Stylus Replacement options for Clearaudio Concept TT?

[bizmopeen]

Hello, folks; it's been a long time since I've been here, but am trying to get some of my new(ish) equipment quad-compliant so I can decode and enjoy my CD-4 collection, and I knew this was the place to go.

Anyway, I've got a Clearaudio Concept TT that needs to have a stylus replacement since the old one broke. I knew I needed a Shibata stylus and I had had the Audio Technica AT-VMN95SH recommended to me. I see by the specs, though, that it's rated for up to a 25K response; would I need something that can read higher than that for CD-4? Any recommendations for a replacement stylus for that TT? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Quadromaniac]

It should work, I have tried the AT95E cartridge with CD-4. This cartridge is essentially same as yours except the stylus on mine is an elliptical one while the AT-VMN95SH has a Shibata stylus which was designed for CD-4.

I never had any issues with the radar light but as the arm moved towards the centre of the record the reproduction would get worse and also the demodulator would start to have trouble locking the subcarrier frequency which would result in abnormal noise and a whining sound. With some records the noise would appear to the end of the record, such as the case for my Aqualung quadradisc, but for example Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark would have break ups all over the record. This is probably because the Aqualung has a quieter band base signal and it demodulates easier.

I think all of the issues above are mostly attributed to the elliptical stylus, which has a much harder time accurately tracing the inner grooves, so I presume the AT-VMN95SH would preform far better.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

It should work, I have tried the AT95E cartridge with CD-4. This cartridge is essentially same as yours except the stylus on mine is an elliptical one while the AT-VMN95SH has a Shibata stylus which was designed for CD-4.

I never had any issues with the radar light but as the arm moved towards the centre of the record the reproduction would get worse and also the demodulator would start to have trouble locking the subcarrier frequency which would result in abnormal noise and a whining sound. With some records the noise would appear to the end of the record, such as the case for my Aqualung quadradisc, but for example Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark would have break ups all over the record. This is probably because the Aqualung has a quieter band base signal and it demodulates easier.

I think all of the issues above are mostly attributed to the elliptical stylus, which has a much harder time accurately tracing the inner grooves, so I presume the AT-VMN95SH would preform far better.

RE: inner groove distortion
One simple trick I used in those situations was to slowly adjust the anti-skating while playing the problematic track. It doesn't really fix the root problem (which would be to use straight line tone arm) but it has really made a difference at times. Then I would just leave the anti-skating alone even if it differed from TT mfgr specs of setting it to the tone arm weight.

 

[Quadromaniac]

RE: inner groove distortion
One simple trick I used in those situations was to slowly adjust the anti-skating while playing the problematic track. It doesn't really fix the root problem (which would be to use straight line tone arm) but it has really made a difference at times. Then I would just leave the anti-skating alone even if it differed from TT mfgr specs of setting it to the tone arm weight.

I bought a proper CD-4 cartridge so I don't have such issues anymore but thanks for the advice although I could never perceive any difference in sound while turning the anti-skate knob, maybe there is something wrong with it.