Trouble with Goldring 1042

Hi David, that's very helpful information as I have UK first pressings of the Big Country and Texas first albums. First of all I wanted to agree with you on having one cartridge to play everything, my headshells are all fixed so it would be quite a chore to fit a different cartridge when playing different records.

Setup note: my 1042 is on an Origin Live Zephyr arm mounted on my Sl1210/II. It is going into my Accession M with 0pF added load. I double-checked the lateral alignment for this and the Hana SL mentioned later. Both are standard Baerwald/Lofgren A for IEC so nulls 66/121, set with the stylus tip and cantilever with 2 different protractors. I also use a 10x magnifier but I do this for all my setups, not just the 1042. Even so there's a limit to the accuracy, I'd guess +/- 0.1mm at my best and similar degrees, which are huge compared to the groove and stylus tip dimensions of course.

I have just played 'Porrohman,' the last track on side of Big Country's 'The Crossing,' and it is a quite loud cut, I can hear it is compressed/limited but not badly distorted otherwise. The song runs in from about 88mm to 60mm, i.e. right up to the IEC inner groove.

Texas' 'Future is promises' runs from 78mm to 65mm so not as close to the IEC inner groove but over 4 minutes and quite loud. No obvious distortion and I could hear all the parts, I also listened out for sibilance which you'd expect with words like station, promises, chance. Fine with 0pF so I tried switching in all 320pF and heard the crisp treble I expected but the sibilance wasn't a problem.

'Porrohman' with 320pF is crisper and I can hear it's a hot pressing. It is not obviously distorted and I'd say the 1042 does a decent job. Playing it on my Gorbe (Gyrodek with Orbe platter) with SME series IV arm and Hana SL going into the Accession MC is not a fair comparison to the other setup but... what I heard was more detail. It is more obvious that there's a lot of processed percussion and everything is close miked, pop production and a loud ending track on an LP. I must also say you've reminded how much I like this song, I liked it on the LP and it was great live.

My conclusion is you've given me a new test track to use David and I came up with three options:

1) The 1042 may be very fussy and needs a precise setup of azimuth and SRA to deliver its best sound

2) Your 1042 is faulty e.g. laterally stylus not square to cantilever or vertically the rake angle is out. This is supported by the better experiences with other carts.

3) My setup for the 1042 is so different to yours that I may be wasting your time!

Having confirmed my 1042 is fine on 66/121, I would probably not switch to a smaller inner null for general use. It is tempting to try something UNI-DIN where the inner null is between 66 and the 60 for Stephenson IEC. If nothing else it eliminates the lateral misalignment and I agree Stephenson is a good way to try this as it uses 60mm for the inner null.

Definitely worth checking the other setup variable are right. I would check the azimuth with a small mirror to make sure the cartridge is vertical and stylus correctly in the groove (assuming precise manufacture). My last thought is to experiment with the vertical alignment i.e. the stylus rake angle. I am using 1.8g compared to your 2g. The extra 0.2g of VTF will effectively push the stylus end of the cantilever up so if that's improving the tracking you could try lowering the arm base or put a thin spacer (small washers or thin card) between cartridge and headshell to get the same geometry.

Hope this helps David. Sorry for your frustration.

Hi David, based on that information I think adjusting your 1042's VTA is the next thing to try. Assuming sloping down means down towards the cartridge, perhaps you could lower the cartridge with a spacer, thick business card(s) or thin plastic cut to fit on top of the cartridge with screw holes.

Your Stanton probably has a sperical/conical stylus tip which gives a small contact spot each side when new. So it's quite tolerant of beng tail up or tail down. Any stylus with an extended contact in the groove needs the stylus rake angle (SRA) to be like the cutter's or the stylus will have a little time smear/phase distortion and the risk of mistracking, especially on hot pressings. Just get the top of the 1042 almost parallel to the record when playing and see how it sounds.

Azimuth will also be factor and it sounds like you've nailed that so I hope dialing in the SRA is the missing link.