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new turntable stylus

F

Fawkes

New Member
I have been keeping my eye open for a decent turntable for a while and I found a Luxman PX-99 at goodwill for six bucks. It appears that the only issue is the stylus is broken (there could be more issues but I cant play it yet without the stylus). The cartridge is a Grado G1 and after looking around it appears that a new stylus would run well over $100. The inside of the cartridge is pretty gunked up from use. My question is should I just pick up a entry level cartridge or should I clean up the cartridge and invest in a new Grado stylus for my $6 turntable?
 
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Fawkes said:
The cartridge is a Grado G1 and after looking around it appears that a new stylus would run well over $100. The inside of the cartridge is pretty gunked up from use. My question is should I just pick up a entry level cartridge or should I clean up the cartridge and invest in a new Grado stylus for my $6 turntable?
Click to expand...

Welcome to the AK turn table forum.

Do not clean up the gunk in the Grado cartridge. :no:

It is there for a purpose.

This must be your first encounter with a Grado cartridge. :rolleyes:
 
Hi,

Its a great turntable for $6. Or even $60. The low mass arm needs a decent
highish compliance cartridge and they are not usually cheap. The cheapest
is the utter bargain AT92ECD, at about $25 delivered, see amazon.

Otherwise you looking at about $110 for an AT120Eb.

rgds, sreten.
 
Fawkes said:
yes first encounter. why shouldn't I clean it up?
Click to expand...

It is an integral part of the cartridge, put in there by the manufacturer to hold the coils in place. If you 'clean it up', you will ruin the cartridge.

Been there, done that - before we had the internet to get useful information!
 
The table is worthy of investing in the $100 stylus for sure, but if you just want to get it going for a low investment, I'd follow sreten's advice above.
 
It appears that the gunk is smeared over the contact points. Should I just clean those or see how it works first?
 
I put a 30 set up on my TT just because I wasnt sure it worked....It sounded great....a year or so later for the hell of it I got a very nice set up for more money and it was night and day difference....way way better...I now use the cheep one on the marginal records and the good one on the nice records.
 
You also have the option of downgrading the stylus for this cartridge - unless someone knows differently-you could even use a Prestige Black stylus in that G1 cartridge body . This is much cheaper (gotta remember folks -budget is budget).Whatever you do: a.) LEAVE THE BLACK STUFF ALONE! b.) hold onto the G1 body - this was and is a high grade Grado body and at some future time investing in the modern replacement stylus for it may fit your budget. This is one of the nice things John Grado has done -styli for old cartridges in their line (something pretty much no one else does).
 
before I posted this I did clean up a bit of the really bad gunk. I am just hoping I didn't screw it up. never would have guessed it was important
 

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Fawkes said:
before I posted this I did clean up a bit of the really bad gunk. I am just hoping I didn't screw it up. never would have guessed it was important
Click to expand...

The wires are beneath "gunk".

You risk damaging them by removing the "gunk".

Still making music, then you are OK. :)
 
ok, good. I didn't see any frayed wires or anything that looked out of place. I never would have thought that would be important. Thanks
 
Grado will renew this precision "gunk" for you if you send the cart to them. This was another of Joe Grado's good ideas -I've experimented (successfully IMO) with putting a small amount of blue tack to help hold replaceable styli firmly in place (Do NOT substitute anything for whatever this is that Grado uses). They will not send you any simply because they have found that a percentage of folks who have tried to self install this stuff - instead destroy one or both coils -which turns the cart into junk. Of course that couldn't be the all thumbs customer's fault !! When I sold G1+ back in 1981? -this was a 150 buck cart -really BIG money for a cart back then and still a excellent Grado cart today.
 
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