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VAN DEN HUL CARTRIDGE MISTRACKING

S

sillyoldtwit

New Member
I have just bought a vdh mc 1000 cartridge which is supposed to have been retipped with zero hours but is sliding all over the place. It is mistracking / sliding all over my records. I have tried various settings on my rega rb300 but to no avail. When the cartridge arrived I tried to check it by sight but could not really make out if it was in a good state or not , some of these vdh 's have a very small tip......any help or suggestions would be appreciated. This is my first Van Den Hul and for me 520 euros is quite a lot of money ........
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/381462755695?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
 
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sillyoldtwit said:
I have just bought a vdh mc 1000 cartridge which is supposed to have been retipped with zero hours but is sliding all over the place. It is mistracking / sliding all over my records. I have tried various settings on my rega rb300 but to no avail. When the cartridge arrived I tried to check it by sight but could not really make out if it was in a good state or not , some of these vdh 's have a very small tip......any help or suggestions would be appreciated. This is my first Van Den Hul and for me 520 euros is quite a lot of money ........
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/381462755695?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
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Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I share your pain. Take a close look at it under a microscope at ~100x or more....the tip zenith might be cocked. Don't ask how I know...
 
Thank you for the advice. It's my own fault......I should know by now that the cheapest way to buy something is in fact to go to a proper hifi shop and pay the full price up front .....it's usually ends up cheapest in the end....
 
sillyoldtwit said:
Thank you for the advice. It's my own fault......I should know by now that the cheapest way to buy something is in fact to go to a proper hifi shop and pay the full price up front .....it's usually ends up cheapest in the end....
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That's still no guarantee of money well spent, unfortunately.

There are a number of good re-tipping services around, but at this point I would consider having the entire cantilever replaced concluding a proper inspection.

Good luck with it.
 
I would suspect the diamond is gone. Any chance it got bounced during the installation? Did you check to see the diamond was in place, or can you see it now.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
Mister Pig said:
I would suspect the diamond is gone. Any chance it got bounced during the installation? Did you check to see the diamond was in place, or can you see it now.

Regards
Mister Pig
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Thank you for your reply......It was very well packed but was rattling around in an equally well packed inner box so maby that did the trick.....It's very hard -impossible to actually see the tip..
 
sillyoldtwit said:
Thank you for your reply......It was very well packed but was rattling around in an equally well packed inner box so maby that did the trick.....It's very hard -impossible to actually see the tip..
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With basic magnification you should be able to see the diamond. Actually you should be able to see it with the naked eye up close. I suspect you are only seeing the tip of the cantilever or the residue of the epoxy that held the diamond in place. I would be afraid the diamond has come unattached.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
Actually when you lose a diamond and there is only the cantilever left, or a bit of epoxy, you get the symptoms you describe. The cantilever can somewhat follow the grooves, but the sound is distorted, and it tries to skate or jump across the record because there is no diamond to seat in the groove.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
Mister Pig said:
Actually when you lose a diamond and there is only the cantilever left, or a bit of epoxy, you get the symptoms you describe. The cantilever can somewhat follow the grooves, but the sound is distorted, and it tries to skate or jump across the record because there is no diamond to seat in the groove.

Regards
Mister Pig
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I've never experienced a missing stylus before but that certainly makes sense. If the cartridge wasn't secured in the box properly it could certainly be damaged, but I would've thought the whole cantilever would be missing.
 
I think one can easily see the diamond in the picture of the cartridge. I would be extremely surprised if the diamond is missing, then the glue is also most likely missing from the cantilever.
 
gusten said:
I think one can easily see the diamond in the picture of the cartridge. I would be extremely surprised if the diamond is missing, then the glue is also most likely missing from the cantilever.
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That's a pic before it was installed and played, or shipped. It may have been there then, but does not mean it's there now. Need the OP to verify it, and eliminate it as a possibility.

But it is a VDH retip, you would like to believe it's ok. One of the better guys in the business, at least that is the general word on the street.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
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I once lost a stylus in the middle of a record. It was a Dynavector 20XL that I bought new in the box from a friend, only it was about 5 or 6 years old at the time, so I only paid $350. According to my listening logs, it had played 692 LP sides in 2010, and and 721 sides in 2011, before the diamond went a-flyin' (on Halloween, no less!). I had it retipped by Soundsmith in 2013, but I haven't had any occasion to mount it yet. Maybe I should?
 
The other possibility could be a super dirty stylus. Did it play well at all? Sometimes these small profile diamonds can pull up a bunch of gunk from down low in the groove. I suppose its feasible that this could have happened. Of course I would think if you would buy a cartridge of this caliber, then you would take good care of your vinyl also. So I am just looking at possibilities here. But a horribly dirty stylus can act this way too, as an accumulation of fluff around the diamond can hold it out of getting properly seated into the groove.

I can't tell from the photo if the diamond is there or not. I think it might be, which would be a good thing of course. But I certainly wouldn't run my fingertip over it. These cantilevers are quite fragile, and all it takes is an involuntary twitch to wipe it out. Get a $5 magnifying glass at the drug store and give it a good look see in strong light. You should be able to see the diamond. And then you can tell if its clean or not, although you should be able to see if its gunked upm unless you got pretty bad vision.

One last thing to consider. When you set the cartridge up. Did you make sure the bar that lifts the tone arm up and sets it down properly clears the tone arm. With a cartridge of different height than your old one, sometimes the cue height needs to be adjusted. If the cue arm lightly touches the tone arm, the same thing can happen as the cartridge doesn't properly set into the groove. This is another possibility.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
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