Monday, October 3, 2016

The Different Kinds Of A Turntable Cartridge

By Stephen Reynolds


One of the very important components of record players is the magnetic cartridge. This serves as a playback of analog sounds which are referred to as records. And now, it is commonly known as a turntable. Some terms referred to this before are gramophone and phonograph. Cartridge is also known a pick up, an electro mechanical device type that converts vibrational energy into an electrical energy. Electrical signals which are created are amplified and converted to sounds by the loud speakers.

The components of this includes cantilever, styluses, coils, magnets, and the body. The mounted stylus serves as a contact to the record groove. The styluses are usually made out from industrial gemstones or small polished diamonds. The cantilever serves as a support to its stylus and it will transmit the vibrations to magnet or coil assembly. Cantilevers before are often made from aluminum or boron. There are some types of a turntable cartridge that contains detachable cantilever and styluses which may be an advantage because there is no need to replace or remove cartridges if the styluses are worn out.

Cartridges have many different kinds varying from different shapes and sizes. Moving coil and moving magnet are two common technology principles which powers the types. Moving coil is more advanced when it comes to design and this kind is also more expensive. Some MC types have cheaper designs but have poor sound results.

For magnetic cartridges, the cantilevers are always carrying permanent magnets located between two fixed coils in a form of electromagnetic generator. If the magnet responses to stylus through vibration, it will be inducing some current. And because magnets are small and have little mass, it will not be connected mechanically to its generator and the adjusted styluses follow grooves and are demanding less tracking force.

The induced magnetic types and also iron types have ferrous alloy or pieces of iron that moves. Instead of coupling magnets, these two materials are connected to its cantilevers. The permanent and the bigger magnet is positioned above the coils that provide a needed magnetic flux.

The MC cartridges design is an electromagnetic generator. Unlike the MM design, the coils and the magnet are arranged in a reverse manner. The coil is attached to the stylus and it moves within the constant magnet. A coil is made from a very fine wire and are mostly tiny. However, there may also be some MC cartridges in which the output is the same with the MM cartridges.

Another one is a moving micro cross type of cartridge. The MMC design is said to be one variant of MI design. Both coils and magnets stay in one area while the micro cross goes with stylus.

And one last type is a London Decca cartridge. This is considered as a unique design and its coils and magnets are fixed. The styluses have tips made from diamond, it has a short iron, and its cantilever is in L shape made from a non magnetic steel.

The iron is placed so close to the tip of stylus and this results to the accuracy of motions tracking. Engineers of the type often called the tracking as positive scanning. The London Decca type is often very musical but its early versions are required to have more tracking forces.




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