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Possibly the ultimate Pickering XSV-3000?? Perhaps??

GlasgowGrip said:
Hi guys, I finally got the XSV/3000 mounted up on the Onkyo CP-1030F and it seems to track fine. I set the tracking force and anti-skate to 2.5, so it's a net of 1.5g after allowing for the Pickering brush.

But the sound quality is still bad, not remotely listenable, and no better than it was on the JVC JL-A20. So next I will rule out the phono section on my integrated amp (Onkyo A-7070) just to be thorough. I have a known good and totally working Marantz 6100 with a Shure V91 playing through a Marantz 2245, so I will swap the two TT's wholesale, rather than swap cartridges.
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The brush negates 1gram of VTF, so drop the anti-skate accordingly, and no I don't think this is your issue.
 
Grenadeslio said:
The brush negates 1gram of VTF, so drop the anti-skate accordingly, and no I don't think this is your issue.
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I’ve debated whether or not to add the extra gram to the anti-skate, so you settled that question for me - thanks! I’ve tried it both ways and to be honest it doesn’t seem to make a huge difference.

Okay, so I just swapped my TT’s and the problem follows the Pickering. Bass seems pretty good but high end is distorted and very noisy - best I can describe it is it sounds like it’s playing an extremely dirty LP. But the LP is fine - very quiet on the Marantz/Shure. So what’s the most likely culprit - stylus? Or cartridge suspension on the XSV/3000? (Again, cart was in retirement and well-stored for 35 years, but I have no idea how many hours I put on it back in the day).

Thanks again,
Steve
 
GlasgowGrip said:
I’ve debated whether or not to add the extra gram to the anti-skate, so you settled that question for me - thanks! I’ve tried it both ways and to be honest it doesn’t seem to make a huge difference.

Okay, so I just swapped my TT’s and the problem follows the Pickering. Bass seems pretty good but high end is distorted and very noisy - best I can describe it is it sounds like it’s playing an extremely dirty LP. But the LP is fine - very quiet on the Marantz/Shure. So what’s the most likely culprit - stylus? Or cartridge suspension on the XSV/3000? (Again, cart was in retirement and well-stored for 35 years, but I have no idea how many hours I put on it back in the day).

Thanks again,
Steve
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I've tracked stiff suspensions on the high side to loosen them up, meaning over the stated max, if this worked to loosen the suspension I would lower it back down.

If the cartridge is riding very very low this might be the sign of a collapsed suspension.

If the sound you're describing is screachiness in female voices etc this could be sybilance, I can't hear what you're describing on my end. I have two very nice Pickering cartridges with NOS stylus, both sounded awesome on my Thorens and Mitsubishi decks, but neither played well with my Grace arm on my Kenwood KD500 table. I still don't get it they should have worked, but just couldn't tame the sybilance no matter what I tried.

So back on the other decks where they were happy, and I found a couple of Grace cartridges for the Kenny. Synergy can be illusive at the best of times.
 
Grenadeslio said:
I've tracked stiff suspensions on the high side to loosen them up, meaning over the stated max, if this worked to loosen the suspension I would lower it back down.

If the cartridge is riding very very low this might be the sign of a collapsed suspension.

If the sound you're describing is screachiness in female voices etc this could be sybilance, I can't hear what you're describing on my end. I have two very nice Pickering cartridges with NOS stylus, both sounded awesome on my Thorens and Mitsubishi decks, but neither played well with my Grace arm on my Kenwood KD500 table. I still don't get it they should have worked, but just couldn't tame the sybilance no matter what I tried.

So back on the other decks where they were happy, and I found a couple of Grace cartridges for the Kenny. Synergy can be illusive at the best of times.
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I would say "screachiness" is a fairly good descriptor of the distortion, but it's not just on female voices. It's distorted on horns, harmonica, male and female voices, snare drums, cymbals... pretty much any type of source material. And it's noisy - like a very worn and dirty record - even in the silent grooves before/between/after the tracks.

Not positive but I don't think it's riding low - I'll try to post a picture of the stylus riding in the groove:
 

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GlasgowGrip said:
But the sound quality is still bad, not remotely listenable,
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Glasgow watch the stylus movement as you slowly lower the tone arm. If it barely moves the suspension has hardened, if it lowers almost to the record it's collapsed.If it has hardened it will sound shrill with almost no bass or mids. Collapsed it loses the highs and the mids and bass are a little exaggerated. Stanton and Pickering usually collapse I don't know if I ever heard of one hardening but anything can happen.Anyway both of these problems can be fixed there is a thread here called "possible cure for collapsed stylus". The WD-40 cure for a collapsed stylus works I've done a 881S,and two 681 EEEs about 2 to 3 years ago and they still work just fine. I also have a XSV 3000 it is a great cart and worth the time and money to fix or replace the stylus.
 
Blewpernt said:
Stiffened suspension on XSV-3000 is pretty rare, though they do harden a little bit over time—maybe.
It’s more likely just worn and needs a new diamond.
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I had an SPU that started to do that. Sent it to Joseph for a retip and that fixed the problem. He just did my Stanton 981 and it sounds as good if not better than the stereohedron tip that dissapeared.
 
I would say it's not collapsed. When it touches down it doesn't really move - so possibly stiff? It does have bounce in it if I lightly press or tap on the top of the headshell.

I'll gladly pay up for a new (or re-tipped) stylus if I think the cart is still viable. Just trying to confirm that the cart is not going to be the problem, given its age, so I can avoid wasting money on the stylus if possible.
 
GlasgowGrip said:
I would say it's not collapsed. When it touches down it doesn't really move - so possibly stiff? It does have bounce in it if I lightly press or tap on the top of the headshell.

I'll gladly pay up for a new (or re-tipped) stylus if I think the cart is still viable. Just trying to confirm that the cart is not going to be the problem, given its age, so I can avoid wasting money on the stylus if possible.
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Send the whole thing to Joseph, he'll assess the viability of the cartridge also.
 
Another who thinks you should just send to Joseph. He's a straight shooter, and a fan all the way. One of us, I mean.
 
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