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Cartridge-Warming Lamp - Affordable Suggestions?

Back in the mid 80's I think it was Hi Fi Answers magazine did a piece on Tweaks and they came up with a spot lamp next to the LP12 ( there were no other turntables ) to warm the cartridge .The really daft tweak was to mask the lid with tape and paint a metal paint strip a cm wide all around the top of your TT lid with a strip down the back which you would solder a wire to and earth the lid to reduce static . That never caught on thank goodness .

I do have an Anglepoise wall light above my record player but it is just so I can see to cue up the cartridge .
 
Rosie said:
...mask the lid with tape and paint a metal paint strip a cm wide all around the top of your TT lid with a strip down the back which you would solder a wire to and earth the lid to reduce static...
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I have seen an Ekos levitate off the record while playing due to the attraction of a charged Sondek lid. It crashed down again after scraping along the underside of the lid. Fortunately there was no damage to the cartridge or record but there could have been. Mostly the static attraction of the lid will not cancel 110% of the downforce, but it could more easily be cancelling, say, 30% of downforce without you knowing. How many people have just thought "my deck wasn't on song today" without knowing that they were tracking at <1g? This may be one of the reasons why many have the instinct to listen without the lid.

You can easily demonstrate this effect if you have the gonads by rubbing the lid with a soft jumper during playback. Don't do this with an expensive cartridge on.

An earthed chrome-plated lid would look cool and obviate this invisible performance-killer.
 
JensenHealey said:
Just mould a new lid from a redundant Ford windscreen and connect the wires to that mega Earth rod out in the garden. There! Solved.
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I think you have just invented the heated turntable lid. That will help to keep the frost off the cartridge.
 
This all a bit Heath-Robinson: we need to go tech with this. A self-aligning solid state laser with infrared temperature monitoring and programmable thermal cycling limiter is the obvious way to go. Surely a simple task for a robotics engineer, and just think how expensive that upgrade could be....
 
Is it only me who keeps reading the thread title as ‘cartridge warning lamp’?

I reckon a light to tell you when the cart was nearing EOL would be just as useful as what’s being discussed here.
 
simonpyeman said:
This all a bit Heath-Robinson: we need to go tech with this. A self-aligning solid state laser with infrared temperature monitoring and programmable thermal cycling limiter is the obvious way to go. Surely a simple task for a robotics engineer, and just think how expensive that upgrade could be....
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I thought Heath Robinson was tech?
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
Is it only me who keeps reading the thread title as ‘cartridge warning lamp’?

I reckon a light to tell you when the cart was nearing EOL would be just as useful as what’s being discussed here.
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That's how I read it first time, and yes it would be a good idea
 
I actually think an earthed thermostatic heated lid is a good idea. Could be done fairly inexpensively. For a couple of hundred, I'm in. It should be called the TFH.
 
I use an angle poise to both warm the cartridge and so I can see to cue it. Also helps to see if the stylus might need a clean. I don't like my room above 19 degrees.
 
sonddek said:
I have seen an Ekos levitate off the record while playing due to the attraction of a charged Sondek lid. It crashed down again after scraping along the underside of the lid. Fortunately there was no damage to the cartridge or record but there could have been. Mostly the static attraction of the lid will not cancel 110% of the downforce, but it could more easily be cancelling, say, 30% of downforce without you knowing. How many people have just thought "my deck wasn't on song today" without knowing that they were tracking at <1g? This may be one of the reasons why many have the instinct to listen without the lid.

You can easily demonstrate this effect if you have the gonads by rubbing the lid with a soft jumper during playback. Don't do this with an expensive cartridge on.

An earthed chrome-plated lid would look cool and obviate this invisible performance-killer.
Click to expand...

Hi Sonddek ,
I've had an LP12 for over 40 years and have never experienced anything like that , okay the mat has stuck to a record quite a few times but thats it .
I do use my deck on a high shelf , the cartridge is 1.4 M above the floor . This make cueing dead easy but I think- having thought about it , I don't bend over the deck at all when changing disks so no static charged jumpers . Everything is done at arms length and at eye level , also I only clean with a microfibre duster and take the lid off to dust .
By accident I think I'm eliminating static by not generating any .

Martin
 
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