BobM
New member
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- #1
Has anyone else seen the discussions at Audiogon about Lloyd Walkers black diamond tweak? Apparently he now sells black colored crystals that you stick to your headshell or phono cartridge. He states that it "reduces the EMI/RFI and static electrical noise at your cartridge and record while it is playing." I don;t think these are actually diamonds, but rather black quartz.
More info here:
https://walkeraudio.com/shop/crystal/
So instead of paying $395 to Walker Audio I found a clear rounded quartz crystal and glued it to the front of my cartridge with a tiny dab of super glue. Of course I re-balanced the arm to account for the added mass. I've been playing records this way for about a month now.
No overtly obvious change, but things did indeed sound nice. So today I decided to put it to the test. I pulled out 88 Basie Street, an album many of us are intimately familiar with for it's great dynamics, soundstaging, space, extension and great music.
(1) Sounded really nice. Spacious, meaty, textured.
(2) I pulled off the crystal and re-balanced the arm. OK, so things definitely seem a bit flatter now. Less nuance. Less space. Less character. Absolutely a difference was heard.
(3) Glued the crystal back in place and re-balanced the arm again. Yup, there's that nuance, space and dimensionality.
Conclusion: so I guess this did make a difference to my ears, whether from actual RFI/EMI reduction or from just having added mass at the headshell or resonance dampening - I don't know. But I did hear it; subtle but there.
More info here:
https://walkeraudio.com/shop/crystal/
So instead of paying $395 to Walker Audio I found a clear rounded quartz crystal and glued it to the front of my cartridge with a tiny dab of super glue. Of course I re-balanced the arm to account for the added mass. I've been playing records this way for about a month now.
No overtly obvious change, but things did indeed sound nice. So today I decided to put it to the test. I pulled out 88 Basie Street, an album many of us are intimately familiar with for it's great dynamics, soundstaging, space, extension and great music.
(1) Sounded really nice. Spacious, meaty, textured.
(2) I pulled off the crystal and re-balanced the arm. OK, so things definitely seem a bit flatter now. Less nuance. Less space. Less character. Absolutely a difference was heard.
(3) Glued the crystal back in place and re-balanced the arm again. Yup, there's that nuance, space and dimensionality.
Conclusion: so I guess this did make a difference to my ears, whether from actual RFI/EMI reduction or from just having added mass at the headshell or resonance dampening - I don't know. But I did hear it; subtle but there.