I just got a new stylus for my Adikt and considering how much my old one had aged in one years time (it sounded horrible), I want to take better care of this one if possible.
I read in another thread that someone got more life out of his Akiva when he started to use the hydraulic lift/lower device. Does anyone have an opinion on this? Is it really worth the hassle to use it?
Stylus wear and lift/lower device
Moderator: Staff
Unless you've got shaky hands, I would say no.
The diamond tip is worn by friction during a very long time. To me it seems highly unlikely that the very short moment when the tip hits the record should make any kind of difference.
Unless the hit is hard enough to do acute damage to the tip, cantilever or suspension. But if that ever happens to you, you'll notice it immediately.
The diamond tip is worn by friction during a very long time. To me it seems highly unlikely that the very short moment when the tip hits the record should make any kind of difference.
Unless the hit is hard enough to do acute damage to the tip, cantilever or suspension. But if that ever happens to you, you'll notice it immediately.
-
Robert Lake
- Active member
- Posts: 103
- Joined: 2007-08-19 17:50
Re: Stylus wear and lift/lower device
My somewhat unsientific observation is that when I used my hand regularly and not the lift the stylus wore down a bit quicker. 13 months instead of 18. I do not have enough observations to state this as a fact, but given the price of the Akiva why the risk? Why not play it save and use the lift as much as possible? Especially after a couple of gin and tonics, I know that my hands are not exactly steady, even if my mind tells me otherwise.Azazello wrote:I just got a new stylus for my Adikt and considering how much my old one had aged in one years time (it sounded horrible), I want to take better care of this one if possible.
I read in another thread that someone got more life out of his Akiva when he started to use the hydraulic lift/lower device. Does anyone have an opinion on this? Is it really worth the hassle to use it?
I have to say I'm with Fredrik on this. I have always hand cued my records and I had a Troika last me many years. If you are unsteady it certainly makes sense to use the cueing device but I can see no way it would make a difference in stylus wear. Unfortunately, my experience has been that some Akivas seem to wear out unusually quickly so it may just be the variability in this that caused the difference in length of service. I have to say that either 13 or 18 months seems a short lifespan to me for a high quality cartridge. But I did have one customer have an Akiva wear out closer to the shorter of those periods.
Interestingly, I have had a few customers complain of a tendency for the Akiva to skip over the first few grooves of a record. When we tried to find out what was going on it turned out that all these customers were people who used the cueing device exclusively. It turns out that the Akiva is more likely than most cartridges to skip over a few grooves if you set it down on the outer bead of the record rather than in a bit. Those who hand cue tended not to set it down there and weren't as likely to run into the problem. Once we let people know that they needed to move it in a hair before they cued it down the problem disappeared.
Interestingly, I have had a few customers complain of a tendency for the Akiva to skip over the first few grooves of a record. When we tried to find out what was going on it turned out that all these customers were people who used the cueing device exclusively. It turns out that the Akiva is more likely than most cartridges to skip over a few grooves if you set it down on the outer bead of the record rather than in a bit. Those who hand cue tended not to set it down there and weren't as likely to run into the problem. Once we let people know that they needed to move it in a hair before they cued it down the problem disappeared.