Cell DJ: choose your diamond wisely

Model	Diamond	Exit	Downforce
Concorde MKII MIX	spherical	6mV	3g
Concorde MKII DJ	spherical	6mV	4g
Concorde MKII CLUB	special elliptical	8mV	3g
Concorde MKII SCRATCH	spherical	10mV	4g

Reading is simple once the table is placed. The MIX is the entry point: it plays records all evening without making a fuss. The DJ supports a gram more and holds the groove better when you hold it by hand on a vibrating track. The CLUB is the only elliptical in the series, with a channel separation announced at 25 dB compared to 20 to 22 dB for the others: it is the cell for those looking to listen, or for those digitizing their vinyls. The SCRATCH outputs 10 mV and displays the best ability for family monitoring, 120 µm at 315 Hz: it is the cell of turntable players, not that of a wedding.

For a private party, a reception or a dancing evening, the MIX and the DJ do the job. Choosing a CLUB in this context means paying for detail that the room's sound system will not reproduce, with the added bonus of an elliptical profile that is less comfortable if someone touches the record.

Recognize a worn diamond before it damages your discs

Ortofon announces that a tip can last up to 1,000 hours of playback without noticeable degradation if it is well maintained, but reduces this duration to around 500 hours for DJ use with scratching and back-cueing. On equipment that is in circulation, this counter is never displayed anywhere: you have to know how to judge for yourself.

• By ear: a record that you know by heart loses its high notes, hisses, or becomes blurred in the busiest passages.
• Under a magnifying glass: Ortofon here refers to a pointed microscope or a good magnifying glass, under which a tired tip appears flattened, chipped or irregular instead of being straight.
• In use: the cell picks up on discs that it held very well the previous time, without anything else having changed.

Two useful details from the same manufacturer. A new cartridge requires a break-in of up to 20 hours of playback before giving the best of itself: don't judge a peak on its first discs. And maintenance determines the announced duration: Ortofon recommends passing your fiber brush along the cantilever, from the back of the cell towards the tip and never in the other direction or laterally, with each new disc or change of face.

The counterweight trap on a Technics

This is the point that no one tells beginners, and which explains the majority of skipping diamonds. On the Technics SL-1200 and SL-1210, the counterweight has a small cylindrical auxiliary weight. While in place, Ortofon indicates that a Concorde can only achieve 2 g of downforce. With this weight removed, the same cell rises to approximately 4.75 g.

Direct consequence: if your Concorde DJ or SCRATCH claims 4 g and the auxiliary weight is still mounted, you will never be able to display the correct value. The diamond will come out of the groove and you will blame the turntable, the table, or the record. None of the three will have anything to do with it.

What it changes when you rent

The S-shaped arm of the SL-1210 MK2 is a balanced counterweight arm, with removable cartridge holder: this is exactly the assembly for which the Concorde were designed. The cell screws in one piece onto the arm, with no separate shell or tiny screws to adjust in a poorly lit room.

Our turntables Technics SL-1210 MK2 leave with their cell checked before each departure, which saves you from buying a consumable for a single evening. If you plan to scratch seriously rather than mix open, let the reservation know: the adjustment of the counterweight and the support force are not posed in the same way.

And if, after reading, the vinyl finally seems incidental to your event, the console Pioneer DJ XDJ-RX3 simply eliminates the diamond issue: it reads your files from a USB key, without wearing parts.

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