Re: OT: diamond making machine for 200,000 dollars on alibaba

Cursitor Doom <cd999666@notformail.com> wrote:

On Wed, 11 Sep 2024 14:11:07 +0100, Liz Tuddenham wrote:
 

Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid> wrote:
 

On a sunny day (Wed, 11 Sep 2024 10:21:09 -0000 (UTC)) it happened
Cursitor Doom <cd999666@notformail.com> wrote in
<vbrquk$3huor$2@dont-email.me>:
 

On Wed, 11 Sep 2024 05:36:05 GMT, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>

Diamond making machine for 200,000 dollars on alibaba:
 https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/09/you-can-buy-a-diamond-

making-

machine-for-200000-on-alibaba/

 
Now there is a profit opportunity:-)

>
It's amazing there's still a market for diamonds at all now this is
possible.

 
Old record players used diamond needles, I have read vinyl is 'in'
again these days Audiophiles will pay big money for superior sound.

 
The cost of a replacement stylus is in the manufacturing, not the
materials.  There are brand-new mass-produced styli for microgroove
records available at around 30 UKP - but I've just paid over 90 UKP for
a specialised one for 78s.  For an even more specialised L.P. profile I
was quoted 120 UKP.

 
Liz, can you recommend any genuinely good, high quality stylus/cartridge
manufacturers in Yurp currently? Preferably English or Scandinavian?

I don't really know much about the esoteric end of the L.P. market, but
a good general-purpose workhorse would be something from the Shure 75 or
44 range (but they are American).  The person to ask is Paul Hodgson of
Expert Stylys Co. but his prices are not cheap as the styli are made
individually on the premises.

You need to consider the sort of record you intend to play, presumably
you are thinking of microgroove, not coarse-grooved 78s, or similar?
For older records and those with damage, a conical stylus might pick up
less noise than a top-of-the-range elliptical or similar.  Some high-end
styli are very fragile, so they might be damaged more easily.

A friend who works at the very top of the transcription business uses a
moving coil cartridge by Wilson Benesch, which is hand-made in the UK
and claims to give the ultimate in performance.  It needs a special
pre-pre amplifier as the impedance is less than 30 ohms and the output
voltage would be down in the noise level of a moving-magnet
pre-amplifier.   He keeps it for only the highest quality work and uses
a Shure 44 for the 'ordinary' jobs.

Elliptical styli will only give the best performance if they are angled
correctly to the .line of the groove; despite all the hype, there is no
radial pickup arm that achieves this, so a parallel-tracker is an
absolute 'must' (especially if you are using some types of analogue
de-clickers).


--
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk