Stylus issues....
AlGarth
353 Posts
I use ortofon concordes.Awesome stylus' for sound quality and frequency spectrum etc..However sometimes I think they do not make good enough contact inside the tonearm or something because sometimes I will just lose one whole side/channel. The remedy is to take the headshell and stylus off and then put them back on and hope for the best. This is lame and frustrating especially when trying to record something. Anyone else ever have this problem?
Comments
all you need to do is get a soldering iron and solder a little tiny bit on the end of each of the 4 contacts...works like a charm. I haven't had a problem with mine at all since then.
Just make sure you clean the ends real good with like steel wool or something to make the solder stick better.
cosign
They have a brownish-amber color paste that you touch up contacts with to clean them and get a nice little bubble on the contact. The paste is called flux paste and you can find it at Radio Shack. Squeeze a little drop onto a small screwdriver... Touch the screwdriver to the contact and get a little paste on it... Then...what I do for soldering, is get a little solder on the tip of you iron and when you touch the solder to the paste... instant smoke and a small perfect bubble. Works great and a little paste goes a long ways. Make sure when you're done to clean off any excess paste. I usually use a q-tip to clean it up.
Socco
was about to say they are all temporary methods, like using cigarette filter, or blowing like a mutha, which looks stupid and will prolly get me ayo'd. Might try the soldering trick if I'm feeling adventurous.
What about ortofons coming apart? I have one where the metal contact for the stylus fell out of the plastic main bit... it all fits back in there but no sound. Is there a trick or a web site with a how to?
I used to rock with Ortofon Concordes but I switched to the OMs that mount on the Technics headshell about 3 years ago and I've had way less problems with the contacts. Also they don't dig out your records as bad.
yes
The tips on the end of the concorde style ortofons are actually LONGER than a regular technics headshell - soooo they push in the contacts inside of the tonearm, thus making a good connection very difficult. Plus the concordes don't fit in some of those headshell cases they got.
do what urrrs said...the mountables are just as good...
I've been using the Ortofon Concord DJ e series needles for 4 or 5 years.
Recently, I bought replacement styli, and TTL was out of the DJ E-series, so I bought the Scratch styli (the obnoxious orange model). I stayed home from work today to finish some stuff, and now anytime I scratch the needle jumps all the fuck around. I've experimented with anti-skating, tonearm weight and height, etc.
I checked the Ortofon site, and under "styli replacement" it says,
All stylus units for the different lines, are completely interchangeable within their own series[/b].
I thought the DJ and Scratch needles were both in the "Disco" series (some stupid ass names)? So, to my fellow styli experts,
Have you switched styli with any success?
Have you experienced similar problems?
Have you found a solution (short of buying new needles)?
Should I join Fatback in hating TTL now, since they said the styli were interchangable (Bob Bannister was there when I bought them, I saw him smikring!)?
Thanks.
I use the yellow ones but a few years back I bought a pink "scratch" coz it was a few bucks cheaper. Load of shite, sounded like it was split, and yeah, jumped all over the place. Binned it sharpish.