Greg wrote:
> That, by the way, is why sapphire needles, together with the decreasing
> compliance in the hardening rubber suspension bits of the old crystal
> cartridges of the 1930s have wreaked so much damage on records from that
> period. You may have noticed that your 1930s vintage records sound more
> worn out than your teens and 1920s records. The reason is that the "record
> grinders" of the 1930s chewed the crap out of records with their sapphire
> needles tracking at 30 grams whereas the steel needles of the teens
> developed their flats much faster and didn't chew up the records so badly.
Thanks for the informative message!
This brings back the next question I have.
Ignoring for the moment the strength requirements of the needle, what
would be the ideal properties for the tip material?
One can imagine coating or tipping a tungsten needle with this other
material ("idealium") so as to combine the strength of the titanium to
transfer the audio energy (and simply not to bend under the weight)
with the ideal properties of the material in direct contact with the
record groove.
Of course, we want to minimize record wear, get good tracking, etc.
(This is reminiscent of what Columbia did with laminated records.)
I also recall that the use of "fiber" needles -- would the use of
anisotropic fiber materials for the needle possibly confer desired
properties? Today we have carbon fiber, kevlar, etc.
Jon Noring
