Detachable Head shell or Not?
I am in the process to up my game with some phono system tweaking.
I read in these forums of many people here with multiple arms, multiple cartridges and even multiple turntables. I am guilty of this myself but moderately compared to so many phono hardware diehards here.
All the continued comments on Talea vs. Schroeder vs. Kuzma, Da Vinci, Tri-Planar, etc., etc, on these forums. And the flavor of the day cartridge. One easy way to manage the use of many cartridges, easily swapping between them, and getting down to one turntable would be to run with a tonearm that supports removable head shells or arm tubes. And yet this does not seem to be widely done here. Is everybody just too proud of all the pretty phono hardware to admire?
Many highly respected arms of the past, FR 64/66, Ikeda, and now Glanz, Kuzma 4-Point, the new Tru-Glider, all with removable heads. And the Graham and Da Vinci with removable arm tubes. These products have a huge fan base and yet there seems to be an equal number of those against any extra mechanical couplings and cable junction boxes, din connections, etc.
I can appreciate having two cartridges, one to bring out that addictive lush bloomy performance and another that shows off that clarity and detail “to die for”. Being able to easily swap between the two, with hopefully only a quick VTF/VTA change, would be mighty nice. If too painful a process, I can understand the need for two arms here; like the idea of going through many LPs in an evening and not being obsessed with tweaking the arm for each. I hope I never get obsessed to do get to that point. But for different days/nights, to listen to different kinds of music, it could be mighty nice to swap out one cartridge for another in different head shells without the added cluster and cost of oh please, not another tonearm!. Do a minute or two of tweaking, ONCE, for that listening session, and then enjoy. There is always the added risk during the uninstall / install process to damage that prized cartridge.
Is running with a tonearm that has a detachable head shell all that sinful / shameful in the audiophile world ……. or not? I’d like to hear from those who have achieved musical bliss with removable head shell arms and also from those that if asked to try such a product would likely say, “over my dead body”!
John
Dear @jafox : Agree with you, does not exist the " best " on ay audio item. All about is which " one " fulfill our MUSIC/sound priorities.
Btw, the arm board is really important to damp not only vibrations/resonances coming from the TT/plinth,/tonearm but the ones coming in the " air ". If the arm board does not damps very well then the feedback that always is generated will affects the quality sound level we are listen it. R. |
Dear @jafox : I never tested Audioquest cables and my post came from other audiophile opinion. As almost always we can say that the best IC cable is the one that works the best in that system link and that helps to achieve our targets in MUSIC reproduction quality levels. So, each one of us have an specific cadidate for " the best ".
Btw, I owned the AQ 7000Fe5 and agree with you of the AQ high quality level performance. The Fe5 was the top of the AQ line and the last cartridge they puts in the market. Was manufactured by Scan-Tech the same builder of Lyra cartridges. It's good that you already found out that " best " IC cable in that specific system link and I hope that it works the same for you with your new tonearm.
R. |
Dear @jafox : What a post !, a learning one. Thank's for sharing your valuable experiences down there.
Btw, a wealthy audiophile that as you owns tube electronics and I think with" heavy " first hand experiences on IC phono cable posted that the AQ Leopard ( even that's the AQ top of the line. ) is the way to go down there.
Against the Sthealth is really inexpensive and in some ways its design is really interesting to read and maybe to make a test in your system: https://www.audioquest.com/cables/analog-interconnects/tonearm-cables/leopard
R. |
@jafox :Btw, Reed tonearms could be a good alternative to you and I understand that you can have not only DIN connector but a choice in the tonearm internal wire.
R. |
Dear @jafox : You are rigthand unfortunatelly we audiophiles have no single tiny control about the whole recording proccess other that the kind of LP we buy. Even we audiophiles have a minimum real/true control at play back overall proccess and that's why we have really selective on each step/change/modification/new item/ we want to do around our room/system.
I think that due of the kind of IC phono cable you are ausing you are rigth that need the DIN pin-5 tonearm output connector.
I posted that due to the quality level of the signal performance levels we have as a target the important issue between continuous cable against non-continuous could be the difference for the better quantity that certainly will be lower quantity difference that when we are changing IC cable through the DIN tonearm connector. Your IC cables seems like something " special ":
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Dear @au_lait : There are several reasons why your 66 is totally wrong to listen MUSIC and two of those reasons are that's a 12" EL design with a extremely high inertia moment and both of these reasons goes against quality room/system performance levels. I don't care what you want to make with your 66 at the end is what you like even that you as other 66 owners are wrong with.
R. |
Dear @jafox : " one to bring out that addictive lush bloomy performance and another that shows off that clarity and detail “to die for”. Being able to easily swap between the two, with hopefully only a quick VTF/VTA change, would be mighty nice. " Well, with all those tubes in your system certainly you are an " addict " to that lush/bloomy performance ( nothing wrong with that because is what fulfill your needs(priorities. ). Cartridges are designed to pick up the signal in the LP groove modulations with minimum added every kind of distortions and obviously inside its market price. A cartridge must be truer to the recording but unfortunatelly the cartridge quality level final performance levels depends of other links in the audio system and the tonearm is mainly the cartridge mate that at the end function as a " tone control ". Each cartridge performs/sounds different mounted in different tonearm and here is where the removable headshell tonearm designs have a true advantage because when you change/test a cartridge with different headshells you can be sure that you will listen a different " signature " in the reproduced sound even that you are using the same tonearm.
Now, if you find out a fixed tonearm design that mates really good with a cartridge that fulfill your targets then go for it. Yes, additional connectors and solder points certainly degrades the cartridge signal but the question could be: how much degradation and if that degradation levels really matters and impedes that we can achieve our targets? Same for IC cables that open a wider choices ofthis critical link because each IC cables has its each sounds " color ". In audio there is no perfect solutions, every alternative we can have as a choice has its specific trade-offs and it’s up to each one of us to make the better choice for our MUSIC/sound priorities/targets.
Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS, R. |
