Which Headshell is better made of aluminium or wood?
Why material matters
Mechanical damping & resonance: Wood is more naturally damped than metal. That damping reduces certain ringing and smooths highs — useful if you want a slightly warm, cohesive sound. Aluminium is stiff and less damped, so it transmits transients very cleanly and can sound more detailed/analytical (but may also show more ringing if resonances aren’t controlled).
Stiffness & transient response: Stiffer materials (aluminium, carbon) give faster attack and finer transient detail. Wood gives a softer attack and perceived “body.”
Aesthetics & acoustic coupling: Using the same material (rosewood headshell on a rosewood arm) reduces mismatched mechanical interfaces and can look visually beautiful — and often the coupling of similar materials produces a consistent tonal character.
Mass / effective mass matter more than “wood vs metal”: The single most important technical factor is the mass the headshell adds to the tonearm (which with the arm’s effective mass determines the cartridge/arm resonance). That resonance must suit your cartridge’s compliance for correct tracking and good bass.
Practical rules (how to choose)
Match headshell mass to cartridge compliance
- High-compliance cartridges → use a light headshell (e.g. very light carbon or low-mass aluminium or a very light wood shell).
- Low-compliance cartridges (e.g. many MCs like Denon DL-103) → use a heavier headshell (solid wood, heavier aluminium, or add small weights) to bring the resonance into a stable range.
1. If you want a musical, smooth result: choose rosewood headshell on rosewood arm. Good damping, warm, musical.
2. If you want neutrality/detail: choose aluminium or carbon headshell on an aluminium arm. Carbon is a great modern compromise — stiff, light, good damping.
3. Aesthetic / craftsmanship: If matching looks matters (shows, customers, photos), matching woods is a big plus for presentation and perceived quality.
Practical targets (rule-of-thumb)
Aim for the arm+headshell+cartridge resonance roughly in the 8–12 Hz band (this is the commonly recommended zone).
Simple, practical advice without measuring: if you use cartridges such as:
Denon DL-103 (low compliance): prefer a heavier headshell (solid wood or heavier aluminium, maybe ~10–15 g headshell mass or add weight).
AT-VM95 / typical MM medium-to-high compliance: prefer a light headshell (ultra-light carbon or light aluminium, e.g. ~4–8 g headshell mass).
(Those gram numbers are approximate — the correct resonance depends on the tonearm’s own effective mass and the cartridge compliance.)
My short recommendation:
If your tonearm is rosewood and you want a warm, integrated sound → rosewood headshell (matched wood) tuned in mass to the cartridge.
If your tonearm is aluminium and you want maximum detail and speed → aluminium or carbon-fibre headshell (carbon if you want a neutral-but-musical compromise).
Hot to calculate the expected resonance frequency for specific combinations?
What I assumed (so you know how to read the numbers)
Formula used (standard):
where is cartridge compliance in µm/mN and is the combined effective mass in grams (tonearm effective mass + headshell + cartridge mass).
Example tonearm effective masses used: 6 g (light), 9 g (medium), 12 g (heavy).
Headshell masses tested: 4 g, 8 g, 12 g, 18 g.
Cartridges (typical assumed specs used):
AT-VM95 — compliance 22 µm/mN, mass 6.5 g.
Ortofon 2M Red — compliance 18 µm/mN, mass 7.5 g.
Denon DL-103 — compliance 5 µm/mN, mass 8.5 g.
I computed resonance for every combination and flagged those that land in the 8–12 Hz target band.
Combinations that fall into the desirable 8–12 Hz band (from the examples)
AT-VM95 (c = 22 µm/mN)
- Arm 6 g + Headshell 4 g → f ≈ 8.35 Hz
Ortofon 2M Red (c = 18 µm/mN)
- Arm 6 g + Headshell 4 g → f ≈ 8.97 Hz
- Arm 6 g + Headshell 8 g → f ≈ 8.09 Hz
- Arm 9 g + Headshell 4 g → f ≈ 8.29 Hz
Denon DL-103 (c = 5 µm/mN, low compliance)
- Arm 9 g + Headshell 18 g → f ≈ 11.95 Hz
- Arm 12 g + Headshell 18 g → f ≈ 11.47 Hz
How to interpret this for rosewood vs aluminium headshells
Rosewood headshells tend to be heavier and more damped (so they push effective mass up and add damping). That helps low-compliance MCs (e.g., Denon DL-103) to reach the 8–12 Hz resonance band — which is why you often pair heavy wood headshells with such cartridges for better bass control and stability.
Aluminium (or carbon) headshells are usually lighter and stiffer. They suit high-compliance MM/MC cartridges (AT-VM95, many Ortofon MMs) and help keep resonance in the target band if the arm is light. Carbon gives the stiffness of metal but with some damping — a very good compromise.
Therefore (practical summary):
- If you use low-compliance cartridges (e.g., DL-103) → prefer heavier/wood (rosewood) headshell (or add mass) so resonance moves down into 8–12 Hz.
- If you use high-compliance cartridges (e.g., AT-VM95, 2M Red) → prefer light headshells (light aluminium or ultra-light carbon) — rosewood may be too heavy and push the resonance below the ideal band (too low).