Noob question, be gentle... Is my stylus ok?

Hey everyone, new to the boards and new to vinyl. I got an audio technica lp-120 for my birthday a few months back and aligned the cartridge based on the protractor for my cartridge. That said, I notice the needle is at an angle (see picture). Is this normal? Is it ok? Thanks everyone, I'm sure this is a simple, noob question, so I appreciate the patience



G.O.W.

 

Somthin' ain't right there. Adjust your anti-skate in both directions to see if it changes. But it could be a bent cantilever as well.

 

Cool, thanks. So is this "bad", or as long as the music sounds ok am I alright?

 

If adjusting anti-skating as suggested above doesn't fix this, I would replace the stylus as a bent cantilever runs the risk of adversely affecting your vinyl.

 

Also, I'd put a spirit level on that head shell. Might just be an optical illusion but it looks like it might be leaning to the right a bit. Regardless, I certainly wouldn't leave it as it may cause groove damage.

 

Thank you guys! I will check out the anti-skate tonight and go from there. Thanks so much!

 

I can always convince myself that something is leaning left or right. As far as the stylus, I bet it is too much antiskating.

 

If it looks like that even when not on an LP, then you could try realigning the cartridge so the cantilever itself is straight.

 

Hey guys... thanks so much... so it wasn't bent, so much as it seemed misaligned at the base (the ball thing.... see... noob). i took a tooth pick and sort of put it straight and it seems to be great. stiff, straight, and sounds good. think i'm ok for now? i may look into a new one shortly.

 

Did you check to level the table though? Thats the first step.
And the people who mention anti skating are looking in the wrong places because the lp120 barely has any.

If its off level it will look straight when in the air but bent ehen playing.

 

For the cost of the stylus being equal to the price of one record, I would replace it in case it trashes all of your LPs. Force aligning a stylus isn’t really possible to do accurately without damage, especially with a toothpick.

When you get your new stylus in, unmount the headshell and replace the stylus. IMO the first step here should have been to check the angle with headshell off of the tonearm, so you can isolate any setup variables. From there you can narrow down leveling, alignment and amtiskate as causes. With any stylus, a bit of an angle is within tolerance but this looks too far off.