Tracking Force Suggestions for Stanton 500.v3 Cartridge?, DJ cart with range of 2 - 5 grams. Using for hi-fi play Options

[Knowzy]

Supposing I've got a brand new Stanton T.92 USB turntable and I'm getting ready to produce some samples.

It comes with a pre-mounted (and presumably pre-aligned) Stanton 500.v3 cartridge. As a DJ cartridge, it has a wide range- 2 to 5 grams- and no specific recommendation within.

The tonearm is balanced and the counterweight dial zeroed. What tracking force do you think I should set?

Normally the consensus is to set the tracking force near the top of the range and I'm inclined to use 4.5 grams.

However, as a DJ cartridge, the top of the range is designed to ensure stability amidst violent scratching motions, which I won't be doing. Maybe 4.5 is overkill for trackability.

So, I'm throwing the question open to HA to see if we can't come to an agreement before I began sampling.

Balanced and Awaiting a Tracking Force Figure

This post has been edited by Knowzy: Jul 8 2010, 07:09

[botface]

If you can hear mistracking then clearly I don't know how to identify the phenomena.

If you isolate the left channel and play it back you will hear a nice clear tone. If you isolate the right channel you will hear a sound at the same pitch as the left channel but instead of a pure tone it's accompanied by a sort of "buzz". That's the mistracking.

Out of curiosity I recorded the "torture track" from my copy of HFS75 as I know it's been damaged by mistracking in the past. The waveform looks very similar to your sample (sorry I haven't found out how to post images otherwise I'd attach a screenshot). I suspect that the angled tops of the wave on the right channel, compared to the nicely rounded tops on the left channel are the signs of mistracking as that's what my HFS75 track looks like. Hopefully someone with specific knowledge here can confirm that. Then again it may be that the record is simply faulty as you say.

You're absolutely right that the sample from the older copy of HFN002 is not showing any audible signs of mistracking. Also you can see that the shape of the waveform is identical in both channels.