HI All,
Lately, I have been reading posts concerning cartridges and tone arm set up and I noticed something that bothered me. In an offhand way, some of the posters mentioned having mistracking issues as a normal part of life. These mentions were not the subject of the threads but were just background comments given in a casual way. The tone was that mistracking was a normal element of hi fi life, to be tolerated, like getting old.
I’m here to tell you that mistracking is a real problem and is not inevitable. Not at all. Your system should NEVER mistrack assuming that the record is in decent shape and not damaged by a previous owner. Mistracking cannot be tolerated for more than sonic reasons. Mistracking tears up records. A mistracking stylus acts like a jackhammer on the groove ruining them.
In making this judgment, I must admit to a lack of knowledge in this sense. I have not had tracking issues for over 40 years. For sure, much of this success is due to using top notch turntables, arms, and good cartridges. I have little, to no, experience with the inexpensive gear that is commonly available now. There was a time in the dark, distant, past when mistracking was on the lips of all “audiophiles” (actually that term had not yet been invented at that point in time!). The mistracking problem was largely first solved by the Shure V15 series cartridges. They set the standard that other manufacturers gradually achieved. That was a long time ago. I used the V15 series cartridges (Type 1 to Type 5) and was very satisfied. For example the V15 Type V never mistracked. Most of these cartridges were used on a SME 3009 arm.
I moved away from the Shure cartridges to Sonus and B&O cartridges (always top of the line models). Mistracking was never an issue. Cartridges from all manufacturers gradually improved to point where mistracking was hardly ever mentioned. Personally, I moved on to moving coil cartridges of gradually higher prices and lost touch with what was happening in the MM world. I made the move in about 1974 and never looked back. Mistracking has not been a problem with these MC cartridges but they do tend to cost significantly more than MM’s. So my expectations were absolute concerning mistracking. I would not tolerate it. But, I never encountered it.
I assumed that mistracking was a thing of the past for all cartridges, no matter the cartridge cost, because the advanced designs trickled down to less expensive models. But with the comments I have read here, I realized that may not be true. Thus, this post.
I have no idea if members mistracking problems (which they think are not problems) is due to cheap cartridges, tone arms, poor cartridge or arm alignment, or other issues. I do know that many members here are new to vinyl. So, they may not understand or have the experience to know that mistracking is bad, bad, bad. It should not be tolerated. The purpose of this post is to tell you exactly that. Spend whatever it takes to eliminate the problem. And it can be eliminated. Do it, now!!
Sparky
Lately, I have been reading posts concerning cartridges and tone arm set up and I noticed something that bothered me. In an offhand way, some of the posters mentioned having mistracking issues as a normal part of life. These mentions were not the subject of the threads but were just background comments given in a casual way. The tone was that mistracking was a normal element of hi fi life, to be tolerated, like getting old.
I’m here to tell you that mistracking is a real problem and is not inevitable. Not at all. Your system should NEVER mistrack assuming that the record is in decent shape and not damaged by a previous owner. Mistracking cannot be tolerated for more than sonic reasons. Mistracking tears up records. A mistracking stylus acts like a jackhammer on the groove ruining them.
In making this judgment, I must admit to a lack of knowledge in this sense. I have not had tracking issues for over 40 years. For sure, much of this success is due to using top notch turntables, arms, and good cartridges. I have little, to no, experience with the inexpensive gear that is commonly available now. There was a time in the dark, distant, past when mistracking was on the lips of all “audiophiles” (actually that term had not yet been invented at that point in time!). The mistracking problem was largely first solved by the Shure V15 series cartridges. They set the standard that other manufacturers gradually achieved. That was a long time ago. I used the V15 series cartridges (Type 1 to Type 5) and was very satisfied. For example the V15 Type V never mistracked. Most of these cartridges were used on a SME 3009 arm.
I moved away from the Shure cartridges to Sonus and B&O cartridges (always top of the line models). Mistracking was never an issue. Cartridges from all manufacturers gradually improved to point where mistracking was hardly ever mentioned. Personally, I moved on to moving coil cartridges of gradually higher prices and lost touch with what was happening in the MM world. I made the move in about 1974 and never looked back. Mistracking has not been a problem with these MC cartridges but they do tend to cost significantly more than MM’s. So my expectations were absolute concerning mistracking. I would not tolerate it. But, I never encountered it.
I assumed that mistracking was a thing of the past for all cartridges, no matter the cartridge cost, because the advanced designs trickled down to less expensive models. But with the comments I have read here, I realized that may not be true. Thus, this post.
I have no idea if members mistracking problems (which they think are not problems) is due to cheap cartridges, tone arms, poor cartridge or arm alignment, or other issues. I do know that many members here are new to vinyl. So, they may not understand or have the experience to know that mistracking is bad, bad, bad. It should not be tolerated. The purpose of this post is to tell you exactly that. Spend whatever it takes to eliminate the problem. And it can be eliminated. Do it, now!!
Sparky
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