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Digital Scales Are Reasonable-Finally Bought One

M

Mister Pig

Pigamus Maximus
Been borrowing a buddies "audiophile approved" digital scale. Finally decided I needed a scale of my own, and it has spoiled me. So I decided not to buy the old shure balance scale.

Looked around the net, and found that there are many scientific grade digital pocket scales out there, and the prices are fairly reasonable.

Bought this one right here

http://www.americanweigh.com/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=2157

Will be able to compare it to the borrowed one and see what the major differences are. But it cost me a total of 34.95 including shipping. Should arrive later this week. Actually this American Scientific looks to be better built, with significantly beefier case.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
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I picked up a little digital scale for about ten bucks at harbor freight tools.I dont know how good it is in comparison to the more expensive scales,but its done the job for me.
Jimmy
 
2DualsNotEnough said:
I picked up a little digital scale for about ten bucks at harbor freight tools.I dont know how good it is in comparison to the more expensive scales,but its done the job for me.
Jimmy
Click to expand...

I never thought about looking at Harbor Freight for one. I'll have to get one this week :thmbsp:
 
Oh They Had Less Expensive Ones...

2DualsNotEnough said:
I picked up a little digital scale for about ten bucks at harbor freight tools.I dont know how good it is in comparison to the more expensive scales,but its done the job for me.
Jimmy
Click to expand...

Like this one

http://www.americanweigh.com/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=2028

And this one is dirt cheap.....they call them used....but they may not be....more like b stock.
http://www.americanweigh.com/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=2099

I bought the one I did because I liked the triple A battery supply, no odd watch sized batteries to try to locate. They also say it has a very even weighing surface, with very little variation on the edges. Course these are all scientific scales, so they should all have this attribute.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
I got one of the cheap ($15, free shipping) digital scales off the net, and it works fine. Weighs up to 100g, accurate to 100/th of a g. One thing I wanted to check was how accurate the counterweight markings on my arm are. Turns out they are very accurate -- when I put it on 1.5g, it weighs 1.53g or so. That's using the headshell that came with the arm. When I use a replacement headshell with another cart, it seems to throw off the weight as displayed on the counterweight. That's when the scale really comes in handy.
 
I got one from a Hong Kong seller on Ebay for less than $2.

I looked up the weight of common coins and the scale is dead on accurate.

The scale on my turntable's counterweight was off by almost .5g.
 
Could you people please post some pictures showing the way you actually measure the effective stylus weight? Some of these scales would need a special piece made to do this and I was wondering how people deal with this issue.
 
My scale is narrow enough in its height that I can take the platter mat off, and it fits in on the platter in the mats place. This mimics the same spinning height of the record surface/functional stylus elevation.
 
How will the cartridge react to the stainless steel cover? I bought one and when I tried to use it the magnetic force of the magnets in my DL160 sucked the cartridge to the cover and burying the cantilever into the cartridge body. I used it one time and went back to my trusty Shure SFG2. FWIW
Regards,
Jim
 
I would believe these type of scales would not give you an accurate reading, because of the height of the scale, wouldn't you get an error anywhere from 0.50 to 0.75 grams?...
Am i wrong?
 
I've used a slightly more sophisticated approach to overcome the height problem. I rigged a temporary mount to hold the scale up over the tonearm, then used a thread down from the scale to pick up the tonearm.
 
Thats a good question......

ehoove said:
How will the cartridge react to the stainless steel cover? I bought one and when I tried to use it the magnetic force of the magnets in my DL160 sucked the cartridge to the cover and burying the cantilever into the cartridge body. I used it one time and went back to my trusty Shure SFG2. FWIW
Regards,
Jim
Click to expand...

Stainless can be made of several different elements. Here is the Physlink answer:

Stainless steels are a very broad group of metals. The name was adopted as a generic term for steel alloys with a minimum of 10.5% chromium. The chromium gives the steel its 'stainless' properties - essentially corrosion resistance. On the surface of the metal, a very thin chromium-rich oxide layer is formed which is inert - i.e. it prevents the steel from rusting. The advantage of stainless steels over plated steels is that, if scratched or damaged, the steel will 'self-repair' as a new oxide layer is formed. In plated steels, scratches in the plate will often lead to corrosion of the steel underneath.

In general, the higher the proportion of chromium, the stronger the corrosion resistance of the steel. In addition to chromium, other metals are added to give the steel particular properties such as strength and malleability. Specifically nickel is used to strengthen the oxide layer.

As for whether they are magnetic, the answer is that it depends. There are several families of stainless steels with different physical properties. A basic stainless steel has a 'ferritic' structure and is magnetic. These are formed from the addition of chromium and can be hardened through the addition of carbon (making them 'martensitic') and are often used in cutlery. However, the most common stainless steels are 'austenitic' - these have a higher chromium content and nickel is also added. It is the nickel which modifies the physical structure of the steel and makes it non-magnetic.

