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Old 04-04-2012, 03:47 PM
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Nick_the_'Nole Nick_the_'Nole is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Central FL
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A 5g tracking force may be a bit too light for that cartridge... a bit of searching reveals two different specs for the 81t, one says 5-7g, the other 6-8g. Either way, 6g might achieve better results. (Though, of course, ideally you'd want a cartridge that can track at lower forces, just to save wear on the records.)

As for the plastic tonearm, you could try one of the 'audiophile' tricks and add some damping material to it to tame any resonances. I'd imagine there's a fair amount of space on the underside where you could stuff in some pieces of foam rubber, or hell, a few strategically placed beads of hot glue or silicone caulk would probably do the trick. Or if you don't care how it looks you could even wrap some grip tape around the arm.

That would also have the side effect of increasing the effective mass of the arm, which might not be a bad thing for a low-compliance ceramic cartridge. Just remember to readjust the tracking force to compensate for the additional weight.
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