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Tonearm mass, high/med/low compliance- I need a tutorial

rnorton said:
I've experimentally determined resonance by digitally recording the stylus dropping onto the disc and measuring the wavelength in my recording software. It's often disturbingly different from the number I get using the stylus and arm manufacturers' supposed 'specs'. You usually don't get a clean sine wave because of the difference in vertical and lateral compliances but it's obvious if you're hitting near the magic 10 Hz target or not.
Click to expand...

Yes that is a good way in that you actually see the applied damping also.
gusten
 
I've recorded frequency sweeps and used SoundForge to do a spectrum analysis. My interpretation is I have a peak around 9 Hz.

Now I have another question. Sears used to have a demo of a tuning fork silencing system for some dishwasher motors. The silencer wasn't complicated -- just a weight on the end of a metal rod attached to the motor -- but it completely eliminated audible vibration from the motor.

I've seen something like this on high end tonearms, but I have never seen a discussion. Does such a discussion exist?
 
js1138, the mass of the cartridge and its hardware is meant to be included on both your link and my link above, which makes sense with your 9 Hz observation.
 
js1138 said:
I'm going to have to ask whether third party styli, such as Jico, complicate this picture. Isn't the stylus assembly what controls compliance?

And has anyone ever produced a simple graph showing the best match of compliance and effective mass?

Edit: I found this:

http://www.resfreq.com/resonancecalculator.html

So I entered 12 for the mass of the Technics 1220 tonearm and 22 for the compliance of a Shure V15-III, and got 9.8 for the resonant frequency. But what about the mass of the cartridge? Is it somehow taken out of the equation?
Click to expand...


1) Yes compliance goes with the stylus (my measurements of a SAS stylus show very high compliance ... circa 54cu)
2) The VinylEngine tool takes into account cartridge mass as well as effective arm mass
3) 22cu seems too low for a V15III.... I would have expected something in the 30's - it was one of the first true high compliance designs, and 22cu is marginal high compliance.
 
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