I’m just going to throw this out there. I’ve been giving cartridge setup a lot of thought lately. Those of you who know me, fasten your seat belts. 
My advice has always been to track on the high side of manufacturers’ recommendations. I believe that any extra wear (negligible at most) from tracking a bit heavier is clearly better than possible damage to one’s records from mistracking by tracking too lightly.
As an example, if a manufacturer specifies tracking force from 1.8 to 2.2 grams, I’d probably go 2.1-2.2 grams which is what I did with the MoFi Ultratracker. I can’t say I heard a difference by changing the tracking force, but I prefer to track on the high side of the manufacturers recommendations to protect my records.
Looking at the Grado Prestige series, Grado specifies 1.5 grams recommended tracking force. No range. Just 1.5 grams. Do I follow this as a hard and fast rule? No. I think it sounds better at 1.65 grams. Yes it’s above the one setting given, but not enough to harm anything IMO. Stick with me for a few.
I’ve been giving a lot of thought as to why Grado would specify one tracking force, and why I prefer something different, and why a different tracking force sounds different.
Here’s a visual to help understand what I’m thinking. It looks like a die. It’s not. It’s a Grado cartridge. I’ll explain.
The dots at the corners are the fixed coils- positive and negative for each channel.
The center dot is the only part that moves. It’s the cantilever tip that fits into the cartridge body where the small bit of iron is attached. The other end of the cantilever holds the brass bushing that contains the diamond stylus.
Looking at the above, the cantilever is equidistant from the coils. This is what we want. Adding tracking force moves the cantilever up. Subtracting tracking force moves the cantilever down. Also, anti skate adjustment would move it left or right.
One more thing other than tracking force will change the position of the cantilever in relationship to the coils- VTA.
So I’m going to amend my thoughts here. With a MM cartridge, set the tracking force towards the top end of the manufacturer’s recommendation. With a MI cartridge (Grado is MI) start in the middle of the recommendation and move up (or down) a wee bit until it sounds best. So with a Grado, start at 1.5. Try adding half a gram at a time up to 1.7 grams. One setting will sound better than the others. That’s when the cantilever is positioned equidistant to the coils.
Try it. Experiment. It’s a free tweak. Now you know how and why it works.
I’ll go think about something else now.
My advice has always been to track on the high side of manufacturers’ recommendations. I believe that any extra wear (negligible at most) from tracking a bit heavier is clearly better than possible damage to one’s records from mistracking by tracking too lightly.
As an example, if a manufacturer specifies tracking force from 1.8 to 2.2 grams, I’d probably go 2.1-2.2 grams which is what I did with the MoFi Ultratracker. I can’t say I heard a difference by changing the tracking force, but I prefer to track on the high side of the manufacturers recommendations to protect my records.
Looking at the Grado Prestige series, Grado specifies 1.5 grams recommended tracking force. No range. Just 1.5 grams. Do I follow this as a hard and fast rule? No. I think it sounds better at 1.65 grams. Yes it’s above the one setting given, but not enough to harm anything IMO. Stick with me for a few.
I’ve been giving a lot of thought as to why Grado would specify one tracking force, and why I prefer something different, and why a different tracking force sounds different.
Here’s a visual to help understand what I’m thinking. It looks like a die. It’s not. It’s a Grado cartridge. I’ll explain.
The dots at the corners are the fixed coils- positive and negative for each channel.
The center dot is the only part that moves. It’s the cantilever tip that fits into the cartridge body where the small bit of iron is attached. The other end of the cantilever holds the brass bushing that contains the diamond stylus.
Looking at the above, the cantilever is equidistant from the coils. This is what we want. Adding tracking force moves the cantilever up. Subtracting tracking force moves the cantilever down. Also, anti skate adjustment would move it left or right.
One more thing other than tracking force will change the position of the cantilever in relationship to the coils- VTA.
So I’m going to amend my thoughts here. With a MM cartridge, set the tracking force towards the top end of the manufacturer’s recommendation. With a MI cartridge (Grado is MI) start in the middle of the recommendation and move up (or down) a wee bit until it sounds best. So with a Grado, start at 1.5. Try adding half a gram at a time up to 1.7 grams. One setting will sound better than the others. That’s when the cantilever is positioned equidistant to the coils.
Try it. Experiment. It’s a free tweak. Now you know how and why it works.
I’ll go think about something else now.
