@lewm Impedence on the Boulder is fixed at 100 ohms and Paula loads at 470.
A pitch too High!
Recently, I damaged the V2 MM cartridge of Clearaudio Concept Wood turntable, so had it changed with a Grado Prestige Blue. The VTF for V2 is 2.2g while Grado blue stands at 1.5g. I took someone’s help to fix this. He even made azimuth adjustments and it sounded fine. But I soon realised that the sound had become thinner, voice being the primary indicator and just before the stylus landed on the record, it skipped back a bit then hit the record. Sometimes the tonearm would skip all the way out of the record, backwards. I called the guy back, and he felt the VTF should be fixed to around 2g to avoid the backward skip. He did so and that problem was licked and it seemed the voice thinning issue had also vanished. But last night, I put on the first pressing of Aretha Franklin Amazing Grace, and all along I found her pitch way higher, it was all too high pitched and uncomfortable. Seemed the bass had gone missing a little. On my Boulder 866, I could immediately hear the difference when the track was played through Roon. It was not as high pitched, thin as it sounded on analogue. I intend to call the guy again but wanted to know from experts here as to what the issue could be.
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@terrible , You would get Soundsmith's The Voice and use your MM input. The Voice is a great cartridge. Of the two you mention I would easily take the Kleos over the Hana. Between The Voice and the Kleos depends on the music. The Voice is going to be a better rocker but some might prefer the Kleos on classical and acoustic music. The Voice has a guarded cantilever, the Kleos sticks out in thin air, an easy target. The Voice has a much less expensive rebuild price and the manufacturer is easy to get to. The Voice is a high output Sussurro. Peter Ledermann told me the only reason it costs less is the market. People who buy high output cartridges are not prepared to spend as much as MC buyers. Peter insists that is the only reason. |
@mijostyn I could not figure the compliance of The Voice to 309. Is it compliant? Any reason you would prefer the Kleos over Hana? Hana seems to get glowing reviews on the interwebs. I’ll wait for your response and then pull the plug. Though, Soundsmith are generally not available for immediate order. |
@terrible , the Voice comes in two compliance versions mid and high. With the 309 I would go for the Mid compliance version. You might have to add a little weight. Soundsmith makes very nice graded cartridge screws. They come in a set of four different weights. You order the cartridge directly from Soundsmith on their web site. As far as I can tell The Voice is in stock. The Hana tracking is listed by them as 70 um. This is not as good as a $4000 cartridge should be. The Soundsmith will do an easy 80 um if not 90 and at a lighter VTF. The Kleos spec is not listed but I have used one and it tracks fine. I can easily recommend both the Kleos and the Soundsmith as I have used and listened to both. I have not used or heard the Hana. |
@mijostyn I went for the Voice. I got one at Absolute Sound, they told me its prefectly compatible to my tonearm as well as the 508 in MM. It is mid compliance. Where do I order the screws. |
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