S shape or straight tone arm, whitch is better?

0:00 Tonearm, hand side, straight

Alright folks, in this video what we're doing is looking at the actual positions of the cartridges on a piece of vinyl, on difference between of course being straight tonearm and we're going to use the Vestax PDX2000M2 and the Technics SL1200. Now then, again the reason I'm using these two turntables is because I haven't got any others and one has a straight arm, which is the Vestax, the other one has what's known as an S-shaped tonearm, which is the Technics. Now then, very quickly, okay, and by all means please, well not by all means, but I would like you to give your input on this particular video because maybe you have got other angles, maybe you've got comments that you'd like to put forward.

Now then, with regards to this particular tonearm and the fact that it's a straight tonearm, some people have said that it does actually wear out the records very slightly. Now what I can see possibly happening, if you think about it, if we could actually all of a sudden blow up this entire area and we could have bigger grooves and we could almost get inside the grooves and look and see what's happening, What I can see happening is, now then, depending on which way we are, but if I am now where the camera is, and we're looking at right and left here, I would say that it's highly likely that the right hand side of the groove will start to wear out slightly more than the left hand side. Because to me it's almost as though the styli, the needle, is going to be digging in slightly more to the right hand side than to the left.

1:46 A lot of reasons, one or two major reasons

A lot of reasons, one or two major reasons. One is as the actual turntable turns and the arm moves into the centre, the arm in effect is being pushed towards the centre. But also there's a bit of pressure outwards. So of course the arm logically, or not the arm sorry, the stylite, the needle is going to have a slightly more pressure On the right hand side as opposed to the left hand side, okay? Now just bear that in mind for a second alright. Now what we'll do now is we'll go down and have a look at the S shape and we'll just get a bit closer. Right if we stick that on now, now if you can see the actual position, and again you know if we can blow that up so it's huge and we're actually sitting in the groove, what I can see here is that the actual needle in styli is almost positioned

3:36 To make the needle jump

Again, it's exactly in the groove as with the Vestax, but the difference is here is that there's almost an equal amount of pressure either side. Even though it's being pushed that way, it's almost as though I can imagine the actual styli, the needle, is positioned correctly and has an equal amount of distance either side of the groove. Now then, bearing that in mind, alright, and I want you, really you need to sort of look... To make the needle jump. I've only ever made it jump once, and believe me, I gave it a good thrashing. Whereas this one here, the 1200, it does jump quite a lot, and you know, you've got to set all the levels a lot better, let's say, sorry, my English isn't that good at what, right? You've got to set the levels a lot better to make sure the actual needle and styli doesn't jump.

Alright, now then, an idea I've got. Now tell me if this is right and wrong, if you should or shouldn't do it. Right, now just check this out, OK? Now what we're looking at here, if you think about it, look at the actual angle of the cartridge. OK? You can see the angle there in relation to the turntable, etc. Now check this out. This is what I've been doing and I don't see any problem in this at all. A very simple solution to an idea Move it like that. Right, there's that angle. Can you see it's almost facing towards us now? And then if we move to the other one, you can see that the actual cartridge now has been angled very slightly. Now I've been doing that for quite a while and I don't see any problem. Do you see a problem? Can you see a problem? Do you think it's a good idea? Do you think it's a bad idea? Again, leave your comments because at the end of the day folks, what we're possibly doing...

Thank you very much for watching. Practice and enjoy. Take it easy. Thank you.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.