Recommend a digital tracking force gauge that is durable

Dropped my Pro-Ject tracking force gauge yesterday, about 3 feet to the wood floor. It's history. Before I plunk down money I really don't have on a replacement, do they make a digital tracking force gauge that can withstand some abuse a little better than this, or are they all this sensitive?

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or you could go the other way and get the no name brand / same model on ebay for a (much?) lower cost.

you might not trust the accuracy but with a bit of luck you have a known quantity i.e. say your current set up is 1.5g on the now broken scale.

you can measure using the replacement and hopefully see the same 1.5g and have confidence in its accuracy.

 

I was never convinced of any tangible degree of superiority of the more expensive offerings in the digital scale world. I bought a no name for next to nothing that looks just like the other models, and I believe it to be very accurate. Then again, I find my old Shure analog scale still gets you pretty close to there as well. You could buy 10 of mine for one of those Project models. I think it safe to say that Project (like other rebranded scales) has nothing to do with the design or manufacture of that scale.

 

Is this the one you dropped?

 

You can buy a generic version of this on ebay for a fraction of the price. No guarantee any gauge can survive dropping on a hard surface.

 

Yep. Here's the exact same thing for $13 shipped: http://www.amazon.com/Yosoo-Profess...rs=10536942011&ie=UTF8&qid=1441462058&sr=8-13

I own it and it's great.

 

Wow. 13 bucks. I hate to say what I paid for mine a couple of years ago...

Nice guage, though this type is a bit sensitive to magnetic fields (and, apparently, dropping on floor).

 

You can do better than that. Luckily the US Mint kindly provides very cheap and precise ready-made calibration weights... just grab a couple of clean coins, look up the weight on wikipedia, and compare. I bought one of those little cheap digital drug dealer scales for like $15, and the thing is bang on, within a couple of milligrams.

 

Haha that's a quality tip!

It works here in the UK too. A 5p coin is 3.25g according to the mint here.

My scale says 3.26 - I can live with that margin of error, or maybe the coin is dirty

 

I have one of these and a Shure teeter totter and both work well. Set it with one and recheck with the other. Also usually balance the arm and then dial it up with the mark on the 1200's counterweight and have been pleasantly surprised that they all agree!

 

We use the same no-name scale here and with the provided weight, it is dead on. No need to spend silly money for something with a brand name attached to it since they are sourced at the same Chinese manufacturer.

Weights of coins are not a 100% reliable measure since they are spec'd within tolerances so there can be some slight variations in mass between them.

 

Just to play devil's advocate and clarify a few things the $13 Ebay or Dealextreme scale is NOT exactly the same scale as the Project or some (not all!) of the the branded scales sold as "audiophile approved".

It is true that almost all of these scales come from the same Chinese manufacturer (Canrong) but the Project specifically and many of the other branded scales sold at higher prices are more sophisticated in their measuring capability: they have resolution to 3 decimal points or 1/1000th of a gram vs. the 1/100th of a gram resolution of the cheapie versions.

I used a generic version of the 1/1000th of a gram resolution Canrong for about 7 years before it crapped out in the past year. It was extremely accurate and also very reliable in that time period: i had my wife take it into the lab and measure its performance against sophisticated lab scales that cost $1500-$2000 and that Canrong was within .007 grams when measuring 1-5 grams against all the pricey competition.

The $13 version is not as accurate simply because it doesn't have the resolution. One can argue that resolution is not really necessary I suppose but I did find it to be useful in terms of repeatably getting back to very narrow ranges of VTF; I am now using the cheapie $13 version and while it is adequate, I wished I'd spent the extra $40-$50 and popped for the more sophisticated version again (I paid about $65 7 years or so ago). Once this one breaks I'll definitely do so.

It's not just the extra resolution (although I do like that); I have a feeling that the cheaper, lower resolution scales (while still being quite accurate and probably much more resolving than something like the Shure) are built to lower standards. It is strictly anecdotal, but the cheapie I purchased in the last year seemed to have less quality control; specifically, the weigh platform is really canted on the cheaper version I picked up recently. The more expensive, more resolving version which I acquired about 7 years ago had a much more level platform-that alone inspired a lot more confidence in it IMO. And the platform on the newer, cheaper model could not be adjusted, although I did try.

Just my opinion (hey, everyone has one ) based on my experience with both, but I would pop for the higher resolution Canrong (and definitely will when my current lower rez model gives up the ghost) as I know it offers higher resolution and, in my experience it offers better build quality . I would not pay the branded price (which generally seems to be in the $100-$120 range) but would seek out a non-branded model, which generally seem to show up in the $50-$60 range. Having owned and used both, the extra expenditure of $35-$45 would be worth it to me.

 

"I swear officer, that scale is for adjusting my phono cartridge!"

"What about these little bags full of white powder?"

"Uh... That's special audiophile calibration powder..."

 

I've had a Shure balance beam scale for perhaps 30 years now. About a dozen years ago I bought a $300 electronic scale. Fortunately the electronic scale agreed with the Shure thus I returned the electronic scale.

But for $13, if I were looking for something now, I would go to eBay

 

The posher silver £54 scales likely have the same mechanism as the cheapo £14 scales. Main difference is the 'touch screen' buttons rather than plastic buttons and a screen brightness adjustment. They all appear to do 3 decimal places in spite of the description - my cheapo version does. If it breaks it hasn't cost you much and it agrees with my Shure balance but to extra decimals.

 

As I mentioned upthread, I'm not real pleased with the quality of the cheapie I just picked up-I much preferred the higher resolution model I paid about $65 for about 7-8 years ago. If you could direct me to any of the inexpensive Canrong clones that has .001 gram resolution in the $13 to 13 GBP range, I'd like to buy one as I haven't seen any below about $49 U.S.

 

Do you find differences in tracking force of hundredths of grams to matter?

 

The last few cartridges I've used have had "sweet spots" for sonics within a .035 gram range I'd say. I've read some other audiophiles stating they can hear differences of .01 with certain cartridges. I'd have a tough time taking it that far.

Jonathan Carr of Lyra specs his cartridges very tightly for VTF with preferred and/or recommended settings often within .02 grams. I believe he would tell you that his cartridges perform best when properly set up within that kind of range.

So I wouldn't say I'm the only one that might find a higher resolution scale to be useful. Ultimately you've got to set VTF by ear but a higher resolution scale will allow you to readjust and get into the range very quickly if necessary (arm VTF drifting very slightly out over a period of time, adjusting for temperature differences, adjusting as a cartridge ages, etc.).

For an extra $30-$40 I would say that, in my experience, it's very nice to have that extra precision available, especially now that I don't have it .

 

The cheap version I got came with a 5g weight in the box to double check it is performing correctly. It reads exactly 5g on the scale when I use it, and reads 0 when I take it back off which means all the values inbetween should be fine too. Of course, it doesn't have the .001 resolution. But for a cartridge like the Dynavector XX2 which has a range of 1.8-2.2g, aiming for 2.0 does not need such resolution. How they can make these things so cheaply baffles me.