i have trackmaster II rs. was never really happy with them. 4.5g, 3 anti-skate, man your poor records. i get by with 2.5g and nil anti-skate.

i think its not recommended to switch to a spherical needle after using an elliptical, but i don't see many people making a point of it here. still, it makes sense to keep with one shape, since thats whats already worn into your records.

sucks too, cause i wanted to upgrade to a set of whitelabels. i'm just gonna spring for a pair of nightclub so i can stop being fustrated with the skipping and sound of the TM II rs.

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Last edited by spit_heron on Feb-27-2004 at 17:45

hmm well after reading a bunch of posts i think i might go with the concorde nightclubs... guess i should stick with the eliptical stylus as well. was also looking at the concorde gold's, anyone try these? in the mean time i rebalanced my TM 2 RS's and now use a 3.5g with a 1.5 anti-skate. tested a few records and it seems ok... on some records however it does skip around if i get a bit more aggressive in the backqueing... i guess it depends on the quality of the pressing as well...

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I believe the Concorde Gold is really just a painted nightclub. The idea is that it will match your 25 year (or something I forget which one) anniversory gold plated Technics.

About switching between spherical and elliptical. I have really only seen a couple people preach that and the only real authority I have read (the massive ortofon thread on futureproducers where the Ortofon engineer was answering tons of questions) did not mention it. I think it is a moot point. Howerever even if it is only a minor issue, because you are playing your records with 4.5 grams it might effect you more then most.

Regarding light tracking weights, if you have good needles you can get very low tracking weights. If some company was claiming you could backqueue and everything with less than 1 gram of weight I would be skeptical but under 2 is reasonable.
The theory that the reason the Whitelables get away with it is because the headshell is so heavy... I wonder if you are balancing your tone arm correctly. Because if you are you would realize that the "tracking force" is the weight added to a perfectly balanced tone arm so it does not matter how heavy the headshell is.
The proper procedure is to put the headshell and stylus (without any removable guard of any kind) and put it over the platter. Now adjust the weight on the back so the tone arm is perfectly level and hovers over the record. Now adjust the guage on the back to read 0 grams in this position. Next rotate the weight to the desired number (and lets hope to God it is under 4 grams ).

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ahh i see, yea the golds had the same specs so i wasnt sure... think i will just stick with eliptical...

yea i definatly balanced it correctly and used a weight of 3.5g this time... i did however adjust the height a bit more. i noticed it wasnt perfectly parallel the last time i setup my decks so i lower it a bit more. maybe this is why when i was previously using a lower weight i was skipping more often, thats why i pushed it to 4.5g. i guess i'll find out for sure if i can live with the now 3.5g when i get a good set in.

thanks for the info!

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quote:

Originally posted by Wildfir3 I don't know for sure but i've always wondered about this: isnt the 'only 2 grams' just a marketing 'bullshit' stunt? I mean, it's great if it only requires 2 grams or so, but isnt that because the element + needle weigh more than others, such as concordes? I'm probably wrong, but since the whitelabels look so big and huge and stuff, i always thought the tracking force was compensated or something.

I have mine at 2.5 gr with 2.5 mm height, and it works perfectly. It can work at 2 grams, but it doesn't allow any scratching.

trancinchink, you can lower your height a bit without any problem, keep in mind height also matters for record wear...