonance frequency and null the effect of arm mass up to a degree? Is this totally crazy?

I have no clue what's going on, but I think I'll try the cart in a different table and see what happens!
Click to expand...

I believe the common misconception is that a 4gram increase in headshell weight results in a 4gram increase in tonearm effective mass. I certainly do not have the mathematics to back this up, but I use this simple estimatation method described here by hakaplan:
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2885860&postcount=4

Essentially try it with and without the 4 gram weight. The result may be actually a difference in effective mass of 1gram or less? By all means it doesn't mean you shouldn't try to reduce or increase your headshell mass to get it closer to your desired range, it's just that it may take a lot more increase/reduction to actually get it where you want it
 
Off the top of my head I don't understand why it would work that way (regarding adding mass not 'showing'), but interesting if it does :) I suppose the compensation with counter-weight might 'eat-up' added mass to a degree - at least the Ortofon AS-212 pamflet said arm effective mass is 12g-18g depending on the position of the counter-weight. To be honest I never thought that would affect the effective mass, but what do I know, apparently not much :)

I mounted the Acutex on my Connoisseur BD2 and my first impression is it sounds a lot better in this table. The arm is Connoisseur SAU2 - not sure about the effective mass but I remember reading 8.5g somewhere - it's a very short straight tonearm. It's been a while since I've last got this one spinning, but I really like the table.

I'm puzzled because even with this arm the resonance is still at 13Hz? Either I'm really missing something, or the way this thing is put together with all the magnets makes it somehow 'immune' or just act weird... no matter, what ever the reason it's sounding very good in this arm/table and that's where it stays :) And what do you know, it's a lowish mass arm as people recommend.

Maybe I'll try to figure this all out some other day.
 
Then again.... what's this tri-pole magnet stuff??? Could the 'Z-axis' magnet have an effect on the resonance frequency and null the effect of arm mass up to a degree? Is this totally crazy?
Click to expand...
Not sure if the z-axis feature of tri-pole cartridges influences the resonance frequencies too much, as it is an electrical rather than a mechanical feature of the cantilever and induced magnetism design.:scratch2:
From what I gather in some old acutex brochure,the z-axis induced magnetic pole has a cancelling effect on the signal crosstalk between the left and right channels (x and y poles) and which was seen as a compromise in the standard single and dual magnet designs of the day.
The quoted separation figures published for some of the tri-poles seem to support this claim , in addition to listening tests by myself and several others who have tinkered with them.:scratch2:
 
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It finally arrived two days ago - impressions

My impressions so far:

1) no break-in noticed (playing the eight record now and no difference heard)

2) open soundstage, I actually noticed a bigger stereo effect on some of my records. (Maybe that is because my previous cartridge was so bad at it - a Shure m93e with a cheap elliptical aftermarket sylus on it)

3) Nice bass, but I really had to change the VTA so the cartridge sits 'tail down' because the low frequencies were exaggerated at first. (I would want it even lower but my Thorens td160 doesn't allow more adjudgment)
EDIT: I may be wrong about the tail thing because I am not sure what you call the 'tail of a cartridge'. I thought it was the end with the cables? From boreas response I am wrong...

4) Tracks less well, some of my used records skip at parts that used to play fine :(
EDIT: VTF tested:1.5-2-2.5 made no difference

5) Very detailed, for instance I noticed a bass line on Pink Floyd's song 'Mother' from 'The Wall' for the first time. Also Richard Wright's keyboard is a bit more audible throughout the whole album.

6) certain drum lines sound more like 'clicks'. can someone shed a light on what is causing this?
 
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miljoneir said:
My impressions so far:

1) no break-in noticed (playing the eight record now and no difference heard)
Click to expand...

Break-in usually takes longer than that but, that said, I didn't notice any significant changes with mine.

2) open soundstage, I actually noticed a bigger stereo effect on some of my records. (Maybe that is because my previous cartridge was so bad at it - a Shure m93e with a cheap elliptical aftermarket sylus on it)
Click to expand...

That greater stereo separation and large soundstage are what the tripole system is all about.

3) Nice bass, but I really had to change the VTA so the cartridge sits 'tail down' because the low frequencies were exaggerated at first. (I would want it even lower but my Thorens td160 doesn't allow more adjudgment)
Click to expand...

Interesting. Typically, going tail-down increases bass.

4) Tracks less well, some of my used records skip at parts that used to play fine :(
Click to expand...

What VTF are you using? (This could be related to #3 above too.)

6) certain drum lines sound more like 'clicks'. can someone shed a light on what is causing this?
Click to expand...

Sorry, no idea.

John
 
After starting this thread almost two years ago, I have decided to put the LPM-312 back in action. If I recall, 1.25-1.5g for the tracking force?
 
OK, I went through the thread and found the link... it says:
312 Tracking Force Range: 1.5 to 2.3 grams

I set mine to 1.6g and it sounds good so far.
 
I am running mine at 1.8 and a little tails down. Pioneer 518 does not have vta. It does sound really wonderful set up like this. Grest bass and the highs sound quite natural. No IGD that I can hear. Tracks great too. I used a Stevenson protractor as many have suggested. I would really like to find a P-Mount body so I could try it on my SL-10.
 
jkilla said:
I prefer mine at about 2.1 g
Click to expand...

I play around between 1.8 and 2.0g That seems to be the sweet spot and the consensus point, more or less.

Another matter of consensus is that it's not always advisable to run a stylus at the lower extreme of it's recommended VTF range. In fact, somewhat the opposite with many people feeling that the ideal tends to be somewhat north of the midpoint of a stylus' range. (All this, of course, is by way of saying that using a VTF of 1.6g when the minimum recommendation is 1.5g might not be the best idea.)

John
 
Between AKs long running thread and Rauls on Audiogon I finally had to get an Acutex cartridge to see what all the fuss was about. I picked up two Acutex, a M315III STR and a M320III STR that I'll be installing on a Technics tonearm and after experimenting will update with listening results that will hopefully match the positive posts I'v read re these cartridges.
 
majick47 said:
Between AKs long running thread and Rauls on Audiogon I finally had to get an Acutex cartridge to see what all the fuss was about. I picked up two Acutex, a M315III STR and a M320III STR that I'll be installing on a Technics tonearm and after experimenting will update with listening results that will hopefully match the positive posts I'v read re these cartridges.
Click to expand...


Wow! Where'd you get a 320? Is it new?

John
 
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