OWNER’S MANUAL Pearwood Celebration II L o w O u t p u t M o v i n g C o il C a r t r i d g e
Dear New Pearwood Celebration II Owner, Thank you for your purchase of our new moving coil cartridge. Our intention in producing the Celebration II is simple and unequivocal: to deliver the highest level of real world performance to the vinyl lover. The Celebration II is the result of our over thirty years of service to the analog devotee; music lovers who value the expressiveness and emotional authenticity available only from analog records.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Design Overview............................................................................................................... 4 Design Specifics................................................................................................................ 5 Before You Begin Setting Up the Cartridge....................................................................... 6 Basic Mounting Instructions.....................................................................................
Design Overview Why a low output moving coil cartridge? Along the conceptual path, we examined closely the possibility of several construction methods. Moving magnet, or moving iron cartridges were rejected for their inability to deliver the high resolution and emotional intimacy possible only through the reduced moving mass of the better moving coil designs.
Design Specifics In the field of moving coil design, controlling the magnetic field within the generator is of paramount importance. Non-linear magnets, poor physical construction, poor magnetic saturation of the yokes, and poorly held tolerances can all be sources of an uncontrollable and non-linear magnetic field. A non-linear magnetic field means nonlinear sound, resulting in sound that can range from bright and sterile to dull and boring.
Design Specifics, continued Suspension Design Virtually all conventional moving coils get by with a suspension element made from a butyl material. For the Celebration II, we choose to use a synthetic rubber where the hardness (10 degrees) and repulsion factor (8%) of the material can be tightly controlled with molding temperature, cure time and skin tension.
Design Specifics, continued precision to access the positive virtues of the design. (It takes years of shop time to learn these skills.) The remaining 99% of the specialty grind owners are condemned to listening to cartridges performing well below their potential. Additionally, if set up incorrectly, these stylus types can damage records, and will wear out prematurely. By selecting our elliptical stylus, we offer a design type where the inherent character is always musical.
Design Specifics, continued The Point of the Exercise The purpose of fine adjustment of a phono cartridge is simple: you are trying to optimally align the playing surface of the stylus with the groove wall in the record, doing so in a way that the stylus is securely seated against the groove wall with neither too much or too little force, in all directions. All of these adjustments would be child’s play if the stylus was the size of a baseball, and the groove was the size of a rain gutter.
Before You Begin Setting Up the Cartridge Preliminary User Note: Before we begin, it might prove helpful to obtain an overview of correct set-up, why you are doing it, and what you hope to accomplish. This is not intended as a theoretical treatise, but merely as good, simple, practical tips on how to go about getting the most from your Celebration II. WARNING: Phono cartridges are inherently delicate things.
Before You Begin Setting Up the Cartridge, continued The Line Drawings As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” so we chose to add some simple illustrations to the manual. The line drawings included in this manual are there for you as a guide, illustrating what your cartridge will look like when both properly and improperly mounted and adjusted in your tonearm.
Basic Mounting Instructions There are two basic functions you are seeking to accomplish: physically bolting the cartridge to the tonearm, and making the necessary four electrical connections to complete the audio pathway. Note: Make sure the volume control is turned all the way down when you are making any electrical connection. We prefer first to bolt the cartridge to the headshell, using the supplied stainless steel mounting bolts. Next, attach the audio leads.
Basic Mounting Instructions, continued A Tip to Remember One helpful little tip learned from a technical mentor years ago was to remember that “Christmas colors go together to form the right channel, and hot colors are “hot.” By this he means that red and white (red hot and white hot) are the positive leads, so red is right channel hot. The only wire left is blue which is, by process of elimination, left channel ground.
Basic Mounting Instructions, continued Setting Tracking Force Now that you’ve got the cartridge mounted and wired, the next thing you’ll want to do is set the basic tracking force, or the amount of down force that will be applied by the stylus on the record. This setting not only determines the amount of stylus force in the record groove, but also loads the suspension system and aligns the coils to the yoke.
