2. analog
  3. 1225628103

Cartridges - what have you owned and your opinion

Saw this on audiocircle and thought it may be fun to list some cartridges that you have owned and lived with and your opinion of them.
These are not reviews, just your observations of how they sound in your system.

Dynavector XV-1 - owned this since the turn of the century and my favorite cartridge of all time. Mainly due to its ability to sound natural and un hifi sounding. Slightly loose in the bass, and naturally detailed in the higher frequencies with nice dynamics.
- I load at between 100 and 250ohms and track at 2.05 grams. Currently getting rebuilt for the 3rd time.

Lyra Helikon - very detailed cartridge which tended to float from note to note, but ultimately a little too leading edge for my tastes so sold it a few years back.

Audio Technica OC9-II - closer sounding to the Helikon than the cheaper price should allow. The OC9 has terrific transparency and detail, but also smooth. Somewhat lean bass and incredible bargin for the price. Ultimately connects with my head more than my heart.
I load at 25 or 50ohms and track at 1.75 gms.

Denon 103R - another great cartridge, which in direct comparison to the OC9 sounds a little grey and grainy especially in the higher frequencies. But and a big but, it connects with the heart and has a very nice ripe bass with lovely mid range. lower treble can be a little etched. Overall a great little cartridge that is very musical and to the heart

Benz Ruby 2 - don't really have anything positive to say about this cartridge - grey, grainy, undynamic and unmusical.

Koetsu Rosewood - lovely musical sounding cartridge. Not as transparent as some cartridges, but has a nice robust sound which is quite pleasing to some mediocre recordings. Tracks adequate, but not as well as my other cartridges. Another cartridge which plays to the heart.
- Hates being loaded into a high primary transformer load of say my EAR 834 - 40 ohms. Impedance loading sounds nice around 100ohms.
downunder

Showing 1 response by downunder

downunder OP
1,329 posts
 
I should clarify re my XV-1. It has been sent back to Japan only twice - DOH!. I was thinking about 3 times to come back.

First time it was well worn out with approx 3500 hours on it.
2nd time is now and I screwed something up when trying to put a BIG cartridge on a small Ortofon headshell. Nothing obviously wrong wrong with it except it does not work. It has approx 2000 hours on it so it is getting long in the tooth. Dyna Japan will give it a full checkup and change the stylus if needed and send me back a dyna headshell so i can try it in my ortofon AS-309S tonearm.

So Koegz, never had an issue with the exposed cantilever on my XV-1 - my only issue is that I play it too much.

You do need to be very careful thou as I fucked clearaudio concerto cantilever by not concentrating 100%.

I do want to try the air tight thou - but very expensive.

BTW - I also have an ortofon Jubilee which is very nicely balanced, plays most things well but does not really have any personality. Not a bad thing but seems to like SUT's more than active phono stages.
More to discover