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Stylus force gauge

mikegreenwood

pfm Member
Looking to buy one of these from Amazon. Prices are all over the place and many look the same. Recommendations welcome. More interested in an accurate easy to use unit than a cheap offering.
 
…they’re total shite. Set your tonearm to balance at perfect parallility and then dial in the minimum recommended force to start with, and move on from there. (Don’t forget to add your anti-skating after!…)
The reason they’re shite is; they don’t weigh in after parallility at the stylus contact point….your tonearm can be landing in at any angle when it hits the weighing pad on these gauges….
 
Paid around a tenner for one on Amazon. Seems to work fine and it tallies with the Shure and Ortofon balances I picked up for a few quid many moons ago. Can't all be wrong.
 
…they’re total shite. Set your tonearm to balance at perfect parallility and then dial in the minimum recommended force to start with, and move on from there. (Don’t forget to add your anti-skating after!…)
The reason they’re shite is; they don’t weigh in after parallility at the stylus contact point….your tonearm can be landing in at any angle when it hits the weighing pad on these gauges….

Not all arms have a tracking force dial or scale though...
Aro? (didn't Naim supply an Ortofon gauge with the Aro?)
Audio Origami PU7?
Must be others too.
 
There are squillions of brands of digital gauges and probably no more than one or two (Chinese) manufacturers who brand their kit under countless names.

Pay the least.

I have an EDA that works absolutely fine, but is far more faff to use than a digital version.

Anyone who suggests that angle of the stylus contact counts for anything, knows less than nothing about applied maths...................................... Vertical force is exactly that......................................

Yes - Ortofon gauge with ARO - a crude version of the EDA.
 
Coincidentally just took delivery of a Shure SFG-2 gauge today. Pretty hard to come by nowadays, by all accounts.

Was fed up with getting erratic results from el cheapo, plasticy digital balances. This thing looks like a proper product, metal & reassuringly old school...
 
I've not had trouble with my cheapo (£15?) digital scales bought years ago. Battery lasts a while too and the recessed stylus holder is pretty safe too. It comes with a 5g weight to check accuracy. An alternative is an old Shure spring-loaded one which comes up used from time to time.
 
There are squillions of brands of digital gauges and probably no more than one or two (Chinese) manufacturers who brand their kit under countless names.

Pay the least.

I have an EDA that works absolutely fine, but is far more faff to use than a digital version.

Anyone who suggests that angle of the stylus contact counts for anything, knows less than nothing about applied maths...................................... Vertical force is exactly that......................................

Yes - Ortofon gauge with ARO - a crude version of the EDA.

Is your EDA a plastic item with an off-set rotary counterbalance like mine? It has no makers name so I'm hoping I recall it being Hunt EDA correctly! Just "Made in England" and a patent app number, all on the underside. Argh this getting old thing! I recall like it was last week buying it from the now apparently defunct Gilson Audio and feeling royally ripped off "£5 for a tiny bit of plastic FFS!?". could prob have bought 5 pints of beer for that at the time... ('81,-82 ish)
Pre internet things not existing according to a google search was being discussed earlier and this appears to be an example! Very common at one time.

Agreed on the vertical force!
 
MY EDA is just a simple see-saw with a x1 or x2 option and a couple of small mirrors at one end so that you can judge balace accurately.
 
If anyone doubts a digital balace - two things to try -

Lift the stylus off a few times and lower in the same position.

Lift the sylus off and move a few mm, then lower, a few times.

The one here reads to 0.01g (meaningless lunacy) and reads the same doing this, to within 0.01-0,02g.
 
An alternative is an old Shure spring-loaded one which comes up used from time to time.

They are very good, but be careful some are ferric so MC carts and Deccas will attach like a limpet! I’ve owned both but I never found a way of identifying them from pictures as they look identical, though I assume the ferrous ones were made in the 1970s when everyone used MM carts. I still have the non ferrous one.

One really good thing about the Shure is it is very low lying so measures pretty much at playing height. Within a mm or so anyway.
 
Sounds just like the magnetic:oops: Shure I had years ago.

Nothing magnetic in the one here - just a plastic see-saw base and chromed steel bar with a wire pivot. Also not Shure. It is a simple, straight-forward, no-nonsense, balance. It could not be simpler.
 
The Shure SFG2 was a stainless balance with mirrors - found out late on it was slightly magnetic - not very good with MC!
Long before the electronic ones were available - made my own brass beam to replace the stainless - made calibration weights to check the new beam - took off the original scale.
 
MY EDA is just a simple see-saw with a x1 or x2 option and a couple of small mirrors at one end so that you can judge balace accurately.

I do recall mine being common at the time and 90% certain it is Hunt EDA but as I say I can't find a link to it on google.
 


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