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In the Forum: Analog Playback
In the Thread: The Shelter 90X: mystery or mastery
Post Subject: Diagnosis of suspensionPosted by DHT4ME on: 9/4/2008
Romy
Having worked in a high end shop and doing lots of carts I will lend my experiences.
Suspensions either harden or soften.
When they soften you will notice that your VTA starts to go, you have to lift the rear of the cart and they go quite rapidly.
They start to sound big and bloated, highs start to die.
Hard suspensions seem to stay put and loose bass. A stiffened suspension will actually benefit from the extra mass but will sound harder and harder as time goes by.
i am not sure who makes the Shelter but it is probably in the same boat as the Lyra. They last a very long time.
Koetsu gets soft fast, VDH gets soft after 10-15 yrs. Scantech manufactured carts seem to go for 15-20 yrs.
Obviously these are generalizations and the environment they are in can change it dramatically.
If you have not used it in a long time try a test tone LP with the LF bands for cart resonance and play it a few times.
This will work it near the resonance safely and restore it a bit.
Unless you smoke or have bad ozone your cart is still young.Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site