All about record needles! (And cartridges)

Learn all about record needles (or styli). Fact checkers grab some tea and settle in and try to point out all of the faults in my video 😂😂😂

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Bonus points for counting how many times I say “yadda yadda yadda.”

Here are links to some of my favorites

[jennmullins]

I love your bird! Also thanks for putting out all this info!

[QoraxAudio]

Just some additional little details:
There are various other shapes of styli tips, like fineline (2M Bronze has that), Shibata (2M Black has that), Fritz Geiger 70 and microline.
Most of those have originally been invented for playing quadraphonic records, because those require a higher frequency response, they're often found on higher end stereo cartridges as well.
Cantilevers can be made of various other materials as well, like the basic AT3600L and Rega Carbon (that white one that often comes included on entry level turntables) has a carbon cantilever.
Very expensive cartridges sometimes have boron cantilevers or even sapphire, ruby or diamond cantilevers.
Most of those expensive cartridges are "low output" moving coil (MC), which require the special phono preamps you mentioned, but there are also "high output" MC cartridges that can be connected to the regular MM phono preamps.

I agree that, generally, elliptical styli need lower tracking force... but there are exceptions, like the AT95E (the green one that often comes preinstalled on Audio Technica turntables) which needs a tracking force between 2.5 and 3.5 grams.
Most elliptical DJ cartridges also track at about 3 grams, like the Ortofon Concorde Gold, Nightclub and MK2 Club.
Always check the recommended tracking force before installing a cartridge, setting the force too light can make the stylus bounce in the grooves, which damages the grooves.

[vintageandvinyl]

Your bird made this video even better. He must have been feeling left out. This was a well explained and accurate video in my opinion. You did a great job explaining things. There are a lot of terms to remember. It’s not easy. I have an Ortofon 2M Red with an Elliptical stylus. It sounds great to me and it certainly is not the most expensive cartridge on the market. While I do prefer Elliptical, I don’t think you need a super expensive to get great sound.

[jro]

Hello to Rcord-ology just had to say EXCELLENT tutorial on the styles of cartridges out there you nailed it onthe head I loved how you explained how moving magnet and moving coil cartridges worked it was excellent anybody who wants to know about different cartridges should watch this, I know you said that the cartridge overhang really doesn't matter that is the only disagreement I have some TT'S have an overhang adjustment my old onkyo CP-1055FII had a gauge to set the overhang of any cartridge you had on my audio technica ATlp-120 which was set when I bought it, I too did not think much of it with cartridge it came with but on certain albums I could hear a slight sound distortion when I never heard on my old TT first thing I checked was the cart alignment it was off, after adjusting it it improved but I still could hear that it was not right so I looked into the overhang adjustment which was not in the manual but I found it on line the overhang for audio tech lp-120 was .59mm if I remember correctly from tip of stylus to end of half inch mount mine was at 40mm i said to myself this cannot be the problem but being kind of mental I set it to the spec it said and wow I heard the difference in sound and I found my anti-skating improved alot don't ask me how I was having trouble with it before had to turn it up all the way just to get it to stay still but with that minor adjustment it is set to my tracking force and it stays where I place my stylus I still cannot believe it on my crosley C-10 I tried to get overhang spec for it but so far I have not, but I donnot hear any distortion when playing albums so I guess every TT is different thanks again for your vid JRo

[travelingmonkslife]

Thank you for making this. Finally some answers that are technical and not subjective flowery observations that other channels give.

[FlyiDCG]

8:27 is sorta the information I am looking for. I have a turntuble & a record player I modified into a turntable in high school (1997). The tonearm on the record player has 2 wires that run from the stylus & the turntable has the 4 wires that run from cartiridge. Im trying to figure out the difference.

[brucermarino]

This professor says a wonderful explanation! Loved the visuals... You could add strain gauge and laser cartridges to your collection. I would tend to class strain gauges as an ultra-high end version of a ceramic cartridge for the sake of simplicity and taxonomy. Again, an excellent presentation! Thanks!

