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Your cart is empty.◆ Easy-to-read screen with backlit ◆ AAA battery × 2 ◆ corresponding to 0.01 ～200g ◆ large tray ◆ Auto-off function
Eric Wryly
Reviewed in Canada on January 24, 2025
Awesome!
LW
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2024
It sounds ridiculous but this made the most drastic difference to how my records sound. It’s like a switch got flipped and there was all of a sudden much more clarity to what I am listening to on record player. I finally understand how important a proper gauge is because I was almost a gram off when I went to measure the pressure! It’s important to get it dialled in as much as possible. The sound is now better overall and believe me I was sceptical that this tool would make a difference but it does.
Mikhail Zavyalov
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2024
This is the best product from Japan!
Vernon Tibbles
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 25, 2024
I bought this product using a considered mix of Euros, Krona and a handful of Venezuelan currency in the hope of improving my bread-making skills and preventing insurrection in the hinterlands. O vainest of hopes! O forlorn dashing of expectation against the immutable breeze-block of time! Disconsolate and dyspeptic after consuming four sachets of instant whip and a family-sized Melton Mowbray pork pie I ran to the Illyrian retreat of my friend, confidante, political adviser, erstwhile jailer and actuary, Neville Toadtrimble. On hearing of the abject failure of this item to touch upon even the outermost perimeter of fulfillment, the fine and noble Presbyterian exclaimed “Corrumph, chrble, sploob, eeerkk, oooom”, his mouth full to the brim with jumbo chocolate buttons, the accompanying wrappers, forty two Brazil nuts and a piece of rectangular foam from the arm of a sofa. His loyal chihuahua, Vincent, descended the ladder having needlessly replaced 20m of entirely functional guttering, and inspired, yes inspired me to seek an alternative use for this errant product. It now sits proudly across my stairs (used rarely as I live in a single storey property in Warblington) preventing malevolent elvish folk from stealing my harmonicas. I would buy this item again (and perhaps again after that) in full expectation of the same outcome.
NormB
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2023
I’ve been playing LPs since around 1970 - well, not when my brother was home, he’d KILL me if he knew I was using his stereo.I’ve used all kinds, makes, manner of stylus pressure gauges up to and including the little balancing beam style ones from Ortofon and recently the VERY inexpensive Chicom-sourced digital scales and I’ve had my eye on one of these for several years now. I own a couple Ortofon cartridges (OM series, 2M, Cadenza, now Verismo) and finally blew the $100 bucks on this scale.Wish I’d done it years ago. It IS, as someone else has already said, pretty much idiot-proof and dead accurate. It’s more accurate in the hundredths than the cheap chicom digital scale so if you want to dial in to, say, 1.75gm, that’s what this will show, repeatedly, while the other scale shows variations of +/- 0.1 gm or at least that’s what mine does. And compared to the two inch plastic balance beam scale? Not even close to what this shows.Collecting, playing vinyl records isn’t cheap. The cartridges are insanely expensive - many of them - and if you’re at all the kind of perfectionist who enjoys the ritual of sorting, cleaning, playing, setting up the TT/TA/cart, this is a tool you want to buy.Worth every penny.Speaking of which, I remember my brother putting those on his tonearm back in the day, until he bought a better cartridge.
One Mile Up
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2023
I’m just getting into the hobby, thought I should probably have a high quality scale to set my cartridges pressure on vinyl!Pulled the unit from the box, put the included batteries in, turned it on, zeroed the scale, dialed in my cartridge pressure… easy peasy!
Suresh
Reviewed in Singapore on October 24, 2023
Great product.
Wilfried Schmitz-Hartmann
Reviewed in Germany on October 28, 2022
Gute Anleitung, easy handling, ist sehr wertig
Juan José Valle Pérez
Reviewed in Spain on April 5, 2022
Esta balanza de precisión es justo lo que necesitaba. Ha sido ajustar la fuerza de tracción de mi delicada cápsula Nagaoka y mejorar ostensiblemente la calidad de sonido de mi giradiscos.
Tom
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2020
I would be very careful about what digital scale you buy. I assume if you spend any more on your table, arm, and cartridge you will too. However, I recommend this scale to anyone spending a few hundred on their set-up and looking to invest more in the future. The scale is made in Japan and very accurate like a lot of things made in Japan. I have owned a few of their scales they vary in how exact they weigh to. I can tell you this one goes to the tens place and they have another that goes to the hundredth place too. I would not be fooled by the cheaper ones’ that seem to weigh things more exact due to them being far less accurate. I can promise you no cartridge requires more exact weight exact than this one. I own $3000 cartridges, and I do not fear it being off. Also, I use more than one scale for comfort. I use one of their $15 manual scales and a Shure audio $40 scale too. I think it is the best value the other ones I would buy cost from $250 to $500. I would not be concerned with ease of use. I can tell you just hit the power button and let it zero-out and it is calibrated and ready to use each time. I promise you the cheaper scales with the 5 gram weight which is far heavier than the tracking force and easier to be accurate than a lighter more exact amount. I would not think much about a 5 gram weight showing 5.000 as that accurate overall. Besides, I can tell you the biggest issue with those cheaper ones is a great amount of variation each time you use it. I have used this one many times and it always stays about the same as it should without altering things.
Hugo
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2019
This is a high quality product. Made in Japan with high quality materials. The functionality is very intuitive and user friendly. In my opinion the Ortofon DS-3 is the best precision scale on the market... Quality, functionality and design.
About The Details
Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2018
Test weights don't necessarily prove that a scale works properly for phono cartridges. I don't know why for sure - the magnet strength perhaps -- with strong enough test magnets I could get an offset on my original digital scale but not the magnitude that I state below. (My equipment guy is nodding his head in agreement as we went around and around on this. He had an Ortofon DS-1 that gave him proven results when setting up turntables for clients.) My digital scale tested fine with brass weights as did the DS-1. I verified the weights at work on a very precise scale. 1g, 2g, and 5g. My turntables were set to just roll over on the DS-1 which was less precise. On one turntable both scales agreed but on my better turntable the two scales were different by about 0.2g! How could that be? Eventually after listening tests I settled on the DS-1 giving better results. At one point I even went back to my Shure balance scale which gave yet different results. I wanted better precision than the DS-1 so I got the DS-3 and yes, it too measures the test weights as perfectly as it can. Many out there will say get it close and listen to fine tune. In the end listening is what matters.
Mark
Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2017
Wow...I could not believe how far off the measurements were on my turn table. I used this once to get the correct needle pressure and it was like I was listening to a whole new turntable. No guess-work here, this thing works wonderfully and comes with a nice storage case. Highly recommended. Is it overkill? Probably, but I like certainty.
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