This morning, we mounted a customers’ Van den Hul Crimson XGW Stradivarius cartridge onto a Kuzma 4Point-9 tonearm.
The agenda was to verify compatibility of this combination.
Bring provisions …
Customer visits can take many directions, and we’ve been known to wear folks out with long sessions. We’ve had 8-10 hour days, performing multiple arm and cartridge swaps – far beyond that of a typical “demo”.
The numbers lie … sort of
Resonant frequency calculations are a good guideline for arm/cartridge compatibility, but the numbers can also steer you wrong. Don’t discount a setup from consideration because it is slightly “wrong by the numbers”.
According to AJ Van den Hul, 16 grams effective mass is the limit for this cartridge, and this is what we set out to verify with the 4Point-9’s 13 g. effective mass.
About compliance and resonant frequency …
The theoretical goal is to arrive at a resonant frequency in the 10-12 Hz range, although some manufacturers will tell you that as low as 7 is fine.
Unsuspended turntables are more flexible in this regard since there are no spring resonances to take into account.
Compatibility needs to be taken on a case by case basis. Resonant frequency is one thing, but listing to real music is the acid test.
We’ll listen to a broad range of music and observe the bass response. Is the timing right? Is the band playing together, or do they sound as if they spent a long, sleepless night traveling to the concert?
Test tones and resonant frequency are only a starting point.
With one cartridge in particular, we heard shifts of 0.5 Hz make a huge difference in the presentation (tuning mass with headshell weights). Most cartridges are not balanced on such a sensitive knife edge, however.
Back to the Crimson …
As we mentioned above, the 4Point-9 (with its 13g. effective mass) was predicted to be a good match. The combination sounds marvelous.
On the HFN&RR test record, the lateral resonance was between 8 & 9 Hz, and the vertical was closer to 8.
So, when AJ Van den Hul tells you that his cartridges will work with tonearms as massive as 16g, I’m confident his advice translates well to real-world applications.
Update (after the demo): against our advice, the customer opted for a 4Point-11 (18 grams) for his Crimson.
Fortunately for him, the two components mated beautifully as well.