[kevinclancy.]

Thanks so much for this great explanation! I learned a ton. And loved your feathered friend who almost stole the show

[Mia-ltog]

This video is great! Now I know why my needle was plastic. I thought it didn't have a needle. Thanks for the info. I found metal needles with diamond. Now i know what to buy. Thanks !!!

[samstonecatblackhole]

Getting into vinyls and this is wildly helpful. Thank you!!

Also your bird is so cute.

[ThizOne]

This was exactly the information I was looking for.
Thanks a lot!

[justawordaway]

Needle is as official as a stylus. Back in the gramophone days it was called a needle and it was really just a piece of needle. Stylus is the new fancy name of the same thing.
Very informative video. I needed exactly this video.

[stephencharlesdawson]

At 8:30 you explain the four connection pins at the back of the cartridge, and say that a small amount of voltage is applied to two of them. That's incorrect. There are left and right positive and left and right ground (or return). The pre-amp applies no voltage to the cartridge. The cartridge is the device that generates a signal voltage.

[culturalconfederacy]

Good video. I have a Quasar rack system from the late 80's or early 90's. A trick I learned to extend the life of the needle, is to take a slightly damp microfiber cloth and gently pad the stylus. That, plus cleaning the records with mild dish soap and drying them with the microfiber cloth really improved the sound quality. And my vinyl collection is far from pristine.

[MegaFguy]

As far as I know, it doesn't matter what kind of cartridge your using, you are going to need a phono stage. When they make records they apply something called the RIAA curve when cutting a lacquer. When playing a lp back, your phono stage will apply the RIAA curve. The RIAA curve in essence reduces the bass and accentuates the treble when cutting a lacquer. Reducing the bass allows you to get more music onto a side of a record. When the signal goes through your phono stage it re-equalizes the bass back to flat and pulls down the treble back to flat that was accentuated during cutting of the lacquer. When the treble gets pulled down it brings down a lot of noise with it as well. All of this means that you get more music on each side of the record and the record has less noise. Without a phono stage the record would have no bass and the treble would be extremely excessive.

[ercost]

Good video, thanks! Hard to find cheap 3-mil styli for 78s now. Most cheap dual-flip styli that say there's a 78 rpm side actually have LP styli on both sides.

[spookybaher]

I cannot express how grateful I am to this video ❤️❤️❤️

[aliceremley]

the bird forced me to like this, but i'd recommend making videos on older styluses like the lp 78s so people who pick up older players know what they're doing

[pcallas]

There is also a crystal cartridge. The conical stylus isn't quite detailed and tracks a little heavier but is great. Even though it tracks heavier, less record wear because of shape. The blue is nude elliptical. The 2M Bronze is fine line nude and 2M Black is a Shibata which gets really expensive. This is a great video. Love the bird, too.

[krzysztofczarnecki]

Ceramic and moving coil/moving magnet/moving iron cartridges only have both ends of the left and right transducer exposed in order to have a separate ground for each. This allows for using a symmetrical input on the preamp and to have a better channel separation in comparison to having only three wires. There is no need for any bias voltage to be applied from the preamp to the cartridge of this kind, as it wouldn't do anything except maybe saturating the coils and making them sound worse. There are also strain gauge cartridges, and those do need a DC voltage suppied to them, because they work by changing the resistance of the transducer rather than generating a voltage on their own. Also, you still need to apply the RIAA curve to any cartridge signal, including ceramic, you can't just connect it to a line in. The signal recorded on the record has had its bass purposefully decreased and trebles increased in a specified way to reduce noise on treble and not have the stylus jump out from all the bass, and that has to be exactly reversed in the preamp. But it can be done with passive components if it is already line level, so that means almost no hardware additional to just a line in/Bluetooth speaker in a cheap suitcase player compared to a MC/MM.