Balancing your tonearm

I've seen many differing methods for doing this so I've included descriptions from others on the ways they do it:

Method #1:

The way I do it with Stanton 500AL's: mount the cartridge in the headshell pulled almost all the way to the front. Make sure it looks straight in relation to the headshell when you put it down on the record - readjust as necessary. Put the height ring at 2.5mm. For most purposes I reverse the weight on the tonearm, push it all the way forward and set the anti-skate to the max. If you try scratching and the needle jumps back a lot turn it down in 1/2-gram increments as necessary. Pete Ashdown's method below is the same way I set it up for listening to my collection. Except I put the weight at about 2.25 grams. No coins on either setup. You should really look at your technique if it skips no matter what you do. I reserve coins for really bad situations like springy floors. Some may not like the reversal of the weight but unfortunately, the 500AL's need at least about 3 grams for scratching, and calibrating it the way you are supposed to get's you at most about 2.5 grams.

Method #2:

This is what I ended up with on Stanton 680 cartridges.

Use the included weight that comes with the Technics head shells. Put a record on so you don't damage the needle, then swing it out over the record. Adjust the weight until it "floats" level above the record. Turn the weight indicator to "0". Now adjust the height until it is close to the surface of the record. This was 1.5 for me. Adjust the weight to 1.5 for just home listening, 3.5 for practicing and performance. Use an unpressed side of a 12" or a 12" with a large run- off to set the anti-skate. Put the needle on unpressed vinyl and adjust the skate (while spinning) so it stands still. On 1.5, it should be about 1.3. On 3.5, you can't adjust it high enough, so just crank it to the max.

After much discussion on the bpm mailing list, the consensus on anti-skate settings is to set it at 0 if you scratch mix or at a number equal to the weight on the cartridge if you just listen to your records without touching them... The idea is that the anti-skate mechanism in the turntable is designed for normal record playing. A side note: several of the 1200's I have worked on do not have the anti-skate knob properly calibrated much like two decks with two different speeds at a scale setting of +1%.

If anyone else has successful balancing techniques that differ significantly from what has been already described get in contact with me.

Which cartridge to get?

• Stanton 500AL's are cheapest, decent, and can take a lot of abuse. You can run down to Radio Shack and get one in an emergency if necessary. Be careful not to buy the broadcast versions - make sure the needle is in WHITE plastic - NOT dark blue. If you get stuck with a blue one you can buy a replacement styli and replace the blue one. The model to look for is D5107A. This is the same one RS sells. You can also replace the styli with the D5107E which gives you the elliptical stylus.
• Stanton 500EL's are rugged, have a better freq.response over the straight AL's (due to the elliptical styli) and still relatively cheap. Basically the same cartridge body as the AL xcept with the D5107E styli.
• Stanton 680EL's are popular with a lot of people for the elliptical needle (to help keep the needle in the groove) and for the slightly better response over the 500's. The 680AL has the spherical styli on it me thinks.
• There's the new Stanton 890 which costs a lot but which has the 20-20k response. I haven't seen anyone using these...they probably behave the same as 680's from what I gather. Ortofon's (in general) look sharp and sound a lot better than Stanton's but are hard to find, expensive, and you can't put coins on the
• Concorde Pro (xcept maybe if you have Danish coins...). You can't beat the ease of installation with a C-Pro though.
• There is a Shure line but as mentioned above I'm not familiar with them at all. (someone needs to fill me in...)

The general feeling I've gotten from bpm and others I've talked with is to get 500's if you are a scratching DJ, 680's for normal club mixing, Ortofon's also for club-use with a much better sound.

Slipmats

Most people have found the 'wonka' slipmats to be the best. Sorry, I don't have a source with me. Avoid slipmats which are printed/silk-screened - they wear off and look bad pretty fast. This includes those "Technics" slipmats made in Belgium. Either try getting dyed ones or make your own. Some suggestions to try: felt from the fabric store, an old record in it's plastic sleeve, thin foam packing sheets (Like the stuff your 1200 was packed in). Use a piece of paper to tighten up center holes which are too loose. (put a small piece of paper on top of the spindle and put the record on top).