Introducing the Phono Cartridge Measurement Library

[VinyLuke]

Audio-Technica AT33PTG/II​

Notes:

• Cartridge has less than 100h of use
• Turntable: Technics SL-1210GR with KAB Fluid Damper
• Headshell: Audio Technica AT-MS11
• VTF: 2.00gr
• Phono stage: HusaRIAA v2 (http://tinyurl.com/45ke55cx)
  • Capacitance: ~95pF (set at 0pF)
  • Loading: 160Ω
• A/D: ASUS PRIME B660M-A Line In and Audacity
• Test record: Clearaudio CA-TRS-1007

 

[Balle Clorin]

Nice, seem like your PTG oscillations is also somewhat triggered by the bump in the test record..= wiggly pattern at increasing frequency. Still less than mine is
I suspect this behavior is do to some intermodulation effect. As the cartridge oscillate the needle in the groove will move back and forth relative to the record and maybe change both the frequency and level. I have not managed to do reasonable calculation of this, maybe one day I figure it out, please add comments in the Fun with Vinyl measurements thread ,so we do not sidetrack this wonderful library thread

Spoiler: stuff

Here the bump is very visible. once per 1.8 seconds or 1 revolution

Low pass 50hz
'

Strange that this occurs only with my AT 33PTGii and ONLY on this test record, and mostly in one channel

Fun with vinyl measurements

VTA error do introduce distortion for vertical stylus movement. However the pure left and right channel measurement which is 45 degree stylus movement shows low distortion of the JICO. So the actual contribution of VTA distortion is not that critical during music reproduction. Also, SRA needs...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[mglobe]

Audio-Technica AT33PTG/II​

View attachment 346607

Notes:

• Cartridge has less than 100h of use
• Turntable: Technics SL-1210GR with KAB Fluid Damper
• Headshell: Audio Technica AT-MS11
• VTF: 2.00gr
• Phono stage: HusaRIAA v2 (http://tinyurl.com/45ke55cx)
  • Capacitance: ~95pF (set at 0pF)
  • Loading: 160Ω
• A/D: ASUS PRIME B660M-A Line In and Audacity
• Test record: Clearaudio CA-TRS-1007

Is there a reason why there is such a big difference between the crosstalk curves? Maybe I’m not understanding what they represent?

 

[Balle Clorin]

Azimuth is off…on that record. Adjusting azimuth gives me -31/32 on my PTG, on Ortofon record
Azimuth is kind of poor on CA TRS-1007

 

[Thomas_A]

Azimuth may as you say differ between records and those giving the lowest number for both channels at a given setting would be my best guess being most correct. Borrowing Luckydogs image below. (Hope he is around still somewhere.)

 

[VinyLuke]

Is there a reason why there is such a big difference between the crosstalk curves? Maybe I’m not understanding what they represent?

Yes, azimuth was off. I played with it today - getting it perfect is a real pita

This is the best what I could get:

 

[mfalcon]

Lyra Kleos

Notes:

• Cartridge has less than 100h of use
• Turntable: Technics SL-1200G
• Headshell: Technics Standard
• VTF: 1.72gr
• Phono stage: Manley Steelhead
  • Capacitance: unknown (set at 0pF on Manley Steelhead)
  • Loading: 100Ω
• A/D: Lynx Hilo
• Test record: CBS STR-100

 

[Balle Clorin]

Two resonance peaks are kind of the usual is it not? Compensating for aging ears maybe . Nice balance between channels from 1k

 

[mfalcon]

I was kinda disappointed in myself because I can’t really tell there is a tiltup after 5k. I’m hapy to admit there are better options for the money after seeing this. But it still sounds really good even if it’s not the best value. I’m going to measure a few other carts soon but has anyone measured a true mono cart? One that doesn’t move (much) vertically with a low compliance and high vtf? I don’t play non mono tracks on it. Miyajima Mono Premium BE. I don’t know if there is a mono Freq Sweep?

 

[JP]

I was kinda disappointed in myself because I can’t really tell there is a tiltup after 5k.

It manifests very subtly.

 

[Balle Clorin]

Lyra Kleos from HifiNews, some similarities although I have lost some faith in their response curves after doing my own with the script published here.

 

[Risto_H]

Shure V15 Type IV / Jico SAS B

It took me a few attempts to understand how the TRS-1007 was recorded and how to mitigate that with the script settings (riaamode = 2, riaainv = 1). I also found that if you record with 96 kHz sampling, the sample with Right channel must be channel swapped but that somehow is not necessary if the recording is done with 44.1 kHz. Apparently the script swaps the channels when it converts to 96 kHz?

