Markus, I advise you to take some time with any new equipment (in this case new tubes and a new cartridge) before waxing so poetic about the improvement to sound quality. We are all prone to conflate “different “ with “better”. It’s also a good idea to do an ABA comparison. Which means that, after listening for an extended period to the new, reinstall the original gear and see whether you are still blown away by the new. None of us is free of subconscious listener bias.
Cartridges with that musical coherence - having heard it, I need to learn more
Once you hear "better", you can't un-hear it. Oh, what a slippery slope it is to hear better gear. Ask me how I know.
Ok. First - I recently rolled new tubes into my phono stage. Vintage Amperex JAN 7308s. Also tried the white-label PQ 7308s. Holy smokes. Sounds like I've got a whole new phono stage. So that's what everybody's been talking about. Holy cow. I get it.
Enough. I'll get right to the point. I just borrowed (and soon expect to buy) a friends Shelter 901 cartridge. It's an original Mk I, so it's really old. But it's been sitting unused for many years. Initially I was very skeptical - wouldn't the suspension have dried out? Maybe it would collapse on the record surface when I played it. Wouldn't sound very good.
The 901 replaced my Dynavector 17D3 on my lowly Jelco 750L/Garrard 401. Holy... uh... where do I start? The Dynavector has been very good. But the Shelter makes sense of what's going on in the recording on a whole 'nother level. Finally, I can hear the musical sense of *why* the musicians are doing what they are doing. All of a sudden I *get* what reviewers and others have been talking about for years. Until I heard it I *thought* I understood it, but now I really get it. It's not "musicality" at the expense of detail. The fine detail is there. But it's revealed in a way that I've never heard before from *any* vinyl playback system.
And I suppose, like other characteristics, this coherence thing also exists on higher and higher levels with better and better cartridges. That should probably read "more and more expensive cartridges".
So my question is to those of you who've trod this path before me. Especially those of you who've used the Shelter 901. Given the unknown hours on the specimen I'm using I'm wanting to learn about other cartridges that possess this quality of coherence. In your experience, what other cartridges do this?
Ok. First - I recently rolled new tubes into my phono stage. Vintage Amperex JAN 7308s. Also tried the white-label PQ 7308s. Holy smokes. Sounds like I've got a whole new phono stage. So that's what everybody's been talking about. Holy cow. I get it.
Enough. I'll get right to the point. I just borrowed (and soon expect to buy) a friends Shelter 901 cartridge. It's an original Mk I, so it's really old. But it's been sitting unused for many years. Initially I was very skeptical - wouldn't the suspension have dried out? Maybe it would collapse on the record surface when I played it. Wouldn't sound very good.
The 901 replaced my Dynavector 17D3 on my lowly Jelco 750L/Garrard 401. Holy... uh... where do I start? The Dynavector has been very good. But the Shelter makes sense of what's going on in the recording on a whole 'nother level. Finally, I can hear the musical sense of *why* the musicians are doing what they are doing. All of a sudden I *get* what reviewers and others have been talking about for years. Until I heard it I *thought* I understood it, but now I really get it. It's not "musicality" at the expense of detail. The fine detail is there. But it's revealed in a way that I've never heard before from *any* vinyl playback system.
And I suppose, like other characteristics, this coherence thing also exists on higher and higher levels with better and better cartridges. That should probably read "more and more expensive cartridges".
So my question is to those of you who've trod this path before me. Especially those of you who've used the Shelter 901. Given the unknown hours on the specimen I'm using I'm wanting to learn about other cartridges that possess this quality of coherence. In your experience, what other cartridges do this?