Denon DL110 cartridge breakin

Please excuse this blatant attempt to get someone to answer my question by replying to my own question in order to get my topic up to the top again. I am sure some of you out there must be dying to respond to my provocative and earth-shattering query.

Hello again Garth,

Your Denon will need a good 20+ hours use before it starts to loosen up. Give it at least another week at 2g VTF before passing judgement. Once it starts to come into its own you may wish to experiment with fine tuning VTF further (i.e. 1.8 - 1.9g at 20 degrees Celcius).

Presumably you've removed the flip down stylus guard already.

Craig

Thanks for the reponse Craig. I had my dealer mount and setup the DL110 on my Planar 3/RB300. that Linn Axis was gone by the time I decided I would probably want it. The shop never removed the stylus protector and I have left it on. I gather from what you said I should remove it and then make readjustments (?) - vtf, tracking force etc. ?. By now you probably realize you are speaking to a klutz.

cheers,
Garth

Sorry Garth, I had forgotten that you are new to the vinyl side of the hobby (or should that be to the hobby side of the vinyl?).

The following assumes that your dealer did a proper job of mounting the Denon correctly using a purpose made alignment protractor such as Rega's own (IME this is rarely the case here in the Great White North so unless you observed his work you may wish to enquire about/demand this).

As with any turntable it is very important to ensure that your Rega is properly level (use a decent spirit level placed directly upon the naked glass platter and thin cardboard shims under the feet if necessary) and that it is well supported upon a light and rigid shelf or table that is as far away from your loudspeakers as is reasonably possible.

Secondly it would be a good idea to confirm that the arm has been properly adjusted such that the vertical tracking force (VTF) setting indicated on the VTF dial is true.

To achieve this (in the absence of a seperate tracking force guage) you must first re-balance the tonearm and then set the tracking force.

To re-balance the arm, first lock it into its arm rest and turn both the VTF dial (large black dial with white numeric scale on the RH side of the arms pivot point) and the anti-skating (AS) slider (on the arm rest outrigger) back to 0.

Next, with the stylus guard up (or preferrably removed altogether), unlock the arm and very carefully observe whether it will float freely at a point between the platter and arm rest such that the stylus tip sits about 1mm above the surface of a stationary record. Be very carefull when handling the tonearm at this point as one false move could send your new stylus crashing into the platter to its death. Ironically being very gentle when holding a zero balanced arm is more likely to allow it to escape your grip and wander off on its own so be sure to hang onto the finger lift firmly.

If the stylus tip floats too high or too low then, with the arm safely locked back into its rest, turn the large silver counterweight at the back of the arm slightly forward to lower the front of arm or slightly backward to raise the front of arm until balance is achieved (you may have to re-adjust/re-test a few times until you hit the right counterweight setting here). BTW, even with AS set to zero Rega arms will tend to drift back towards the arm rest as there is still a residual amount of outward lateral AS force present. It is vertical balance that we are trying to achieve here so don't worry about the lateral plane for now.

Once free balance has been achieved, lock the arm back into its rest and dial in the appropriate VTF and set the AS slider to the same value.

Speaking of VTF, Denon recommend a setting within the range of 1.5 to 2.1g. As a general rule of thumb, setting VTF close to the recommended maximum is often best to avoid mistracking on high amplitude signals. Certainly a setting closer to the maximum 2.1g VTF (say 2g) is best during the break in period as this amount will better allow the cartridges relatively stiff new suspension to keep the stylus in uninterrupted contact with the groove during play.

If and when the sound shows some improvement you may wish to experiment with slightly less VTF. Note that adjustments as fine as +/- .5g can make quite audible differences. IIRC 1.8 - 1.9g works well with the low end Denons.

The ultimate goal here is to find the point at which your records sound best despite what programme material is being played. Some records will present a more difficult job to your cartridge/arm than do others. A little experimentation can go a long way towards improving your enjoyment of black records.

Let us know how it goes.

Craig

Thanks for the tips Craig. just to clarify... I am new to the hobby side of vinyl but have been a vinyl diehard for many years. Bought my AR turntable from Acme Novelty for a $100 almost 30 years ago. It still gives me great pleasure in my office - and sometimes kitchen - system. I bought my first CD player in 95. Never really liked CD's and still far prefer vinyl for any serious listening. I got my planar 3/RB 300 perhaps 4 years ago.

Anyways...My planar 3 sits on a Lack table away from my speakers. I removed the cartridge protector and then zeroed the arm. Initially it came up with a fair amount of force - obviously with the protector removed it would be a little lighter - but it jumped up with sufficient force to make me think that it may have not been accurately zeroed in. I moved the counterweight abit and got it balanced and then adjusted the VTF and AS. Denon recommends 1.8 grams VTF but I went with 1.75 simply because the indications for VTF and, particularly, AS on the Rega are so approximate that it is really very difficult to be very precise. It seemed that at 1.75 I would be more likely to get the VTF and AS more in synch. However I really don't think it is possible to set either VTF or AS very precisely with the indications on the turntable. Is it really accurate enough to just go by these indications or would the dealer likely have used some tool to precisely measure VTF and AS so they are properly aligned. Wondering if I have screwed anything up by resetting these - and possibly not having the VTF and AS perfectly match - or is it not a big deal with a low end turntable and cartridge?

Cheers,
Garth

Garth,

Your description of what happened when you originally set the VTF dial to zero with the stylus guard removed indicates that the tracking force was originally set way too low.

Based on your report I would imagine that you now have things much better adjusted than it was previously.

Despite the lack of .1g gradations on the VTF scale (and the near lack of any scale on the AS) it is possible to get quite close to any reasonable value (i.e. 1.8g is closer to 1.75g than it is to 2.0g).

I wouldn't worry about it too much though. Post cartridge break in (and you growing accustomed to the sound) you can fine tune things slightly by ear if you feel the need to fiddle. Chances are it will sound great where it is.

Enjoy,


Craig

Thanks for your input Craig. The cartridge is already sounding better.

Cheers,
Garth