Basic Mounting Instructions, continued The first objective is to “statically balance” the arm, which is to achieve the proper weight balance such that the arm “floats” level. Practice a bit and you’ll find it’s fairly easy to achieve. After achieving static balance, adjust the counterweight to apply 2.0 grams tracking force. A Brief Discussion on Tracking Force Tracking force is primarily responsible for the pre-loading of the cartridge’s suspension system so that it works optimally.
Basic Mounting Instructions, continued HTA (Horizontal Tracking Angle) and Offset Angle We’ve combined these two categories because they are essentially interrelated. Other than to give a brief description of what you are adjusting for, we will leave these adjustment parameters to the maker of whatever tonearm you intend to use. The reason? Many tonearm manufacturers supply alignment templates with their tonearms and their tonearm geometry may be maximized around this template.
Basic Mounting Instructions, continued Antiskate Adjustment It is now time to adjust for antiskate. But before we get into setting and calibrating antiskate, it seems useful to identify what part of the tonearm the adjustment mechanism is actually located in. On all tonearms, the antiskate is located towards the rear of the tonearm, in the vicinity of the bearing housing. The adjustment device typically takes one of the following forms. 1.
Basic Mounting Instructions, continued antiskate to exactly match the tracking force indicated (e.g., 2 grams tracking force equals 2 grams indicated antiskate force), our data suggest that an alternative approach is called for since the compliance of the suspension is not taken into account in this approach. In particular, modern moving coil cartridges, such as your cartridge, are lower in compliance and are not as affected by the vector force applied by the record’s groove.
Basic Mounting Instructions, continued should be done in a real world situation and not a steady state or laboratory experiment simulation. Fine Tuning, VTA and Azimuth are the Tricky Parts To this point all the adjustments we’ve had you do have been relatively straightforward, intended to obtain and set a specific parameter. If this is the first time you’ve attempted these settings, it may have been a bit tricky, but we hope the diagrams have gotten the point across.
VTA Adjustment Vertical Tracking Angle (more precisely, Stylus Rake Angle) is the front-to-rear rake of the stylus within the groove and is controlled by raising or lowering the pivot end of the tonearm. Look for a small screw, possibly two, located low on the mounting collar where the tonearm meets the turntable. You should always refer to your owner’s manual to familiarize yourself with all the functions of your arm, so now would be a good time to do that for this function.
VTA Adjustment, continued You will, with a little practice, find the exact height that allows a good balance between sharpness of focus and correct image scale. When you get very close on VTA adjustment, note that adding a touch more or less tracking weight (assuming your initial tracking weight is 2.0 grams) is a simple way of fine-tuning the VTA. Adding a tiny bit of weight is effectively lowering the arm height, and reducing the weight will have the apparent effect of raising the back of the arm.
VTA Adjustment, continued Remember, the time domain will not lie, and the ear is quite sensitive to time arrival cues, whereas trying to guess whether a piece of program material has too much or too little bass, for example, is an exercise in madness. When VTA is right, the sound will take on a properly large image scale (not bloated, simply full in size), with an easy “breath” to the music that emulates the natural ebb and flow of live music.
VTA Adjustment, continued Illustration No. 1 shows a neutral attitude of rake. The cartridge will almost never look like this on the turntable. There will always be some negative rake angle to the correct cartridge set-up. Illustration No. 1 0° Stylus Rake Angle Illustration No. 2 Illustration No. 2 shows a positive rake of 2º. This too will never be the correct adjustment in a properly set-up cartridge. This attitude will result in a thin sound and could result in record damage.
VTA Adjustment, continued Illustration No. 3 shows what a negative rake angle looks like. This illustration shows a negative 2º attitude. This degree of rake angle is too great for the cartridge but serves to show what your cartridge should generally look like when starting the VTA adjustment process. Please refer to the section in the manual titles VTA Adjustment (p. 17) for further suggestions. 23 Illustration No.
Azimuth Adjustment Azimuth is probably the most misunderstood adjustment in analog audio. We believe this stems from the fact that its primary effect can be relatively subtle, but when it is not precisely correct, its effect on other parameters such as VTA can be dramatic. As you can see from the diagram on the facing page, azimuth describes the left-right angular orientation when viewed from the front of the cartridge.
