Hideous - Bangalore Vinyl Dealer Market

Saket, you are not alone on this front. Both Mr. Kuruvila and I have experienced the beauty of music listened to with the humble ceramic cartridge. The rule is, with a light weight and decently calibrated tonearm, a decent stylus and a good ceramic phonostage, one can listen to some very enjoyable music. I would even go to the extent of saying that it would be difficult to tell the difference between a good ceramic cartridge setup and a low to middle end magnetic cartridge.

Yes, ceramic cartridges with sapphire stylii, themselves are not responsible for record wear. It is the VTF that is the key. From my experience, the EEI CS2000 cart can produce some amazing sounds.

I fully endorse the views of Reuben. I have several LPs which came with Turntables with ceramic cartridge. Initially, I used to keep them aside thinking that they cannot be used on magnetic players. I now feel that the light arm ceramic players with good ceramic carts do not really harm the grooves. Only the earlier heavy arm Changers did much of the damage.
 
This Tracking for Vs groove damage dilemma forcefully dragged me to refresh back by18 years; my graduation days memory, which was all about Diesel/Force/Turbines etc!!

The wear, what we call as groove damage can always be clearly quantified or compared numerically, than relying on our experience and perceptions.

The wear due to friction between any two bodies is defined by Archard equation, which im trying to put it in laymans language.

Q = KWL/H ( a simple equation, not even a second degree one!!)


Q is the total volume of wear debris produced (worn out part of vinyls)
K is a dimensionless constant (say X, which is same for both cart conditions)
W is the total normal load (VTF - Tracking force which depends on cartridge)
L is the sliding distance (Same for both cart conditions say, 33 RPM)
H is the hardness of the softest contacting surfaces (Softest material here is vinyl, and hardness of Vinyl is same for both situations, and please note that the hardness of stylus, be it diamond or sapphire becomes irrelevant here in the wear calculation)

So this equation of Q-mass of worn out vinyl grooves relies only on W (tracking force) but not on other variables like type of cart/tip dia/stylus hardness etc etc.

Inferring on this; A 3gms tracking force cart would wear the grooves 3 times more than what an 1 Gms TF cart would do.

Being a ceramic or magnetic is immaterial here, and there are some ceramic carts available with 1gm TF.

So keep a good track of your carts tracking force!!
 
laundries should provide record cleaning services at cheap rates!
Then many more records would come into circulation :D
 
Until this year, record shopping for me meant buying stuff online or picking up stuff when i travel abroad. All that has changed for me, now for me vinyl heaven is just a short drive away.

I happened to meet Mr. Pilak Bhatt the owner of Music Circle (record Store) in Mumbai at the Mahindra Blues Fest. I visited his store and warehouse where he keeps all his records (1 lac plus at least). The Vinyls are reasonably priced, most of them are in good condition, multiple genres including jazz, blues, rock, funk, classical, carnatic, hindi et al and the added bonus is chatting with Mr. Bhatt. He is knowledgeable about his records, music genres and artistes. I urge you guys to do a pilgrimage to Mumbai, check out his store and stock up!
 
Prithvi used to offer record cleaning service..not sure if he is still doing it. Even Jochen was thinking of it...
 
Purchase the Audiolab 6000A Integrated Amplifier at a special offer price.
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