Stanton st-150 or str8-150

[snoborder101]

I recently ordered two Stanton str8-150's from agiprodj and today I received two st-150's.(ordered over the phone so I can understand the confusion. Agi has great customer service.) I was pretty upset at first because I had to wait over a week for them to come in due to the weather in the midwest. My question to some of you is, do you prefer S shaped or straight tone arms? Why?


In b4 someone says something about not buying technics. I was going to buy a set of m5g's at my local guitar center, but they only had one. :( I can't justify spending $400+ per turntable for a mk2 when I can get some new, arguably better stantons for a little more.

[Hausgeist]

The short answer:

The straight arm on the str8 is intended to be more resistant to skipping when scratching. The straight arms also cause more record wear.

If you are not going to be doing a lot of scratching, you are better off with the curved arm st-150.

[Sigma]

Advantages of underhung straight arms: -

No need for anti-skate controls. Due to the shape of a non-straight tonearm, it naturally pulls in towards the spindle. The anti-skate control is designed to offset this. Sometimes it can go wrong or break. Straight tonearms aren't naturally pulled in towards the spindle and so anti-skate controls aren't required.

In my experience, they tend to skip less generally, but a properly set up S or J-shaped arm shouldn't give you skipping problems. I haven't done any scientific nor conclusive tests, but when I've used straight arm turntables, if I baby scratch really fast then the arm always seems rock solid and there's no side-to-side movement at all, while with an S-shaped arm you can sometimes get a bit of side-to-side movement and when that gets bad enough, the deck will skip.

Advantages of overhung straight arms, S-shaped arms or J-shaped arms: -

The main advantage of these tonearms is that they track the record at closer to the optimal angle all the way through. That means you can use either spherical or elliptical styli and you'll get optimum sound quality with minimal stylus/record wear. With an underhung straight tonearm (the type that DJ decks have), the tracking error is greater at certain points and can be up to 17 or 18 degrees out, so you should only ever use spherical styli.

[snoborder101]

I'm just not sure what to do. I'm coming from mk2's and cdj's. I don't want to say I'm a huge scratcher, but I do love to scratch and juggle. Main thing is I just want to get back on some tables so I really don't want to wait an entire week AGAIN. I already sold my mk2's and my denon 3700s a few weeks ago. :(

[Hausgeist]

Meh, it's only a week. Why did you order the str8-150s over the st-150s in the first place?

[snoborder101]

Meh, it's only a week. Why did you order the str8-150s over the st-150s in the first place?

True, but I was supposed to have a gig this thursday. Which means I'll have to call my buddy so he can have another dj ready to go. I ordered the str8-150s because I got a chance to play with them and loved them. While I doubt the s tone arm is much different in terms of skip resistance, I've never used them.

[Hausgeist]

I've never used them.

You have a pair right in front of you! FFS, man, give those bad boys a whirl! :zany:

No, really. Try them.

[HBBoogie]

Just keep the st-150's. :tup:

[snoborder101]

You have a pair right in front of you! FFS, man, give those bad boys a whirl! :zany:

No, really. Try them.
Still at work. My brother signed for them for me and sent me pics. I was slightly confused when I saw s tone arm. I'll probably end up keeping them just because I'm too impatient to wait to be honest. I guess we'll see after I look at them tonight.

[antFastic]

Stick with the S-shaped I say, but it depends what your priorities are.

Even if you do alot of scratching, S-shaped arms perform just fine if they are set up correctly. I reckon you would have to be scratching extremely aggressive or difficult techniques or doing some crazy fast beat juggling where your hands are all over the place, to actually need straight arms.

It may be worth considering straight arms if you only ever intend on using them with DVS and/or intend on doing alot of aggressive beat juggling. But if you are going to use your TTs to mix regular vinyl in a regular way, then definitely stick with the S-shaped arms.

[snoborder101]

Stick with the S-shaped I say, but it depends what your priorities are.

Even if you do alot of scratching, S-shaped arms perform just fine if they are set up correctly. I reckon you would have to be scratching extremely aggressive or difficult techniques or doing some crazy fast beat juggling where your hands are all over the place, to actually need straight arms.

It may be worth considering straight arms if you only ever intend on using them with DVS and/or intend on doing alot of aggressive beat juggling. But if you are going to use your TTs to mix regular vinyl in a regular way, then definitely stick with the S-shaped arms.

I really wish I had a extensive vinyl collection, but I don't unfortunately. Either way, Dj's have been using S shaped arms forever. The str8-150's really did seem skip proof however.

[antFastic]

Yeah I can see why they might be a preference, the skip resistance is noticeable with fast back spins, where an S-shaped arm really wants to skip outward the straight arm will stay put. Downsides with the straight are slight increase in record wear, and reduced sound quality compared to a correctly set up S-shaped. But if you aren't planning on mixing alot of regular vinyl or sampling, it's probably not worth worrying.

I guess you could argue that the straight arm will give less record wear in the case of beat juggling specifically, because the S-shaped arm exerts a considerable outward force when back spinning, compared to the straight.

Also never use an elliptical stylus with straight arms as Sigma mentioned, use Spherical only.

p.s. Sigma I think you have your overhung and underhung mixed up? S-shaped and J-arms and Hi-Fi straight arms are overhung, scratch DJ straight arms are underhung.

[DTR]

If you are not going to be doing a lot of scratching, you are better off with the curved arm st-150.

:stupid:



p.s. Sigma I think you have your overhung and underhung mixed up? S-shaped and J-arms and Hi-Fi straight arms are overhung, scratch DJ straight arms are underhung.

:stupid:

[Sigma]

p.s. Sigma I think you have your overhung and underhung mixed up? S-shaped and J-arms and Hi-Fi straight arms are overhung, scratch DJ straight arms are underhung.
Cheers man. Fixed.

[snoborder101]

I'm probably just going to keep them. Got a chance to play with them a little last night. Probably going to pick up some Shures tomorrow.