Tone Arm Balance (Sony PS-T2)

[LojaRich]

 

Hi there,

 

I have a Sony PS-T2 with a N 70B stylus. The cartridge is black and says "Sony" but there are no apparent markings or model number...
This is my first turntable with adjustable tone arm and I have followed the Sony PS-T2 user manual exactly but it gets to a part when it says, "recommended tracking-force figure for your cartridge" and I have no idea how to find this out.

I have been reading forums and it seems everyone is either saying 2 or 1.5.

I set it to 1.5 to be on the safe side (since I don't want to damage the vinyl) but the stylus rests about an inch lower than the surface of the slip mat. Is this normal? After spending all afternoon watching tutorials and reading the manual, there is not a single image or video that shows a closeup of how the properly balanced tone-arm should look. In each tutorial, they get to the last step and then basically say, "and you're finished! Enjoy!" but that isn't helpful to a beginner like me who has no visual reference to work with. 

In my amateur opinion, it just seems like the stylus hanging about an inch below the slip mat would be too much pressure, no?
I am also afraid if there is not enough pressure, it could also damage the vinyl. This process isn't too complicated because the steps are pretty black and white but what does the finished product look like? Should the stylus tip be slightly above, slightly below or exactly at the surface of the slip mat when it's balanced correctly?

Edited November 4, 2019 by LojaRich

[bluethumb]

If your stylus rested perfectly on the same plane as your media then you'd have an effective tracking weight of 0 (or pretty darn close). Considering that the balance point is way back by the opposite end of the tonearm, it makes sense that you'd see a bit of a dip passed the platter since you are purposefully front-loading 1.5g of force on the stylus end.

 

Just to be sure - it was unclear to me from your description whether you set the tracking force or actual tonearm counterweight to a value  of "1.5g". You used a tracking force gauge or other type of scale on top of your platter to measure the 1.5g under the stylus, correct?

[LojaRich]

9 hours ago, bluethumb said:

If your stylus rested perfectly on the same plane as your media then you'd have an effective tracking weight of 0 (or pretty darn close). Considering that the balance point is way back by the opposite end of the tonearm, it makes sense that you'd see a bit of a dip passed the platter since you are purposefully front-loading 1.5g of force on the stylus end.

 

Just to be sure - it was unclear to me from your description whether you set the tracking force or actual tonearm counterweight to a value  of "1.5g". You used a tracking force gauge or other type of scale on top of your platter to measure the 1.5g under the stylus, correct?

The steps I did:

1. Set Anti-Skate to "0"

2. Balance the tone arm by twisting the counterweight
3. Set the spinner to "0"
4. Twist counterweight (and spinner) to recommended number ... 1.5
5. Set Anti-Skate to same number as counterweight ... 1.5

Maybe I'm just paranoid about the lifespan of the vinyl. It's probably set up correctly but I just want to be certain.
 

[bluethumb]

On 11/4/2019 at 5:22 PM, LojaRich said:

Maybe I'm just paranoid about the lifespan of the vinyl. It's probably set up correctly but I just want to be certain.
 

If you really want to be sure you can always grab a cheapo scale (tracking force gauge) from Amazon to double-check

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=force+gauge&i=mi&ref=nb_sb_noss_1