What weight do you track at?

hazdaman100

hazdaman100

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Hey chaps what weight do y'all track at? I was tracking at 3gs, but was then told that was way too heavy, and a lighter weight improved the quality of sound. Ive never really looked into this before, does it really make much of a difference?
 
ensure ur tonearm height is level and ur anti skating in set up (can be done with a blank vinyl) this will help sound quality
tracking force for most carts is between 1.5 - 3 grams
i have mine set at 2, any lower than that it tends to skip while cueing
if ur carts come with a user guide theres probably lots of usefully info on them.

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mate... those videos deserve their own thread entitled 'how to set up properly' or something!

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Good vids...I sudjest you set the weight balance before the height as that will give you the flat level of the tone arm so no ruler or guess work needed.
 
TeddyBizzle said:
what carts/styli have u got?
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Got ortofon djs carts and the respective styli....Havnt got the manuals for the actual carts, as I got them with the decks. Would heavy tracking possibly explain the excessive rate I pound through styli? or am I just unluckly?!
Ill check those vids when I get home, im sure they are sweet, just cant c them at work
 
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hazdaman100 said:
Got ortofon djs carts and the respective styli....Havnt got the manuals for the actual carts, as I got them with the decks. Would heavy tracking possibly explain the excessive rate I pound through styli? or am I just unluckly?!
Ill check those vids when I get home, im sure they are sweet, just cant c them at work
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I ahve Ortofons as well and the recommended tracking force for them in the manuel is 4gs.
 
hazdaman100 said:
4gs!!!!!!!!! Whaaaaat
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Sure nuff, that's what the manual says. Although after watching those vids I have dropped my tone-arm height and backed off the tracking force to 2.5gs. Gonna see how they play tomorrow and adjust if need be. Definitely don't wanna be wearing through my vinyl. Thems my babies.
 
It depends on several things including the tonearm weight, the tonearm hight and the anti skating.
The correct tonearm weight can be found in the cartridge instruction manual. If you don't have this you should be able to download it online. It is usually 1-4 ish. I have Ortofon OM DJS carts and they are set to 3.
The tonearm height settings depend on your deck and cartrige. I have Technics and it is explained in the manual for them. If you have different decks it will be in the instructions or online.
Anti skating is normally set to 0 for dj use.
If you set everything up properly and are as careful as possible with your carts and use good ones like Ortofon they should last for ages.
Hope that helps man.
 
robhicks1 said:
It depends on several things including the tonearm weight, the tonearm hight and the anti skating.
The correct tonearm weight can be found in the cartridge instruction manual. If you don't have this you should be able to download it online. It is usually 1-4 ish. I have Ortofon OM DJS carts and they are set to 3.
The tonearm height settings depend on your deck and cartrige. I have Technics and it is explained in the manual for them. If you have different decks it will be in the instructions or online.
Anti skating is normally set to 0 for dj use.
If you set everything up properly and are as careful as possible with your carts and use good ones like Ortofon they should last for ages.
Hope that helps man.
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Got the height pretty much on 0 for my technics
 
hazdaman100 said:
Got the height pretty much on 0 for my technics
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Its relative to how high your carts are. I have Ortofon OM DJ'S and I measured the hight of them and them related it to the table in the Technics instructions and then set the height accordingly.
Have you got concords or OM's mate?
 
Mine are set heavy or the needle jumps when it gets towards the centre on some vinyls. Should get them serviced really, the anti skate is correctly set up as is the height. You can find a chart if you search on how to set this up.
 
Tonearm height should be set so that with the needle on the record the tonearm is level.

emy said:
Mine are set heavy or the needle jumps when it gets towards the centre on some vinyls. Should get them serviced really, the anti skate is correctly set up as is the height. You can find a chart if you search on how to set this up.
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Sounds like your tonearm might have dodgy bearings or is getting snagged on the internal wiring.
 
robhicks1 said:
Its relative to how high your carts are. I have Ortofon OM DJ'S and I measured the hight of them and them related it to the table in the Technics instructions and then set the height accordingly.
Have you got concords or OM's mate?
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Got the Concordes mate! The tonearm is level, when the needle is on the record. Measures it with a ruler too. Think I have it sorted....
 
I have the old style carts that came with the decks. Ive only changed the needles twice in about 10 years I think. I have 5ps on them (about 3g) as I like them heavy and I always take 2 5ps with me if playing vinyl in a club as those have usually seen better days, plus the vibration I cant be arsed with jumping records. I havent noticed a deterioration in the quality of the pressings either as some say the extra weight causes. I have so many records though, if I was playing the same 50 records over & over maybe they would have been noticeably affected.
 
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