Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Steps On Choosing The Right Phono Cartridge

By Jerry Young


Magnetic cartridges are types of transducers which are being used for the playback of records or the analog sound recordings on the record players. Another term for cartridge is pickup, a device which is electro mechanical and has the purpose of converting vibrational energy to electrical energy. This contains a stylus which is either mounted permanently or removable. The stylus tip makes contact physically to the record groove. The electrical signal will then be amplified and converted to sound by the loudspeaker.

Listening to some music recordings using the vinyl recordings became popular ever since in the 1950s. Nowadays, the invention has already been evolving and has made with a lot of different types. However, the use of vinyl is still popular today but has an improved audiophile and DJ community in hi fidelity. One important thing that need to be considered is choosing the cartridge. So here are some easy tips when choosing the phono cartridge that will allow you on selecting an appropriate component to suit your needs.

Determine the budget. This component has almost the same features as the large stereo system. When the budget is allocated for this, the budget should reflect upon the total costs for a whole system. A good suggestion to a right budget is starting the allocation only of 10 percent from a total expenditure of component.

Selecting a tonearm mount. The turntables mount has four classifications and these are the standard, P, convertible and integrated mounts. The compatibility of these mounts to a cartridge must be considered importantly. Standard types are very common in use. These contain large and flat head shells located beneath the cartridge.

A P mount is common only to some turntables which are low end. The cartridges rear end is plugged to the tonearm then secured with only one screw. The convertible mount is uncommon and is often adapted to fit either in standard or P mount. The integrated mount uses propriety cartridges which are not allowed to be swapped from some other models. This is often used in DJ turntables.

Choosing between moving coil and moving magnet cartridge. Usually, the modern phono cartridges are magnetic. The components of these would include magnets and also small coils made of metal with relation between each other for the production of an electrical signal. The moving magnet cartridges can be considered as very common designs. These models may either be low end or high end.

Moving coil cartridges are the location where in the magnet will be fixed then the coil will move. These are more preferred by most of the audio enthusiasts in order to have a superior sound. Typically, these are available only in high end and expensive models. If these are used, the MC of the amplifier should be separate.

Comparing the shapes of styluses from different cartridges. Styluses are needle like materials that will actually touch the vinyl records. Modernized types are made of diamond and come into different sizes and shapes.

The inexpensive ones usually are made from spherical shapes and are offering a low quality sound only. The elliptical stylus can offer a better contact area, and thus, having a lesser force for tracking. Linear contact, biradial, and micro line styluses are the types that are difficult to produce. These are also expensive.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment