Back to serious business. Audioquest, nature is full of surprises. Making a tapered cantilever is not easy. Making one that is tough and light is even harder. I suspect Frank Schroder has detailed the thorns characteristics and thinks they make an ideal cantilever. This proof is in the listening and tracking performance/ Problem is you really have to spend $8K to find out unless you can find a low mileage used one from a trusted source. If I get a Soundsmith it will be the Hyperion. If I don't like it it will be sold immediately to some lucky person. I have turned over several cartridges that way. As far as the Koetsu is concerned it would not be my first choice in a low compliance MC. I lean towards the Air Tight and My Sonic Lab. But if you have to have jade go for it but you'd best have a heavy arm. SME V's will need a lot of added mass and I am not sure they can counter balance it but you would no better than I. |
drbarney, that was a jump from rebuilding cartridges. But hey. Does not matter how frictionless you get a linear tracking arm. The large horizontal mass plays havoc with even the stiffest cartridges not to mention getting them perfectly level is next to impossible. But there is a way to do it. Check out the Reed 5T and the Schroder Lt. No compressors required!
Back to Cartridges. If you can find a good cartridge with low hours from someone you trust go for it. Otherwise I personally will only by a new unused cartridge. I have never rebuilt a cartridge because there is always something else I want to try. Like I said, from a rebuilder you never quite know what you are going to get. |
The only problem pindac is that you have no idea what you have unless the "rebuild engineer" has some very exotic test equipmment. Just because it sounds OK does not mean that it is. |
Audioquestforlife you are certainly going to need that 80db with the Strat.
Not so sure I am sold on the single pole idea. Anyway, I am more interested on what you think of the Soundsmith and how it compares to your Benz. Thanx:) |
Oh and pay no attention to Chakster raving on about old cartridges. He only listens to Elvis:) |
Audioquest4life, my 911s will only get 8000 miles out of rear Cup 2S
For every day use Michelin Sport 4S are wonderful. I get 20,000 miles on those and there is no difference in handling off track. For track use get P Zero Trofeo Rs and really burn up the money. $2000/day:) I just saw my first midengined Corvette. I'm sure it is the performance value of the century but according to recent press it feels like a Jeep and worse it is at least to my eyes huge and ugly. Ferrari still corners the market on the best looking cars. The new Gordon Murry car looks nice. Mclarens are not bad but not up to Ferrari in the looks department. My ultimate car remains the Singer 911 followed by the Eagle GT. |
Audioquest4life, I am not particularly fond of tonearms with removable head shells (except the 4 Points) and changing cartridges is a PITA. So , for most of my life with one turntable and tonearm I kept two cartridges, my current favorite and my previous current favorite in case something happened to the first current favorite. I always managed to get a new cartridge before any stylus wore out perhaps every three years or so and never sent a cartridge out for retipping and I doubt I ever will.
With two tables and two or more tonearms it becomes a different situation. It becomes easier to compare cartridges but with multiple cartridges running it becomes even less likely that you will wear one out.
With clean static free records and a properly set up arm styli can go a very long ways. Megabuck cartridges cost megabucks to retip which is most definitely a rip off IMHO. As an example a Clearaudio Charisma costs $1200 to retip. The Clearaudio Goldfinger costs $9600 to retip. They have exactly the same cantilever and stylus. Who would buy a Goldfinger retipped by some budget retipper? Not me. But, people who can afford a $16,000 cartridge usually have several and the likelihood they would wear one out diminishes rapidly.
As for utilization, certain cartridges are better with certain music. I have learned with a recent purchase that modern MM cartridges excel at Rock while MC cartridges do better with string quartets. From now on I will have one of each type Qed up ready to use. I do not have a MC cartridge that is as aggressive as the Clearaudio Charisma I recently purchased and playing classical most would think it was a MC cartridge. Very pleased with this. So much so that I suspect it will curtail my spending on expensive MC cartridges which I am dead sure are aggressively overpriced. Next I might try a Soundsmith cartridge to see what that is about. |
Clearthinker, Michelin is now making N0 tires again so you can feel comfortable putting them on. The dealers will never use anything but N0 or N1 tires. I have seen new Porsches come through with mostly P zeros as you suggest but also Michelins and Goodyears! P zeros don't last a whole lot longer than the track tires. I burn then up then switch to Michelin Super Sports now Sport 4S.
Audioquest for life. I have not yet owned a VDH cartridge. They are very compliant for MC cartridges and my current arms are probably a bit too heavy but your SME V's are perfect. My next arm will have adjustable effective mass (Schroder or Reed.) VDH reviews are uniformly good. Next time around (after I get the arm) I'll do either a VDH or Allaerts.
Right at the moment my Favorite MC is the Lyra atlas (not Lamda) followed by the Ortofon Windfeld Ti. But as I have said in previous posts the Clearaudio Charisma is the nuts for high energy music. It's presentation is a little on the darker side, unusual for a Clearaudio but it is by a fair margin the most dynamic cartridge I have ever used. Percussion is otherworldly and the bass is not far behind. While not as detailed as a MC anybody listening would think it was one until I spilled the news. It is certainly superior to any $2000 MC cartridge that I have heard. MM buyers will not spend as much money on a cartridges as MC buyers will in general. I think this forces the prices down. To bad MC buyers were not more frugal. |
Nandric, I think you are right. But, it is a good reason to throw at the wife to get a new one:) |
Ferrari used the Eagle F1 on several of its cars. Mussolini rolled in his grave. I believe Porsche has also but Ferdinand wouldn't give a hoot.
Cactus spines? I suppose if Frank Schroder (he collects cacti) says so.
I think MTBF in terms of cartridge expense involves to many uncontrollable variables to mean much other than MM cartridge are much less expensive to own over time. If you want real value get a Grado Prestige Gold. That will run you $0.25/hr or less |
Lewm, thanx for the history lesson. Ferrari was a second rate driver. Scuderia Ferrari was his team and they started racing Alfa's in the 30's. Mussolini was an Italian, everything had to be Italian. When Tazio Nuvolari came from behind in an under powered Alfa to beat the Germans in the German Grand Prix Benito held a big celebration. Anyway, an Italian car has to have Italian tires. The thought of American tires on one of his cars would have pissed him off. But alas, times have changed. We have a global economy and great cultures are losing their identity. |
Hold on audioquest4life you are making one slight mistake which I do not want to come back and haunt you. The Benz LPS has a compliance of 15 um/mN. The Koetsu's, all of them have a compliance of 5 um/mN. The SME V has an effective mass of about 10 gms and you will need an arm with an effective mass of 20 gm to run a Koetsu. Why do you think the Japs like those boat anchor tone arms? Because you can balance out 16.5 gm we know you can add 5 gm to the head shell. If that does not get your resonance down to 10 Hz you will need more weight and the bigger counterbalance weight.
If you just mount the Koetsu and try to run it with the tone arm as is it will pop right out of the groove with the first bass drum kick. |
No, you can't just add a larger counter weight. The cartridge's compliance has no relationship to it's weight. You will have to add head shell weights to the arm and/or heavier screws. You will probably need the larger counter weight to handle this. The V12 is my favorite SME but it is still pretty light at 12 gm effective mass. You would have to add head shell weight to it as well just not as much. the best way to find out where you are is by using a Test record with vertical and lateral resonance bands like the Hi Fi News Analog Test LP. You add mass until you get "the shakes" between 8 and 10 Hz. Get it down there and you will note a healthy improvement in bass detail and dynamics.
Getting kicked out of the groove requires a healthy miss match but I have seen it happen. Yours truly mounted an original Koetsu Rosewood in a Transcriptors Vestigial arm. The arm bounced out of the groove and because of the anti skate kept bouncing backwards right off the rim of the record:))) Experience is always the best teacher. Thus I learned about cartridge/tonearm resonance. Fortunately, the cartridge was not harmed and I got a more suitable arm. This was on an LP 12. |
