garrard 1025

[Defenastrate]

Ok, primary TT is out. Garrard 1025 needs a needle and perhaps (definitely) a cartridge. Gimme help.

It needs to be cheap. I'm fixing this up to useful, but when the primary comes back online, I'm giving it to the less audio fortunate.

 

[gadget73]

Whats the current cartridge? If its a ceramic type, you may or may not be able to easily change it to a magnetic type, depending on mounting.

 

[Defenastrate]

Its ceramic and not so easy to change. Gonna toss in on one of these, and see how it goes.

Original Stylus Number: GCS-21T, GCS-22T, GCS-23T, GCS-25T

 

[Defenastrate]

New needle en route. Question is now, is there a way to clean the cartridge that I can't identify/remove? Needle fits easily into the metal clip on the cart, can I clean that with contact fluid or blow it out with air? Was thinking of throwing some Deoxit on a folded, lint-free paper towel and passing it through the clip.

 

[gadget73]

it will probably come reasonably clean with just a soft brush. Ceramic carts have a rubber saddle that the needle lays against. If that gets damaged, the cartridge is ruined. I would be really careful poking at it too much and i would definitely not get any sort of fluid in there. If the element gets wet, its most probably ruined.

 

[Defenastrate]

Thanks for the tip. I've never had a ceramic cart before. Not sure if I like it.

 

[gadget73]

They really aren't anything desirable. They don't tend to sound all that good and they track heavy enough most of the time to possibly damage records. They also don't age really well, and the rubber can harden or the element inside can deform and reduce output. I'm not a fan.

 

[GP49]

There is nothing wrong with the PRINCIPLE of a ceramic cartridge. It's the EXECUTION that has fallen short. Back in the heyday of hi-fi LP playback there were two examples of ceramic cartridges (from Grado and Sonotone) that were as good or better when compared to contemporaries such as the Shure M44-7 (which began life as a hi-fi cartridge but now has been marketed to the disco/nightclub market). But the potential of their designs was not followed up.

In a Garrard 1025, which has an unshielded two-pole motor, there is a real possibility of a problem with hum in a magnetic cartridge, from the single coil in the motor; so don't use a Grado magnetic cartridge in it. The four-pole motors in higher priced Garrards have two coils whose hum fields tend to cancel each other; at higher price levels yet, accurately oriented magnetic shielding plates reduce hum ever further. The 1025's unbalanced tonearm also may not have sufficient range on its tracking weight adjustment to accomodate some magnetic cartridges. It can adjust for the lighter-weight ones such as the NuMark/ION cartridge, which is actually quite a good performer.

 

[Defenastrate]

Yeah, snake eyes on the new needle. I'll just wait patiently one my number one, and CL this old TT.

 

[Brady 675]

They really aren't anything desirable. They don't tend to sound all that good and they track heavy enough most of the time to possibly damage records. They also don't age really well, and the rubber can harden or the element inside can deform and reduce output. I'm not a fan.

Lolll they don't track that heavy dude...record are meant to hold up to 9 grams of tracking force