Fluance rt85 - questions on setup of new ortofon 2m blue replacement

[Grindhouse80]

hi everyone

i have the fluance rt85. i recently bought another ortofon 2m blue to replace my previous stylus. that stylus was the 2m red. long story short the reason i used that one was cause the original 2m blue included got damaged and i couldn't afford a new one at the time so i bought a 2m red for the meantime. my question is do i redo all the settings for using the new 2m blue i bought? i know to recheck the alignment. do i just follow the manual for setting it up again? obviously steps like putting on the acryllic platter again is not needed. i spoke to a fluance chat support person and she said just attach the stylus onto the cartridge and you're done. i kid you not. i don't trust that answer. i wanna be sure cause the 2m blue isnt cheap at least for me. she confirmed also that the fluance rt85 you cant adjust the azimuth and i think she said the VTA too. i hope i got that last part right. finally is it ok if i check the alignment with the 2m red so that i dont have to check with the 2m blue? i ask cause i dont have much experience with doing that and i don't want to risk a accident. i still have the cartridge that came with the fluance rt85 and i dont recall messing with it. i just have the stylus for the 2m blue. thanks.

 

[Crab33]

The 2M Blue stylus is a direct replacement for the 2M Red. They are identical in many respects, except the Red has a bonded tip and the Blue has a nude tip. They require the same tracking force and should have the same length of cantilever, so no change in set-up should be needed.

Since your Fluance turntable was originally supplied with the 2M Blue, it should have been aligned for the Blue in the factory and the Red would have needed the same alignment. So, you shouldn't have to re-align. You could check the alignment to verify that it was done correctly, if you wish, but which alignment scheme do you check against? Unless Fluance provided an alignment tool with the turntable, I don't think there is any way of knowing which alignment scheme they used. You could, of course, choose your preferred alignment scheme and re-align to that.

EDIT: I'm assuming in the above that you kept the original cartridge body on the tonearm and have just been replacing styli. If you initially replaced the whole cartridge with the 2M Red and then did the alignment yourself, you could re-check the alignment against the alignment regime that you used. But if you did it well in the first place then it shouldn't really be necessary.

 

[Grindhouse80]

Hi!

I was going to use the alignment check included in the manual. That would probably be the best one to use since it's part of the setup manual. Yes I still have the original cartridge body by fluance intact. I just used a few 2m red stylii. so I can check the tracking force on a digital gram scale and check the alignment and I'm done?? Just to make sure I can use the 2m red on the alignment to check then when it's correct I can then use the 2m blue after checking the tracking force. I just want to be careful cause sometimes I'm clumsy.

 

[Crab33]

Indeed, if there is an alignment checker provided then use that. You should be able to check the alignment with the Red stylus in place, as the Red and Blue cantilevers should be of the same length - a visual check of the cantilevers should confirm this. I know the feeling - I hate aligning with a protractor in case I cause damage. If you have stylus-force scales, check the tracking force - should be about 1.8g for both styli, although you can go up to 2.0g if you wish (and anti-skating should take the same value as tracking force). Set the anti-skating to zero while do you all of this and don't forget to set it back again when you've finished.

 

[Grindhouse80]

awesome. thank you for helping me! i greatly appreciate it!