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Pickering XV-15 hearing distortion

KeithD

KeithD

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
A relative asked me to look at his Technics SL-1100 that he had from new fitted with a Pickering XV-15 cartridge, and I assume a Pickering stylus, though there are no markings on the stylus or cartridge to indicate the model. He said the sound never sounded "right" from the beginning, but he has a renewed interest as of late, so he wanted me to see if it is set up right or find the issue. From the start I heard the distortion as well, particularly on classical music where you know the instruments are not distorting. The distortion seems to come at louder passages. Anyway, I played the same selections on my Technics SL-1350 fitted with a Shure V15 Type III and had clean, non-distorted sound. I also put the headshell of my 1350 on the 1100. Adjusted the tracking and anti-skating and listened to the same sources. No distortion, so that seems to eliminate the turntable being the source. I took a close look at the needle/stylus on the Pickering, and it seems to me the needle is not oriented perpendicular to the cartridge. I have the ability to take pictures through a microscope lens, and some images are below.

Pickering needle 1x.jpg
Pickering needle 2x.jpg
Pickering needle side 4x.jpg
First, the needle seems to be in good condition. I'm not seeing any chips. Second, to my eye the needle/stylus is tilted a few degrees off of 90 degrees, tilted to the left. Assuming this should not be the case. Is this the obvious source of distortion? Can this be corrected, or should a new stylus be put in place? I can't quite figure out how it got in that orientation. Was this a mistake from the factory that got past quality control?

Thanks for any help or insights!
 
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What tracking force is it set to? It looks like after market conical or something with heavy tracking. Also, the stylus body is not inserted parallel with the cartridge body, making the azimuth. error even more severe.
 
CrSens said:
What tracking force is it set to? It looks like after market conical or something with heavy tracking. Also, the stylus body is not inserted parallel with the cartridge body, making the azimuth. error even more severe.
Click to expand...
Agree with you on both points. I had assumed this was a Pickering eliptical based on what I was told, but agree it looks conical. I was assuming 1 g tracking force for a typical Pickering (plus 1 g to compensate for the brush), so 2 g total. Probably if I up it to 3 g, the distortion might go away.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it seems to me the needle is not mounted perpendicular to the stylus body. There is really only one orientation to insert the stylus into the cartridge. I noticed a little bit of "play", but not much. I imagine it's possible my relative thought he was buying a Pickering stylus when he bought the cartridge, but instead got a low quality counterfeit.
 
It would not hurt to change the stylus, I am not current on which one, maybe EVG nude from V M Enthusiasts (Gary).
 
Agree, I was thinking a new stylus was in order even before putting it under the microscope. There's just something wrong with this one. The XV-15 is a moving iron cartridge, so it will need to be an MI stylus. Looks like a few places sell a Pickering D1200 replacement.
 
Impossible to tell whether that’s conical or elliptical from this photos unless you get lucky and catch the telltale elliptical facet in just the right light. That’s definitely an aftermarket stylus. There’s no raised Pickering logo on the front and that’s not a Pickering cantilever.

That’s the first version XV-15, likely originally fitted with a D750 nude .3 x .7 elliptical diamond stylus. It carried a 15° VTA. Later ones were adjusted to 20° and had the stylus type when new added as a sort of suffix. D1200 came later and lastly the D1800-S bonded Stereohedron.

Any aftermarket stylus advertised for the D1200 today is more than likely actually a D625 copy regardless of its designation. It will be a bonded standard elliptical on a standard aluminum cantilever, which is decent.

Available nudes are usually the Swiss Black Diamond elliptical, which still won’t take it past the D750 level.

The distortion you are hearing is probably caused by tracking that particular stylus too lightly. Bonded elliptical aftermarkets typically require 1.5g or higher.

I don’t think there is a Jico SAS for this model. There could be another high model of Jico available like a “Shibata” version that could be decent.

Best bet though is that if you’ve got an original stylus to repair, send it to a retipper.
 
KeithD said:
First, the needle seems to be in good condition. I'm not seeing any chips.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but you can't make any conclusion about how good or fine is the needle. You need much more magnification to assess that, and a trained eye.
 
CrSens said:
This one?

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That is the one I got for my XV-15 - a very good sounding stylus. It did have just the slightest level of sibilance on some more demanding cuts but not something that kept me from listening to it a lot. Another option, if it can be found, is a Pickering DTL-2S. Maybe a slightly better sound but I got mine when you could buy the XL-33U p-mount cartridge with that stylus for cheap.

For the price, I would just go with the 4606-DEX and be up and running.

Alan
 
I bought an unmarked stylus advertised as an XV-15 stylus. When I installed it, the fit was very loose and it sounded distorted and midrangey. The original D625 stylus had a larger diameter moving iron compared to the unmarked one. I ended up getting a Stanton stylus instead.
 
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