shaizada Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 The lateral weight / azimuth thing is driving me nuts but I just can't figure it out or find any other Grace 704 owners who have had the same issue. The platter is level, the top plate is level, I've played around with the damping fluid and mechanically speaking, the arm seems to be in tip-top shape. The only thing I can figure is that modifications to the subchassis were slightly off. If I look at the armboard, it appears to be sloped to the right just a tad. Again, the platter is perfectly level, but if the tonearm base isn't, it would mean that I'd have to push the lateral weight all the way to the left to compensate. I'll have to look at the t-bar again. Maybe I can adjust it somehow. In the meantime, the blue-tak is working well enough. It's not resonant at all, and it really only adds another once or two of mass. It's better than the alternative of having that azimuth out of wack. There is a guy on eBay who makes custom brass weights for Grace tonearms. It's relatively cheap too. Been thinking about touching base with him. I totally agree it is better than playing with a F'ed up azimuth setting. The Blue Tak itself won't be resonant. What it will do is change the resonant frequency and effective mass of the arm. Take it into a shop if needed, but such a nice looking piece and setup deserves to be setup right. It looks like such a nice rig! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bearchuck Posted March 5, 2013 Author Share Posted March 5, 2013 I totally agree it is better than playing with a F'ed up azimuth setting. The Blue Tak itself won't be resonant. What it will do is change the resonant frequency and effective mass of the arm. Take it into a shop if needed, but such a nice looking piece and setup deserves to be setup right. It looks like such a nice rig! Agreed, but resonant frequency is less of an issue with this arm because of the silicone damping. By all accounts, the G-704 (and its wooden twin, the G-714) work very well with a variety of high-to-medium compliance cartridges. In fact, I actually have a VPI head shell weight that I've tried with the arm and to my ears, it makes little to no difference. Of course, comparisons are difficult because it's impossible to quickly switch between weight / no weight. Maybe I'll rip a couple WAV files and throw them up here. Also, it's virtually impossible to find the effective mass of this arm. Grace certainly never published it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaizada Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 Agreed, but resonant frequency is less of an issue with this arm because of the silicone damping. By all accounts, the G-704 (and its wooden twin, the G-714) work very well with a variety of high-to-medium compliance cartridges. In fact, I actually have a VPI head shell weight that I've tried with the arm and to my ears, it makes little to no difference. Of course, comparisons are difficult because it's impossible to quickly switch between weight / no weight. Maybe I'll rip a couple WAV files and throw them up here. Also, it's virtually impossible to find the effective mass of this arm. Grace certainly never published it. Interesting. I guess back in the day, the arms and carts of the time worked well together. My arm is also oil damped and some cartridges like it while others don't...so I use dampening as needed or not at all. However, it's STILL good to know the resonance frequency / effective mass etc. to match up carts correctly in todays setups I feel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bearchuck Posted March 5, 2013 Author Share Posted March 5, 2013 Interesting. I guess back in the day, the arms and carts of the time worked well together. My arm is also oil damped and some cartridges like it while others don't...so I use dampening as needed or not at all. However, it's STILL good to know the resonance frequency / effective mass etc. to match up carts correctly in todays setups I feel. If you dig hard enough, you can find a couple credible people who say that the effective mass of the G-704 is 6g. The Denon DL-103D weighs 7.5g and has a dynamic compliance of 18cu. Factor in the head shell screws and that gives us a resonant frequency of 10hz, which is pretty much where you'd want to be. I would definitely agree that calculating resonant frequency is really important in most instances. It just seems less so in this case ... but then again, I haven't tried anything other than a high compliance cartridges with this low mass arm. My basic rule is to follow tried-and-true guidelines closely - alignment, VTA, VTF, Resonant frequency - but then tweak as needed and let your ears be the final judge. shaizada 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaizada Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 If you dig hard enough, you can find a couple credible people who say that the effective mass of the G-704 is 6g. The Denon DL-103D weighs 7.5g and has a dynamic compliance of 18cu. Factor in the head shell screws and that gives us a resonant frequency of 10hz, which is pretty much where you'd want to be. I would definitely agree that calculating resonant frequency is really important in most instances. It just seems less so in this case ... but then again, I haven't tried anything other than a high compliance cartridges with this low mass arm. My basic rule is to follow tried-and-true guidelines closely - alignment, VTA, VTF, Resonant frequency - but then tweak as needed and let your ears be the final judge. Perfect post! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajxd Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 bearchuck you can't fool us. We know you have a Crosley. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bearchuck Posted March 5, 2013 Author Share Posted March 5, 2013 bearchuck you can't fool us. We know you have a Crosley. I'm so hardcore that I DIY-ed a table made from the parts of 17 different Crosleys. It's my Frankencrosley. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bearchuck Posted March 16, 2013 Author Share Posted March 16, 2013 Just a quick addition for anyone searching for a custom-made acrylic dust cover. Check out JMK Displays: http://www.jmkdisplays.com/turntablecovers.html I needed one for this table and as you can see, it looks pretty sweet. The acrylic is 3/16" thick (you can go less with 1/8" or more at 1/4" thickness) and I got a couple custom cuts made: the two handles on the side and the cut in the back to account for the tonearm. All in all, I paid something like $107, which included shipping from NY. If you didn't get any of the custom cuts, it would probably be at least $20 less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaizada Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Wow...that is the absolute cheapest Acrylic cover price I've ever seen. Thank you SOOOOO much for posting this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bearchuck Posted March 16, 2013 Author Share Posted March 16, 2013 No probs. I just dug up the invoice and it was $88.60 for the cover and $18.55 for the shipping. I think it took them about 3-4 weeks, but it was over the holidays / new year so I'm sure they were a little busier than normal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaizada Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 That's what I expect these things to be priced at. However, these other companies charging $400 for the same thing makes me really sick. I'm not adverse against spending, but please provide real value through quality, materials, sound or whatever. Keyword is VALUE for money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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