2. analog
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It costs me $100 a week to listen to vinyl

I know the math is obvious, but with the price of high-end moving coil cartridges averaging $5000.00 and with me averaging 20 hours a week of vinyl listening, I was disturbed to calculate that I am paying $100.00 per week for the privilege of listening to my own records?
I realise that doesn't include the depreciation on my equipment or electricity costs etc so please don't remind me of this?
How smug those who can bare digital must feel about this?
And how much worse for those committed to valve replacements in their pre and power amps?
How can we expect younger audiophiles with mortgages to pay, families to raise and education to provide for to afford the price of entry into an analogue system with such a potential maintenance impost?
I realise there are cheaper cartridges out there and the MMs are a bargain compared to the MCs, but once 'hooked' on vinyl, the desire to 'upgrade' is encouraged by the reviewers and the audio magazines continually announcing a newly anointed 'Kingpin' cartridge which is inevitably a moving coil with a price approaching the GDP of Namibia.
There seems to be no critical challenges to the assumed supremacy of MCs over MMs except for the lone crusade of Raul on this Forum?
Well I have taken the 'Raul challenge' and switched to a 15 year old MM cartridge which cost me $300. The 'running costs' of this are obviously a 'snip' compared to my $5000 MC but the best thing is the revelation that this moving magnet cartridge (and probably many more), are not only as good as some of the vaunted MCs in the market place, but better than most and sometimes by a considerable margin.
As Raul continues to implore us.........."try it, you may be surprised?"
128x128halcro

Showing 5 responses by halcro

halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
but that hardly means that you can't get good sound on a budget.
Er perhaps you should read my post again? Isn't that what I'm saying?
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
There is a rub, where can you find this stuff and be sure it is still in good nick?!
I don't think the cost of a really good re-tip for a MM cartridge involves nearly as much as for a MC?.........so to find a gem from the past and have it re-tipped should have it sounding like new?
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
Dear Axel,
I watched Brian Garrot remove and glue a new stylus to the end of the removable magnet of my Garrot P77 which took him about 15 minutes. And he was indeed a craftsman. There was no necessity to go inside the cartridge body and no need to replace the magnet assembly....just a bit of extra blu-tak (if required to ensure a snug fit to the body itself. I believe any decent re-tipping company would do a good job. It is not rocket science like re-tipping moving coils seems to be?
The Garrot Company still produce MM cartridges although have recently discontinued the P77 ( there still must be tens of thousands of these still around) after more than 20 years continually in production.
I don't think that the P77s produced without John and Brian Garrot would be quite as good, but at even 80%, they are really something.
Raul might know how the rest of their current range measures up? Good luck.
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
Lewm,
A 550RS Spyder??!!.......just about the greatest (and rarest car ever together with a Ferrarri 250 GTO). I am jealous!
I've had a '63 Porsche 356B Super (T6) for 20 years having paid $40,000 in 1989 and spending $40,000 over 20 years it is now worth $80,000.
Total cost over 20 years for driving the best car I could ever imagine - zero! I call that economical!
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
Dear Axel,
I didn't say that I could re-tip a cartridge like Brian Garrot who did it every day.
Removing someone's tonsils is not a difficult task for a doctor but I surely could not do it?
Your summary of some of the attributes of the MMs opposed to the MCs are interesting as I am doing a direct comparison at the moment between the Garrot P77 and the Dynavector DV1s and ZYX Universe.
Whilst I agree with you that the MM appears to have more bass, this is not quite true in reality. I can best describe it by comparing the bass of the MMs to the bass of a ported speaker. It seems to go deeper but is not as well defined as the bass of the MCs nor does it stop and start as quickly. The bass of the MCs have a tightness and a three dimensionality that the MM can't quite achieve.
On the other hand, the apparent lack of treble you perceive is actually an illusion. All the treble information that I hear with the MCs is there with the Garrot as well. Again, it is the quality of the treble information and its balance that is different. With the MCs, the harmonics of the high frequencies appear to go higher and last longer then the MM which maintains the fundamental rather well.
The primary differences I am finding at the moment is the Midrange strength of the MMs and the overall frequencies balance which seems to me more natural and relaxed than with the MCs.
I will be writing more at length on these differences when I have completed the listening tests.
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