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The 'tube-transistor' enigma by MC carts?

By accident I got to know an guy from Swizerland who has
worked for years as technician (R&D,testing,manuf.etc) by
Benz. I made some joke about 'Zelle',the expresion he used
to refer to carts,by asking if the carts are made by
prisoners? ('zelle' is 'the box' in the prison) He appreciated my joke and explaned to me in 2 sentences
something I never thought about. There are 2 kinds of
'bobins': iron and the other kind. The 'classical example'
of 'iron' is the Ortofon SPU. The advantage: stronger signal and some kind of 'pleasing warm sound.the disadvantage:(more)distortion.
The 'ruby-cross' bobin has (much?) less distortion but can
sound 'thin' depending on the rest of 'the chain'.
This is obviously the so-called 'Holistic' approach ;
aka Rauls 'it depends...'. Me? Because I can't cope with
more then 2 variables at the same time I am for 'simplicity' approch. The best 'definition' of this
approch is from O.Wilde:'I have the simplest tastes. I am
alwys satisfid with the best'. So I am still seaching.
Raul will you please bring (more) light to this issue?


Cheers
nandric

Showing 3 responses by rauliruegas

rauliruegas
13,123 posts
 
Dear @bimasta: Always exist trade-offs. I'm not  cartridge designer but maybe the best is to build cartridge coreless and yoke-less like the Yamaha X-1s. I own it and is truly good performer even that's a vintage one.

R.
rauliruegas
13,123 posts
 
Dear Nandric: I can't understand in a precise way what you mean by cartridge " iron bobins ".

Perhaps you are reffering to the cartridge armature where the coils goes on.

There are different type ( like you say ) bobins like cross-shaped, v-shaped, square-shaped, etc, etc.

Fron the point of view by some cartridge builders the non-magnetic/non-conductive cartridge armature build material is more linear, example: Ortofon in its top of the line MC cartridges use carbon-fiber material.

IMHO a cartridge quality performance depend on many design factors and the execution quality on the design, I think that there is no single/aisle cartridge design factor that could define the whole cartridge quality performance but the " wise " choice/synergy of all cartridge factors in the final design/build product.

+++++ " The advantage: stronger signal and some kind of 'pleasing warm sound.the disadvantage:(more)distortion. " +++++

if that is true that is a trade-off like almost always in any audio item design, which cartridge trade-offs design/build are the best?, well which quality cartridge performance do you like more.

Now, IMHO I think that other than a direct cartridge builder ( like Dynavector or Scan-Tech ) the right person in this analog forum to give us an in deep explanation on the subject is JCarr, I hope he can share its knowledge with all of us.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
rauliruegas
13,123 posts
 
Dear Nandric: Yes, fortunately there is progress.

SPU: many years ago I owned and change it for other cartridges that ( in that time ) like me more.
Last year I had two SPU experiences ( unfortunately not in my system ) and I can't find nothing that motivate to go for it. To be fair about maybe it is time to try a listen in my system, yes why not.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.
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