Looking for a Warmer Sounding Phono Cartridge

@ghdprentice  You can find the listing of my gear at the bottom of my OP. I forgot to include the arms. I have a Micro Seiki MA-505L on a separate pod aligned with the Technics SL-1200G, the stock arms on the Technics and the Denon and several others in the bullpen (3 MA-505 arms, and an Audiomods 6).

The Koetsu is truly wonderful. But it will not last forever. I need another good warm cartridge as backup and eventually main. I have three cartridges mounted, aligned and ready to play, all the time. I could surely use another warm one!

@drvinyl01 Hi, could you elaborate on your post? In your opinion what exactly is wrong with my system?

I very carefully align my cartridge to the arm and table. I perform all the needed adjustments. I use an arc protractor that I created from an app on this website. I adjust azimuth electronically. I measure and set antiskate. I use the Ledermann technique. I measure FR, distortion, etc. I level the arm balance using a ruled clear arylic block. VTF is set using a digital scale placed in the plane of the LP. I do not alter VTA (perhaps I should).

I perform these adjustments to the best of my abilities. I am a "lab rat". At work, I am an optical engineer with an MS degree. I perform theoretical as well as lab duties equally well. Many optical adjustments are as fine or finer than the ones needed for cartridge installation and alignment.

I have the skills, the knowledge, the tools, and the patience to perform an exact alignment (usually. Lofgren A).

These are the reasons why I am a bit confused by your statements. If you could be more detailed, I will be able to follow and perform your suggestions.

Since I don't adjust VTA/SRA, I would like to have some guidelines for getting the adjustment right. The usual method is by ear. But what does one listen for? Gotta be more exact than "you'll know when you get there, the sound snaps into place".

Thanks for your comments. I would like to hear more about your ideas.

@baylinor I must be looking for the wrong things, as when I've fooled around with VTA, I wind up at parallel again. It may be that I can't discern the subtleties of this adjustment well enough to set it.

Please explain what you look for and what the new alignment will be compared to parallel.

@elliottbnewcombjr Thanks for your offer. I am in California, long way from you.

I do all the adjustments you've mentioned. I am obsessed with getting them set correctly.

I use a 31 band EQ (yeah, I know, evil stuff). I can drop the treble and bump up the lower mid. I want a cartridge that does that adjustment for me.

Perhaps I will never find that cartridge with the seemingly elusive qualities that I desire. I'm not ready to accept that yet.

Thanks everybody for your comments. I've learned via this thread that there are about as many opinions as there are posts.

I must think.

I've found a solution to my dislike of screechy highs. And it was right in my cartridge drawer!

I installed my very old Grace F9 body with a Soundsmith RS-9E stylus assembly (plugs in). The stylus assembly  is constructed of an Alimunum Cantilever and a nude elliptical diamond stylus. Installation was on my Denon DP-57L table.

 I've forgotten how difficult MC alignment can be and how easy this MM cartridge was to align. Separation, azimuth, anti-skate, VTA, and VTF adjustments were straightforward and simple.

The sound is very beautiful and smooth. I love the midrange. Bass is surprisingly full and has detail. The FR curve shows gradually diminishing  lows by about 5dB from 100Hz down to 20Hz and a very small rise above 10KHz of about 2 dB. Separation is about 27dB. I set the VTF to 1.25g (the old Grace recommendation was 1.2g). SS doesn't spec the compliance, but if it is true to the Grace F99E it is high compliance. The stylus is almost brand new. No screeching.

This issue is settled for me...for now.

@lewm I've found that the setting of the Anti-Skate is more difficult for MC cartridges. Separation must be nailed exactly for best performance. It is more difficult to find arm/headshell combinations that will produce resonance in the sweet zone. MC cartridges are also more delicate (mechanically, not audibly).

And most sound too shrill for me, whenever I set the VTA, VTF. This is clearly a personal preference.

@piebaldpython Yes, I am still running the original tubes made in Hungary.

I purchased this preamp in 1980. It was in my system for about two years. I devloped a problem with the volume going to max if I touched the pot. At that time, I had little knowledge on how to troubleshoot so I put it away and purchased an APT Preamp Two.

