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Entertaining A - B Comparison

So, I just sold what had been my first turntable - the trusty Thorens TD-160 Super with the Grace 707 arm and a Shure M97xe cartridge. Since I had to demo it for the fellow I had the opportunity to set it up next to my Sota Star which has a Audioquest PT-6 arm and an AT OC9 cartridge.

You know what? The Thorens/Shure combo did not come off as bad as one might have expected. No where near as much detail or refinement from the cartridge, or as stable an image from the table, but otherwise quite pleasant. And I know its not really all that "hi-fi" but that Shure has a very nice warm sound. Not terribly open in the highs, but warm with really natural timbres. You could do worse.

The OC9 by comparison has much better clarity, but it really is a bit dry sounding. Might be a reason to upgrade sooner or..... sooner.

At any rate, I watched my Thorens drive off in the back of this fellows hatchback. Based on what he was telling me he didn't seem cursed with the hi-fi bug. He just wanted to spin some records. I'm sure he'll enjoy it.
grimace

Showing 2 responses by rauliruegas

rauliruegas
13,129 posts
 
Dear Grimace: I don't know how you are loading ( impedance ) the Shure one but if you could try at 100Kohms you can improve its quality performance. That cartridge is a lot better that we think but it needs 100Komh.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
rauliruegas
13,129 posts
 
Dear grimace: It happen that my TTs has ( add-on ) a vaccum system too and I use a clamp that like in your case makes a quality improvement.

Put a record with the vacumm working ( with out clamp ) and hit with your finger the LP near the center ( you can do it any where but near the center is more easy to hear. ) and then make the same but with the clamp-on and hear that this time the " sound " from the finger hit on the record is more " dead " that with out clamp, resonance/vibration comes lower and this means lower/diffrent distortions in favor of the music sound quality reproduction.

regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
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