So the answer is yes, the magnetic properties of stainless steel are very dependent on the elements added into the alloy, and specifically the addition of nickel can change the structure from magnetic to non-magnetic.

I asked the company, and they said there were no magnetic properties to the scale. I will be quite careful when I cue my first cartridge down.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
Mister Pig said:
Stainless can be made of several different elements. Here is the Physlink answer:

Stainless steels are a very broad group of metals. The name was adopted as a generic term for steel alloys with a minimum of 10.5% chromium. The chromium gives the steel its 'stainless' properties - essentially corrosion resistance. On the surface of the metal, a very thin chromium-rich oxide layer is formed which is inert - i.e. it prevents the steel from rusting. The advantage of stainless steels over plated steels is that, if scratched or damaged, the steel will 'self-repair' as a new oxide layer is formed. In plated steels, scratches in the plate will often lead to corrosion of the steel underneath.

In general, the higher the proportion of chromium, the stronger the corrosion resistance of the steel. In addition to chromium, other metals are added to give the steel particular properties such as strength and malleability. Specifically nickel is used to strengthen the oxide layer.

As for whether they are magnetic, the answer is that it depends. There are several families of stainless steels with different physical properties. A basic stainless steel has a 'ferritic' structure and is magnetic. These are formed from the addition of chromium and can be hardened through the addition of carbon (making them 'martensitic') and are often used in cutlery. However, the most common stainless steels are 'austenitic' - these have a higher chromium content and nickel is also added. It is the nickel which modifies the physical structure of the steel and makes it non-magnetic.

So the answer is yes, the magnetic properties of stainless steel are very dependent on the elements added into the alloy, and specifically the addition of nickel can change the structure from magnetic to non-magnetic.

I asked the company, and they said there were no magnetic properties to the scale. I will be quite careful when I cue my first cartridge down.

Regards
Mister Pig
Click to expand...

Stainless Steel shouldn't have any bad interaction with the cartridge. SS is non-magnetic for the most part, as the carbon content is extremely low. If you put a magnet to SS and it stays it is because SS was very cheap and had a high carbon content not within SS parameters. These companies mostly use 304 SS, or 17-4 (17% chromium/4% nickel), both very low in carbon. Imported products love to use 17-4 as it is less expensive than 304 SS. Most cutlery these days is done using 17-4, there is only one factory in the USA that still makes cutlery and they use 18-8 (basically 304 SS), also higher quality cutlery from Europe use 18-8.

In short, don't worry about the SS, it will have no effect whatsoever with your Denon, or any brand for that matter, cartridge. If it has any magnetic properties they will be so little that are practically non-existent for our audio purposes. That is why the company tells you that there are no magnetic properties to the scale, because if any they are so minimal that are not taken in consideration.
 
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Bob_in_OKC said:
I tried my digital scale at slightly different heights and the difference was extremely small...like 0.01g.
Click to expand...

You are on the right track...The difference is so small that it is not tangible, probably below the +/- tolerance of the scale. Now, if you are a purist with lots of time in your hand you can spend hours trying to get within 0.0001 grams of the proper value. We can take into account Fulcrum's theories, Newton's gravity laws, and all kind of mathematical variables. But, the truth is that the difference is negligible.

IMHO, Shure's SFG-2 is probably the most accurate, and it is manual not digital. Now, if you just came from Colombia and need to package "baby powder" those digital scales are very useful.

If you still want digital, here is a cool one: http://www.americanweigh.com/product_info.php?products_id=516
 
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I like to tare a piece of magic magic eraser on top of my digi to simulate proper VTA.

I like mine, got it at Harbor Freight when I compared it to a borrowed Shure SFG-2 it was dead nuts on.
 
PR Audio said:
You are on the right track...The difference is so small that it is not tangible, probably below the +/- tolerance of the scale. Now, if you are a purist with lots of time in your hand you can spend hours trying to get within 0.0001 grams of the proper value. We can take into account Fulcrum's theories, Newton's gravity laws, and all kind of mathematical variables. But, the truth is that the difference is negligible.

IMHO, Shure's SFG-2 is probably the most accurate, and it is manual not digital. Now, if you just came from Colombia and need to package "baby powder" those digital scales are very useful.

If you still want digital, here is a cool one: http://www.americanweigh.com/product_info.php?products_id=516
Click to expand...

Speaking of the Shure...I managed to balance a US penny on it with the scale set to 2.5 grams. I just felt like knowing whether it was accurate. Nothing better to do that day, I suppose.:boring:

4027773464_d3477a9a87.jpg
 
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