Fasr forward to today...

Both preamps are back in my system as phono preamps. The Paragon is fed by a DIY SUT using Cinemag 1254 Xformers (the stylus is a Koetsu RS). The Apt is being used as a phono preamp for my Grace F9E with Soundsmith stylus assembly. I use the tape out.

I have rebuilt the PSU for the Paragon. I fixed the noisy pot with some Deoxit. Wish I has been able to figure that out 40 years ago!

I've performed a major update to the APT. New caps in the PS and in the signal path. Low ESR caps in the PS and Nichicon Fine Gold caps for signal path. I disassembled the volume pot (which I'm not using). This really cleaned up the sound.

I replaced the TL072CP ICs with modern OPA 2134 ICs. However these ICs draw more power and were blowing the 1/4 amp fuse (a 4A fuse did not blow). So I installed new TL0712 ICs in the tone control and gain section. I kept  the OPA 2134 in the phono preamp section. The 1/4 amp fuse was happy.

I have extensively measured both preamps after rebuild. The OPA 2134 reduced the already low 60 Hz noise on the APT (and higher order) by almost 10dB.

- Aside from reducing the 60 Hz hum,  the OPA 2134 replacement ICs on the APT did not change the distortion, nor the max input.

The noise floor is -80 dB with distortion slightly above this with both preamps.

These are excellent results. Sound is wonderful. Both have a slightly warm presentation. The Paragon does not have excessive "Tube Sound". Both are very quiet.

These guys will stay in my system for a long time.

@lewm Thanks for the suggestion about Tinnitis.; I have my ears checked regularly. Never a mention of Tinnitis or any other kind of hearing loss except for the loss of high frequencies.

I looked online for symptoms. I don't have any.

This is clearly my personal bias. Back when I was less informed about the technical aspects of phono cartridges, my system was so irritating that I stopped listening to vinyl. I thought that there was something wrong with the mastering or pressing. "How could they..." was my thinking.

Now I know that alignment is so important. Then I was listening to a badly aligned cartridge. Now I never get that awful sound I had back then because I now put a lot of care into stylus and cartridge alignment.

Disdain for that awful sound must still linger in my mind. Even a small amount of it is a real annoyance. Cymbals can sound very bad if not properly reproduced. And in my experience there are very few recordings that get this sound acceptable (to me).

@lewm The alignment must have been way off. I never bothered with alignment over three moves. I just never thought about it. I have since been educated.

Believe me, it sounded horrible. In fixing this problem I noticed that the stylus kept skipping across the LP. I think that the stylus had reached the end o its life. So there were several causes for the shrill sound.

@lewm Thanks for the suggestions. It was definitely a worn out stylus. As I mentioned, I really wasn't aware of the care that cartridges require.

A year or so ago, when I knew a bunch more and had performed over 20 alignments I pulled the cartridge out of deep storage. It still skipped. Other cartridges sound great on the same table. So there's nothing amiss with the table. In fact, this particular arm has very smooth motion and little bearing friction.

I retired the stylus assembly and replaced it with the SS R-9E.

@rauliruegas I load the cartridge with 47K. Total capacitance of cables and phono input is about 150 pf. I make my own phono cables. the bulk cable has a capacitance of 17 pf/ft, measured by me. Short runs have little capacitance, about 50 pf in the case of the cable I'm using.

As I noted previously, I've measured the FR of this cartridge. It has only a tiny rise above 10KHz, indicating that the loading is optimal for achieving bandwidth out to 20KHz, not the much higher bandwidth required by quadrophonic LPs. 

I have derived the equations that calculate the FR from my model of a cartridge The calculations agree with my measurements. There's no need for the 100K loading. In fact, it might introduce noise in the form of IM distortion.

The very small decrease in low freq response below 100Hz does not, to my mind and ears, drive my system beyond neutral.

@rauliruegas Please read the F9 manual posted by farsch on he Vinyl Engine website. Both impedances are mentioned, but 47K is the only one in the spec list.

I'm pretty sure that Grace knew what they were doing.