Well, in any case the script works well and is quite useful although perhaps not fully intuitive for the beginner.

Notes:

• Turntable: Denon DP-51F
• Jico SAS B needle is brand new
• VTF: 1.5 g with damping brush in use (in this unit from Jico, damping works out of the box as it should)
• Phono stage:
  • RH_RIAA 3.0 (my own design, curve accuracy +/-0.1 dB)
  • Capacitance set to 160 pF, Denon stock cables estimated to have 120 pF ---> 280 pF
  • 47 kOhm
• A/D: Native Instruments Komplete Audio 2
• I measured the original Shure MR needle as well and it is still OK with estimated 100 - 150 h of use. I had wrong capacitance settings and too low sampling rate when measuring it so will redo with the same setting as here later on.

I already thought that the Jico SAS B sounds good and works well and this measurement proves it. It seems to be even better than the original MR needle.

 

[Balle Clorin]

Looks better than mine , ( post 736) , would you mind sharing the wav file?

 

[VinyLuke]

Looks good, can you redo with capacitance set to 0?

 

[Risto_H]

Looks good, can you redo with capacitance set to 0?

I can do a measurement with capacitance set to about 170 pF since my RIAA has minimum of ~50 pF and I estimate the cables to add 120 pF. This change has a small effect but as far as I can see, the setting I used for this measurement seems to be very close to optimal.

I did one measurement with the MR needle using 170 pF and treble peaked slightly at 10 kHz. As promised, I will measure that needle again too since I did other small mistakes in the process.

@Balle Clorin , which file do you prefer, the original recording that contains 1 kHz pilot tones and both channels or the trimmed and separated files?

 

[JP]

I also found that if you record with 96 kHz sampling, the sample with Right channel must be channel swapped but that somehow is not necessary if the recording is done with 44.1 kHz. Apparently the script swaps the channels when it converts to 96 kHz?

No, you always need to ensure FR is the left channel for both file0 and file1.

 

[Risto_H]

No, you always need to ensure FR is the left channel for both file0 and file1.

OK, thanks. Then it is quite weird how I got a normal looking output when I did that first try. I'm sure I did not swap the channels for file 1 (R)...

Nevertheless, I know now how to perform the recording and .wav file processing correctly!

 

[aaaakkkk]

Shure V15 Type IV / Jico SAS B

View attachment 347799
It took me a few attempts to understand how the TRS-1007 was recorded and how to mitigate that with the script settings (riaamode = 2, riaainv = 1). I also found that if you record with 96 kHz sampling, the sample with Right channel must be channel swapped but that somehow is not necessary if the recording is done with 44.1 kHz. Apparently the script swaps the channels when it converts to 96 kHz?

Well, in any case the script works well and is quite useful although perhaps not fully intuitive for the beginner.

Notes:

• Turntable: Denon DP-51F
• Jico SAS B needle is brand new
• VTF: 1.5 g with damping brush in use (in this unit from Jico, damping works out of the box as it should)
• Phono stage:
  • RH_RIAA 3.0 (my own design, curve accuracy +/-0.1 dB)
  • Capacitance set to 160 pF, Denon stock cables estimated to have 120 pF ---> 280 pF
  • 47 kOhm
• A/D: Native Instruments Komplete Audio 2
• I measured the original Shure MR needle as well and it is still OK with estimated 100 - 150 h of use. I had wrong capacitance settings and too low sampling rate when measuring it so will redo with the same setting as here later on.

I already thought that the Jico SAS B sounds good and works well and this measurement proves it. It seems to be even better than the original MR needle.

Recording at 44.1 kHz does not allow the script to display distortion above 10 kHz.

 

[Balle Clorin]

@Balle Clorin , which file do you prefer, the original recording that contains 1 kHz pilot tones and both channels or the trimmed and separated files?

Full file please, I Edit and trim myself,?please specify load, 47k/ 280pf file is fine . I have the same Turntable but not the same response as you.

 

[Risto_H]

Recording at 44.1 kHz does not allow the script to display distortion above 10 kHz.

Yes, I realize that and I did set the audio settings in Audacity to use 96 kHz sampling but now I'm not sure if it really did that correctly. There really is no distortion data past 10 kHz in my graph. I guess the combination NI Komplete Audio 2 + Audacity is not the most common here and I'm a novice Audacity user so I may be using a wrong interface setting. I did not install Windows ASIO drivers yet since it seemed to work with the standard drivers already. However, there are other settings I can play with...

Native Instruments offers their own software for audio sampling but since Audacity is widely used for this purpose, I tried it first.

I can share my raw measurement file (with 47k/280 pF) later today when I get back to my home PC.