Mine as well. As youngsters, we didn't get our first good stereo equipment and color TV till the late 70s...and what is a remote?
Thanks for the nice review! The only question I have is about setting your tracking force at 4.5 g. That's much higher than I've ever used. Is that what your cartridge specifies?
I switched the tracking force between 4 and 5 grams and found no differences. So I stayed with 4,5. The stylus has a conical shape/cut with 0,7 mm diameter. If a record sounds dusted, I remove it immediately und put it on the to-be-cleaned- asap-stack. Shure recommends 4,5 grams.
Personally I would suggest a far better cartridge in this TT that tracks at under 3 grams. Not happy with 4 grams plus in terms of record wear.
Like he said, it's a conical stylus shape, so that dictates the tracking force, it's not any more force on the groove wall than some elliptical shapes at 1 gram. The contact area is bigger so force is spread out more and shouldn't affect record wear. Whether you can get better sound with another cartridge that tracks at lower force, well, probably so, but it's a rugged cartridge made for professional use back in the 70s.
ßs I tend to agree. A conical stylus tracking at 4.5 g is likely doing harm to your records and certainly not doing any sonic justice to them. The cartridge you're using is likely intended for disco scratching (or whatever it's called).
Not a matter of getting better sound out of a cartridge that tracks at lower force. An elyptical stylus will do a far better job of tracing a stereo groove.
It's an old nail. A conical at 3 to 3.5 gram should be OK - equivalent to 1.5 - 2 gram elliptical. Tracking at 1 gram is not considered a good idea these days and was a selling point of high compliance cartridges requiring a lightweight arm in the early 70s. 4 gram plus conical is going to produce greater wear than an elliptical at 2 gram.
I'm not sure if your statement is based on calculations or just an educated guess, and don't really care that much either way at this point since I don't plan on ever running a Shure SC35C, but there's a big thread on vinylengine recommending this cartridge, and one of the people did apply the math and came to a little different conclusion, quote below ... Shure SC35C... Highly recommended - Vinyl Engine »
Just bought it as a back up deck. I hope the cartridge picked is the right choice. Until I can afford the Dynavector xv-1, this is what I am settling with.
My next step would be replacing the ss35c stylus by an elliptical Shure stylus, N 75 for example. On the long run I aim at a moving iron cartridge. As far as I know: the vinyl wear does not only depend on the tracking force, but on the dimensions of the stylus. The smaller the stylus, the sharper.
Just to clarify, tracking at 1 gram is not considered a good idea these days because high compliance cartridges and low-mass tonearms are relatively scarce. You wouldn't want to take a cartridge designed to track at, say, 1.5 to 2.5 g but play your records at only 1 g. You'll just damage the records with a mistracking stylus. Of course, if you have a low-mass tonearm and a cartridge designed to perform its best at 1 gram (like a properly functioning Shure V15V-MR) then by all means track it at 1 gram. Cartridges like that Shure produced some of the lowest record wear, distortion, and highest tracking ability ever measured. So the concept is sound but it has to be implemented correctly.
I use a Shure M447 and have not ever noticed any wear on any of my records - like all Shure cartridges as long as it's set up correctly you will have no problems
Whatever you do change the supplied phono cable with the PLX1000 for an 'audiophile' one. I am using NVA Super Sound Chord which certainly clears up the sound. Disconnected the earth cable as that was producing a ground loop hum - that is probably system dependent. This is a very capable TT for the money. I also checked the arm with a spirit level and 1.5mm height setting gives a level headshell with the At33EV attached (16mm).
A lot of what people call "wear" is actually damage caused by all sorts of problems like mistracking styli smashing up the groove walls and misaligned or worn out cartridges grinding their way through the inner grooves and so on. I don't think it's that big of a deal calling that "wear" because those records are definitely "worn out", although the term groove damage would be more accurate. But true groove wear caused by repeated playings with a properly tracking, tracing, and undamaged stylus operating within its specs is much more subtle and takes a much longer time to occur.
So, how many of you control the stylus shape under adaequate magnification? 100 fold? Who examines it before the adjustement?
Finally picked a PLX up last week. Just enjoying myself listening to LPs - don't really do critical listening these days, unless I absolutely have to. Thoughts so far; Positive Sounds excellent, with no hum or feedback from the speakers that I can hear DD is great for its ease of use benefits - first time DD user here A quality experience overall - controls, looks, heavyweight feel. I hope to get many years of use Rubber mat and a zero setting on arm height, seems to allow my Ortofon SH4 headshell to be flat to the record. I'm using a small (probably inaccurate) bubble level which should still be ok for a comparison to platter level. I expected to have to use both mats to compensate for the 15-16mm cartridges I have. Eyeballing the arm, it does look a bit tail up - maybe the headshell is the opposite. So it looks like I can stick with the rubber mat on its own Arm lowering speed is fine. I was concerned here, but though it's quicker than i'm used to, not so fast to cause any problems Arm lifter has a height adjuster - but not needed with the single mat. If you went with 2 or a much thicker mat, seems you can adjust the lifter to suit Negative Arm bearings were loose I thought about returning for a replacement, but went for adjusting instead. It took me a while to get it right - but i'm happy now. I think if I hadn't read the Stereophile review and other posts, then I would have definitely returned it. Unless there's a reason why DJs need/want loose bearings, then Pioneer should pay Hanpin some more money to pay more attention here. I can see that they already coat each adjust screw with some varnish to prevent subsequent movement - they should just finish the job and check each one first. As I expected the unhinged cover isn't for me - Pioneer could fix this in V2, but maybe they've done their research already. I prepared by picking up one of these at the same time - Reloop dust cover RP-7000/8000 ». I'll go ahead with installing it at some point soon, but I do have some concerns - mainly my ability to drill holes straight , the power supply looks like it's behind where the LH hinge screws will go - maybe a safety issue so i'll have to check, plus in case of an early life failure I'll use the table a fair bit first. Other bits I think I can hear some distortion on the last song sometimes - not sure though - no critical listening Likely I need to adjust the cartridge / headshell For some reason in all the reading i'd done, I missed that the feet were adjustable. No more paper shims needed I'd like a new phono stage. One either with a high input resistance (c75k or 100k) / low input capacitance (c50p - 100p) or with switchable options that start with those values and go toward the more regular values. And that doesn't cost more than 1/2 - 2/3 the price of the table - too much to ask? I saw someone somewhere ( but not on here i don't think?) had said the overhang setting in the manual was wrong and that it would be 52mm instead of 54mm. Anyone have any insights? I'd like to have the option to swap the arm in the future, but haven't seen anything about a replacement arm-board out there? Overall its a keeper
