All,
I'm having difficulties with my Air-Tight PC-1s set-up; so I sent a private message to another PC1S owner, PeterA, and he suggested that I post a thread and include some pictures to see if someone can provide guidance. I have the cartridge mounted on a Graham Elite and my TT is an Oracle Delphi MkVI. My other cartridges are Koetsu's - an Onyx Platinum Diamond and a Rosewood Signature. Both cartridges sound very good, and I mention this only as a "reference" because I don't believe there are any downstream factors that are impacting the set-up and sound of the PC1.
When I mounted my PC1 and was attempting to set it up, I could not get my SRA anywhere close to the desired 92 degrees. Even with my VTA on the Elite raised all the way up, I could only get to about 88 degrees. At this stage, the cartridge didn't sound bad; however, it didn't sound as good as I was expecting. So I decided to shim the front of the cartridge and ended up using a small piece of bronze sheeting cut to about 4x10x1.5 mm (WxLxThickness). Bingo! I was able to get 92 degrees with the arm of the Elite very close to parallel. I've attached some pictures below taken with my digital microscope with the cartridge at 2.1g VTF.
When I played some of my reference recordings the cartridge didn't sound good at all - somewhat dead and lifeless. So if my set-up is accurate (all other set-up parameters are correct and in line with both Bob Graham's set-up tools confirmed with a SmarTractor), then what's going on here?!! Is it the shim material I've used? Is something wrong with the configuration of the PC1? There are quite a few embedded measurement in the pictures below that I'm hoping someone more seasoned than I can interpret and provide some potential recommendations and solutions.
Thanks much!
Kyle
I'm having difficulties with my Air-Tight PC-1s set-up; so I sent a private message to another PC1S owner, PeterA, and he suggested that I post a thread and include some pictures to see if someone can provide guidance. I have the cartridge mounted on a Graham Elite and my TT is an Oracle Delphi MkVI. My other cartridges are Koetsu's - an Onyx Platinum Diamond and a Rosewood Signature. Both cartridges sound very good, and I mention this only as a "reference" because I don't believe there are any downstream factors that are impacting the set-up and sound of the PC1.
When I mounted my PC1 and was attempting to set it up, I could not get my SRA anywhere close to the desired 92 degrees. Even with my VTA on the Elite raised all the way up, I could only get to about 88 degrees. At this stage, the cartridge didn't sound bad; however, it didn't sound as good as I was expecting. So I decided to shim the front of the cartridge and ended up using a small piece of bronze sheeting cut to about 4x10x1.5 mm (WxLxThickness). Bingo! I was able to get 92 degrees with the arm of the Elite very close to parallel. I've attached some pictures below taken with my digital microscope with the cartridge at 2.1g VTF.
When I played some of my reference recordings the cartridge didn't sound good at all - somewhat dead and lifeless. So if my set-up is accurate (all other set-up parameters are correct and in line with both Bob Graham's set-up tools confirmed with a SmarTractor), then what's going on here?!! Is it the shim material I've used? Is something wrong with the configuration of the PC1? There are quite a few embedded measurement in the pictures below that I'm hoping someone more seasoned than I can interpret and provide some potential recommendations and solutions.
Thanks much!
Kyle