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Cartridges & Needles
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Cartridge & Needles (Stylus) For Turntables
Whenever you hear a DJ refer to a “stylus”, they’re usually talking about what laymen call the needle. And when it comes to spinning, your sound will ever only be as good as the needle/stylus you’re using. For this reason, you’ll want to ensure that you always have a high-quality needle on-hand, and that it’s well-protected from damage.
Before you change or install a stylus on your turntable, you’ll want to ensure that the tone-arm is locked down. Then, gently unscrew the cartridge from the tone-arm and remove the stylus from the cartridge.
Be very gentle when screwing the cartridge back onto the tone-arm. Over time, this part may wear down and become wobbly... which will degrade the sound and may even cause channels to cut out.
Since needles are fragile, you’ll want to keep them protected in order to maximize their life. If you travel a lot with your kit, it’s recommended that you get a get a good, solid case to protect your needles.
Tips For Optimal Sound Quality
A “trick of the trade” within the professional DJ world is to lick your thumb and rub it on the back of the connector before plugging in your stylus. This will ensure that you get a cleaner signal through both channels. If you ever find that your turntable seems to favour one side... left or right... it may be due to a dirty connector.
Next, you’ll want to make sure that your needle is properly weighted. Ideally, it should sit on the record at about 3 grams of pressure. The “perfect” 3 grams of pressure is achieved by adjusting how the needle and tone arm are balanced.
At the back of the arm, there will be an adjustable weight. You’ll want to first move the weight slowly until the tone arm becomes perfectly balanced and level. At this point, it will have zero grams of weight behind it. Once you’ve achieved this balance, simply set the scale to indicate zero grams, and slowly adjust the counterweight so that it’s applying 3 grams past the balance point.
If your needle is underweight, it may skate or skip while you’re playing, beat-matching or scratching. If you set your needle too heavy, it will wear out your records prematurely or damage them.
Since you’ve spent a lot of money on your record collection, you’ll want to take precautions to maximize the longevity of your collection.
And for the best possible sound, make sure that you invest in a high-quality needle while also taking care to protect it from damage.
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