White Noise With New Sapphire Stylus

[Mud Slide Slim]

I just changed the stylus on my record lathe from a tungsten, which recorded fairly quietly, albeit at a low low fidelity, to a new sapphire embossing stylus. I have been using PVC blanks, and my machine uses an overhead Rek O Kut M-5, and an Audak tombstone cutter head. I put the new stylus in and recorded a song which recorded with very heavy surface noise. I checked the stylus weight, and also adjusted heavier and lighter, but that made no difference. The cutting angle didn't seem horribly far off, as I had adjusted it when using the tungsten stylus last year. I'm at a loss for what's making the noise, both because I didn't have it when using the tungsten stylus, and because I can't find very much information on the Rek O Kut M-5 to tell if it is actually adjusted well. I'm appreciative of any advice. I've used a suitcase recorder for years and would consider myself fairly good with those, but still green with real recording lathes.

[displacedsnail]

Hey Mud, it's the material you're using for your records. Sapphire sounds terrible with lots of plastics, but pretty wonderful with Polycarbonate, it gets very low surface noise. Here's a link to piaptk's starter guide, tons of great information on embossing, and yeah, he recommends only using PVC with diamond cutting or tungsten. Time to get yourself some polycab discs, you'll be wowed by how good they can sound. I use an Audak head on one of my machines, and the cuts are stellar!

[Mud Slide Slim]

That was a stupid mistake! I meant polycarbonate, but had pvc on my mind. I can try another brand of polycarb that I have, but I doubt that will be any different. I will say, behind the noise, the fidelity was very good on the new cut, probably equivalent to when I would do actual cuttings instead of embossing, but that was quickly getting expensive.

[Mud Slide Slim]

Quick follow up to this, I'm beginning to suspect that the stylus that was shipped wasn't sharpened correctly, as I just tested it with my suitcase lathe, which I know is set up well, was just rebuilt and sounds fantastic with a good stylus (I've used it to cut and emboss a few times), I've never been thrilled with the sound quality embossing on it, but it has always worked well, and gave quiet cuts. I'm super surprised if this is the case though, as I ordered a this sapphire stylus from piaptk, and I know most people here trust them. That's also why I was much quicker to suspect my questionable lathe than the stylus, though I am now starting to suspect the stylus.

Also I didn't use it in any one configuration long enough where I would have imagined to damage it. I'm not super experienced with professional lathes, but have used the suitcase machine enough to know what an over/underpressured stylus sounds like vs one that's been dulled down and no longer cuts well. And this sounds much similar to the latter.

[Fattcamp]

Quick follow up to this, I'm beginning to suspect that the stylus that was shipped wasn't sharpened correctly, as I just tested it with my suitcase lathe, which I know is set up well, was just rebuilt and sounds fantastic with a good stylus (I've used it to cut and emboss a few times), I've never been thrilled with the sound quality embossing on it, but it has always worked well, and gave quiet cuts. I'm super surprised if this is the case though, as I ordered a this sapphire stylus from piaptk, and I know most people here trust them. That's also why I was much quicker to suspect my questionable lathe than the stylus, though I am now starting to suspect the stylus.

Also I didn't use it in any one configuration long enough where I would have imagined to damage it. I'm not super experienced with professional lathes, but have used the suitcase machine enough to know what an over/underpressured stylus sounds like vs one that's been dulled down and no longer cuts well. And this sounds much similar to the latter.

I'm having a bit of an issue with my new (first) Sapphire Cone as well. In my case, I dialed it in to spec to break in and increased weight to 40G and it appears to have dulled after a fraction of the life I'm supposed to get. I performed the exact same match-eq process once everything was dialed in and after a handful of test cuts (embossing) and it's a huge difference, which rotating the cone 90-degrees helped, but still isn't the same. I guess there are too many variables to be able to do much about it. Perhaps a different situation than yours but just so happen to also have an issue with the same cone and wish I had a magic wand for us both.

Dave

[piaptk]

99%+ of our styli work great after break in (about 3-10 min at 30g weight per the instruction sheet) for experienced users. It is extremely rare that “there is a problem with the stylus”. The guy that sharpens them has sharpened over 3000 styli in the past 8 years. In our studio we have 4 experienced cutters working 7 days a week on four machines and we never have a “dud” stylus out of the package. And i almost never hear from experienced cutters about a problem with the stylus.

Newbies and inexperienced users and folks with low end machines sometimes take a while to get everything dialed in and often break or chip a tip through simple inexperience. All it takes is one mistake and the stylus is done. These are not self healing. These styli are inspected under a scope by the sharpener and then again by myself when i package them.

There are a hundred variables: disc type, weight, angle, pivot play, spring set up, audio processing, cutter head quality and service, etc that effects the sound you will get.

[andyburnout]

All it takes is one mistake and the stylus is done.

I know what your little "check the carriage" signs are for, knocked 2 tops off mine in the same day. Such an easy little mistake to make.