Azimuth Adjustment, continued Note: When you have achieved correct azimuth, the sound will take on a tidy, integrated character that simply sounds “right”. Some people have reported good results by playing mono records and listening for the focus of image as a determinant for azimuth. We are reluctant to recommend this method, since the groove geometries of mono records are different than stereo records.
Azimuth Adjustment, continued Illustration No. 4 shows the attitude of the cartridge when the azimuth is set correctly. The bottom of the cartridge may be used to set azimuth by eye. However, the final setting will be done by ear. Illustration No. 4 0° Azimuth Error Illustration No. 5 and 6 show azimuth errors of 2°, tilted severely to the right and left. These angles may result in volume imbalances, biased toward the right or left channels. Illustration No.
Azimuth Adjustment, continued More importantly, this azimuth error will not allow proper tracing of the grooves resulting in mistracking. An edgy, hyper-detailed highfrequency sound will result if the azimuth is set wrong. Please refer to the manual section titled Azimuth Adjustment (p. 26) for further suggestions. These illustrations show what the cartridge should look like when properly mounted and adjusted in the tonearm. 27 Illustration No.
Azimuth Adjustment, continued Illustration No. 7 shows azimuth at 0° of error in side-to-side tilt. Illustration No. 7 0° Azimuth Error Illustration No. 8 shows a negative rake angle, (VTA), of 1.2°. This angle will result in a very fast, dynamic, and robust sound. Illustration No. 8 1.
Azimuth Adjustment, continued Illustration No. 9 shows a steeper negative rake angle than Illustration No. 8 where the angle has been increased by only 0.3, barely perceptible to the naked eye. The negative angle of 1.5° will result in a more rounded low frequency dynamic structure, less clarity in the midrange, and a reduced high frequency component. Illustration No. 9 1.
Wrapping Up the Installation Now that you have gone through the basic set-up procedure of your cartridge, you can expect the solutions that are outlined in this manual to aid you in optimizing your cartridge as it breaks in over time. You will find, that for the first 10-20 hours of playing time, the cartridge will go through changes in character, sound quality, and perceived output.
Warranty WHAT IS COVERED: All parts defective in material and workmanship. FOR HOW LONG: 1 Year, Parts & Labor WHAT WE WILL DO: We will, at our sole option, repair or replace any defective parts free of charge. WHAT WE WILL NOT DO: Pay shipping or transportation charges from you to us. PROVIDE SERVICE FOR PRODUCT NOT PURCHASED FROM AN AUTHORIZED DEALER. PLEASE CONTACT SUMIKO IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS REGARDING A DEALER.
Warranty, continued Sumiko Service Center with the proof of purchase from your authorized Sumiko dealer, and place the return authorization number prominently on the outside of the carton. Cartons not bearing a return authorization number will be refused. OTHER CONDITIONS: This warranty is not transferable from the original owner to any subsequent owners.
PEARWOOD Celebration II Specifications Generator: Suspension: Frequency Response: Output Voltage: Channel Separation: Channel Balance: Optimum Tracking Force: Tracking Force Range: Dynamic Compliance: Internal Impedance: Load Impedance Range: Capacitance Range: Cantilever: Stylus Type: Output Terminals: Weight: Moving Coil Synthetic rubber 10Hz - 40Khz +/- 1.5dB 0.5mV (3.54 cm/sec., 1kHz) >30dB @ 1kHz <0.5dB @ 1kHz 2.0 grams 1.9 - 2.
PEARWOOD Celebration II Specifications, continued Mounting System: Supplied Hardware: Standard 0.5” hole spacing, threaded M2.5 Stainless Steel Mounting Bolts 2 ea. - 2.5mm x 6mm, 8mm 4 – Stainless Steel Washers, 2.
2431 Fifth St. Berkeley . CA 94710 Tel: 510.843.4500 . Fax: 510.843.7120 www.sumikoaudio.
