• Tracking weight and anti-skating force

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Thanks for your replies. The reading I have done also confirms that proper stylus seating in the groove is just as important (if not more important) than tracking force with respect to record wear. I was just curious whether there is a particular tracking force above which record wear is likely to lead to immediately audible results. My intention is to play each record only as many times as necessary to get a digital transfer. So, I suppose record wear shouldn't be too much of a problem, but I'd still like to do as little damage as possible.

Another problem I have with setting this cartridge at the high end of the recommended range is that most tracking force gauges I have seen only go up to 3 grams, rather than 5 or 6. Do you know of an economic gauge that will register that high?

I like to track at 1 gram myself but will boost it up to 3 on a bad record just to keep it from skating.

I have a web page about this topic. see:

http://dvautier.home.comcast.net/lp/lp.htm

also

http://dvautier.home.comcast.net/audio/audio.htm

• LPs and tracking

Since my last post, I went ahead and purchased a Shure M97xE, and I'm tracking at a cool 1.25g. It is clearly superior in sound to the stock Audio Technica cartridge that came with the turntable, but having said that, the AT cartridge is no slouch either. It will be good to have a backup to use on some records that might require a heavier tracking force.

Coop