Playing DD's on modern equipment

[Curley Temple]

Several years ago, I purchased what was called an "ATEN 16-inch Transcription Turntable" thru a company called "Esoteric Sound".
Would anyone know what type of styli I would have to use to play Edison Diamond Discs properly on this unit?

[bart1927]

Several years ago, I purchased what was called an "ATEN 16-inch Transcription Turntable" thru a company called "Esoteric Sound".
Would anyone know what type of styli I would have to use to play Edison Diamond Discs properly on this unit?

I also have a turntable from Esoteric Sound. Mine has a vertical/lateral switch. Doesn't yours have one? You don't need a special stylus for DD's, the stylus you use for your regular lateral 78's will do. But if you don't have a vertical-lateral switch you'll have to buy a separate headshell with a rewired cartridge.

See also: http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... ?f=2&t=761

[Curley Temple]

Ah...ok.
Well, the turntable obviously outlasted the company I bought it from. I looked them up to purchase new styli, and found out they had gone out of business.
So--how would I go about getting the proper head and such for what I want to accomplish? Are they very expensive--and where would I go to locate one?

[syncopeter]

You could try KAB Usa, just google to find the website. The owner is very knowledgeable. Also Kurt Nauck of record auction fame sells supplies.

[Curley Temple]

Fantastic, guys.
Thanks--!

[bart1927]

Ah...ok.
Well, the turntable obviously outlasted the company I bought it from. I looked them up to purchase new styli, and found out they had gone out of business.
So--how would I go about getting the proper head and such for what I want to accomplish? Are they very expensive--and where would I go to locate one?

Are you sure? I bought some items from them just a couple of weeks ago and their website is still up!

http://www.esotericsound.com/index.htm

A Technics headshell can be obtained from http://www.kabusa.com for $ 24, and a Stanton 500 cartridge (comes with a standard lp stylus) costs $ 30 from the same site. The cheapest stylus for 78 rpm is their standard Stanton stylus for 78 rpm (2.7 mil) which costs $ 49,-. The recommended stylus for DD's is, however, a 3.5 te (truncated elliptical), also available from Kab for $ 156.

I see now that in addition to the 3.5te they're also offering a 3.5e (not truncated), especially for playing vertical recordings. I have a 3.5te (among others) and it does a good job in playing the handful of DD's that I have.

Since you have to connect the cartridge to the headshell yourself you also have to do the alternative wiring yourself. If you have any further questions you can of course also mail Kevin, the owner of KAB. He is very friendly and helpful and I can fully recommend him.

[Curley Temple]

Fantastic--
Thank you again!
What probably had happened (and, mind you, this was a while back) I had tried to log on while the site may have been down for maintenance...

[Wolfe]

I wonder how well the non truncated 3.5 stylus may work.

I have a 3.5 mil truncated elliptical that I've tried using on DD's with variable results. I've never been all that impressed with it in that application, and the truncated tip seems counter intuitive to the whole business of playing vertical cut records. My favored stylus out of my small collection is a good old 3 mil non truncated conical (for DD's.) But there is probably something better.

I'd also be very curious if anybody has found a particular stylus that does a better job of mitigating the rumbly surfaces of DD's. That annoying rumble travels all the way up to the mid bass region and can't be filtered out unless one wants to thin out the music content as well. It's frustrating, and one thing that makes me less of a fan of the vaunted Diamond Disc sound.

[Ken D.]

I was ripping a couple of well worn Diamond Discs a few years ago, and was surprised to find that I got the best signal to noise ratio by using the LP stylus. Found this out by accident when I forgot to switch the stylus.

Ken D.

[coyote]

Wolfe, my experience with various styli for DDs mirrors yours, using both elliptical and conical truncated styli. Does anyone have preferred styli that they use for, say, 51000 series and electric DD's? Even with filtering out the rumble using software, I've always felt that better results could be obtained. I use a Stanton 500 headshell, swapping wires. Even recording with a mic from a DD machine gives better results than what I've been able to obtain with modern equipment, IMHO.