Ortofon SPU with 12 inch Jelco arm?

A friend and me have compared a couple of different SPUs
in the last couple of months.

First the match of a Jelco 12" and a SPU with G-shell is a very
good one. This is due to fact that the Jelco is built for a distance
(headshell base to diamond tip) of 51mm which is exactly what
most G-shell SPUs have.

Secondly you can balance the weight of a SPU with the counterweights
easily.

Thirdly in our experience the SPUs give a great value for money
plus they are outstanding in playing old analog recordings. 

Our current favourites are the Synergy GM if you use a "normal"
phone stage. It has an output of 0,5mV at 5cm/s and sounds
extremly sweet, involving, and "SPU-like".

If you use a high gain phono stage or a SUT (step up transformer)
my recommendation would be the new SPU #1 E GM. It gives you
a real impression of the very special SPU-sound for a really good
price tag.

Hi chakster,

this mainly has nothing to do with the stylus tip.

In my opinion (and many others) the tonally fingerprint of SPUs
really is exceptional fine for older recordings and many new ones.

This is a matter of tonality and recording equipment.

And in this aspect the SPU Royal is maybe a modern SPU
variant but it looses the SPU strengths without matching
e.g. my ZYX 4D or other modern cartridges.

Добрый день chakster,

maybe one reason for our different thought is, that you use
tubes in your system and my rig is purely silicone based ;-)

I had the case that an older and worn record sounded better with
a sharp stylus cartridge. But it was more an exception than the
rule looking only for the stylus. The vice versa case happened as
often.

But it seems we have some parallels as well. I sold my ZYX cartridges
as well and today my favourite carts are a DS Audio and a SPU Synergy.