roffle24
Member
Hi friends,
On my first cartridges needle I had ever owned a few years back, I noticed that when looking at it head on, that it was starting to bend towards the inside of the record platter. It was the default cart that came with the AT-LP120 and I used it for a bit (maybe 2'ish years) and figured maybe I just had the tonearm weight wrong or something like that.
I replaced the entire header and cartridge with a Nagaoka MP-110, and purchased a scale to measure the tonearm weight to make sure everything was good. I've been using this cart for a solid 3-4'ish years. I'm not a heavy spinner, maybe once a week for an hour or two. Recently I mistakenly left my tonearm down on a record for a few days. I fell asleep and just slapped the button off for the night and forgot to put it back. For context, it was probably about halfway into the record when I stopped it. I got a new record recently and the header seemed very close to the record (height wise the plastic case around the needle was almost touching the record) when playing it, probably from being pushed down onto the previous record for several days. This is almost surely because of what I did leaving it there, which is fine. Feel free to point out that I was the cause so I know to not do this in the future.
That said... I hadn't 100% noticed it before, but upon further inspection after this incident, the MP-110 was also showing signs of bending towards the inside of the platter, just like my previous needle. I cannot recall if this was present before the incident of leaving it on the table for a few days, but if I had to guess, I'd say it was. I'd love to post a picture of the needle for you all to see... however...
I took my stupidity even further and decided to try to bend the needle back and straighten it... only to break the needle off.
I decided to upgrade the needle since the header is fine, and purchased an MP-200. Based on my minimal research, these two should work in tandem without issue. My question is... does it sound like there is an issue with my setup somewhere or is this bending normal? Could it mean the weight is too heavy or too light and it's causing the pull of the arm to bend the needle? I've seen the MP-200 suggests 1.8grams for the tracking weight... should I be setting it at 1.8grams or less knowing it's pulling a bit? Obviously leaving the tonearm down for several days isn't helping any of this.
Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated, I'm trying to not run into this again in the future.
EDIT: Just to add some extra info... The cart/needle/header looked and still looks aligned properly and my anti-skate was set to 3. I have an alignment tool and a scale to confirm the settings. I haven't confirmed the set it up yet on the new cart, I just put it on the table with no changes to the previous setup. It's the same type of needle so IMO it's likely already aligned.
Feel free to still comment on alignment/anti-skate/etc. Just wanted to include this info as well.
On my first cartridges needle I had ever owned a few years back, I noticed that when looking at it head on, that it was starting to bend towards the inside of the record platter. It was the default cart that came with the AT-LP120 and I used it for a bit (maybe 2'ish years) and figured maybe I just had the tonearm weight wrong or something like that.
I replaced the entire header and cartridge with a Nagaoka MP-110, and purchased a scale to measure the tonearm weight to make sure everything was good. I've been using this cart for a solid 3-4'ish years. I'm not a heavy spinner, maybe once a week for an hour or two. Recently I mistakenly left my tonearm down on a record for a few days. I fell asleep and just slapped the button off for the night and forgot to put it back. For context, it was probably about halfway into the record when I stopped it. I got a new record recently and the header seemed very close to the record (height wise the plastic case around the needle was almost touching the record) when playing it, probably from being pushed down onto the previous record for several days. This is almost surely because of what I did leaving it there, which is fine. Feel free to point out that I was the cause so I know to not do this in the future.
That said... I hadn't 100% noticed it before, but upon further inspection after this incident, the MP-110 was also showing signs of bending towards the inside of the platter, just like my previous needle. I cannot recall if this was present before the incident of leaving it on the table for a few days, but if I had to guess, I'd say it was. I'd love to post a picture of the needle for you all to see... however...
I took my stupidity even further and decided to try to bend the needle back and straighten it... only to break the needle off.
I decided to upgrade the needle since the header is fine, and purchased an MP-200. Based on my minimal research, these two should work in tandem without issue. My question is... does it sound like there is an issue with my setup somewhere or is this bending normal? Could it mean the weight is too heavy or too light and it's causing the pull of the arm to bend the needle? I've seen the MP-200 suggests 1.8grams for the tracking weight... should I be setting it at 1.8grams or less knowing it's pulling a bit? Obviously leaving the tonearm down for several days isn't helping any of this.
Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated, I'm trying to not run into this again in the future.
EDIT: Just to add some extra info... The cart/needle/header looked and still looks aligned properly and my anti-skate was set to 3. I have an alignment tool and a scale to confirm the settings. I haven't confirmed the set it up yet on the new cart, I just put it on the table with no changes to the previous setup. It's the same type of needle so IMO it's likely already aligned.
Feel free to still comment on alignment/anti-skate/etc. Just wanted to include this info as well.
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