Bent cantilevers

[andrew ivimey]

A few weeks ago someone sold a Kontrapunkt B on ebay. In the text it said something like, excellent blah,marvellous blah, and most important,something like ... 'one tiny point of note is that the cantilever is slightly bent,but this makes no difference to the play ...'

I think the cartridge went for about £350.

The above are my words, not the actual words used.

I read it and thought, ' oh yeah right!'

since then I have been thinking on the lines of 'if the stylus is spherical (and most are, like e.g. Kontrapunkt) then a (slightly) bent cantiliever while not cutting whorls of black plastic really can't be doing anything any good. Bent cantilever = BAD.

If the stylus is conical (like Denon 103, I think) then a slightly bent cantilever is likely not to do much harm, so not too bad.

What does the panel think, about 'slightly' bent catilevers?

[Clive]

It can't be good, as with everything the degree matters. For sure th alignment of thw cartridge on't be easy. I had a KB that had a skewed cantilever (not bent), Ortophon replaced it. I'm not convinced the Ruby cantilever of a KB could bend. I wonder if the one you saw advertised was skewed like mine?

350 quid is crazy for a duff cartridge when you can get them new for near 500.

Or more like £450 from Germany!

I too suspect the Ortofon cantilever was skewed. My 'spare' KB has the same problem but I only paid £12.30 for it, I mount it so that the cantilever is in line and not the cartridge - sounds fine thankfully!

[david counter]

Originally Posted by Lord.

but I only paid £1230 for it,

did they see you coming

[Paul Barker]

I had a scewed canitilever on a somethinbg or other blue whatsername high output mc cart which sounded like a plie of sh1te. Anyhow since it wasn't any good, and only cost 100 squid I just put force in other direction until it was correctly aligned. No problem.

I wouldn't do that to anything that cost more than 100 quid.

Sumico Blue Point Special that's the name. Nothing special about it whatsoever, had more enthusiastic sound out of a chrystal cart.

[alexs2]

Personally,unless the price was pretty special,I wouldnt touch anything damaged,and would need to be sure it can still be rebuilt.

[IslandPink]

I've had a couple that went a bit off-line ( not actually bent ! ) due to either wrong azimuth on the headshell ( thanks, Origin Live ! ) or the level on the turntable/platter not being accurate enough . Quite easy to miss , and people talk a lot about anti-skate setting, which compared to these other two issues, is like a 2nd-order effect in importance.
Most carts will play quite well with the appropriate adjustment , but I'd be looking for a substantial discount if offered one like that , especially on a high-performance one - you might be losing some crucial quality . Channel balance goes out quite quickly , too .

Mark