Bill, that's quite a set up that you have. What would it take to go even higher ?
When to change a cartridge?
I currently own an EMT HD006 cartridge that cost about $1900. That's as much as I've ever paid for a cartridge. Previously I was in thousand-dollar territory. I can't imagine spending $5K for something that's assured to wear out. I play my turntable (VPI Prime Signature 21) every day for at least a few hourse. I guage that I put about a thousand hours a year on my cartridge, which is now at about 1500 hours.
I have read forums in which people talk about putting their cartridge under a microscope every few months. I don't own a microscope and I wouldn't know what to look for if I did. After reading forums in which people talk about cartridges wearing out before the manufacturer's recommended hours, I began to hear my cartridge slowly declining. I thought perhaps the attacks weren't as crisp.
I called my online dealer to discuss replacing mine, telling him that I thought I heard deterioration in the cartridge's sound. He said it doesn't work that way. I will know when my cartridge is ready to be changed. It will not be subtle. Often the suspension collapses.
My reaction was that a dealer wouldn't talk me out of spending about $2K unless that expense was foolish. So, I am still playing my EMT HD006 and not worrying about subtle changes as it wears down. The dealer said it might be fine for up to 3,000 hours.
I'm curious to know what other people do about their cartridges. Wait for the suspension to collapse and the thing sounds terrible, or monitor it more closely and perhaps even change the cartridge before the manufacturer's recommendation?
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The guy at Phono Cartridge Retipping, a retipping place suggested by mofimadness, said that he would retip my EMT which has a "super fine line" stylus with a "medium fine line" stylus. He said, however, that the word "super" is subjective and his "medium" fine line would be better than what EMT calls a "super" fine line cartridge. Any comments? |
Inna said: "Bill, that’s quite a set up that you have. What would it take to go even higher ?" @inna - I don’t know. I’m not focused on that aspect at this point. I’m actually sitting here enjoying listening. And shocker, the digital front end (inexpensive stuff largely from China) running hi-res through an I2S connection with a DDC sounds really good. So much so that I’d say if I hadn’t the long history with LPs, I don’t know that I’d even bother with the vinyl format if I were starting from scratch today. Of course, I’m not starting now, so that’s a rhetorical observation, but I’d imagine people who work on their digital front ends and put some serious effort into getting them right are probably getting great results, given how little I’ve spent and how little I know on the digital processing front. I have a few other interests I pursue as well, though audio + music + the music biz/copyright law has been almost a lifetime for me, say since I was 16. (I started studying music at age 5 but was made to do so and hated it--it took me til I was a teen to "get it" and start composing though I never tried to make any money making music). It’s not going away, but my perspective about it all is much more relaxed these days. It’s like waking up and discovering you did all this stuff deep into the hobby and now, as an idiot, I can just be blissful. (I don’t think I’m losing my mind, my judgement is good, my health is good, but I’m now 71 and want to enjoy life after working since I was a kid). In some ways, I’m still learning, but my focus is different if that makes sense. Sorry for the ramble. |
Bill, of course it makes sense. What is your musical instrument ? Your system is so good that, yes, there is absolutely no need to think about upgrades unless perhaps it is relatively minor, just some fine tuning - tube here, cable there. I keep hearing about how good digital has become. For me too analogue is a tradition and history so I will never abandon it. But I listen to cds where the recording was digital, so perhaps I should consider starting streaming instead of it. |
@inna main instrument is piano and I got into playing organ in bands as a teen. I learned French horn, guitar and a couple others. My sight reading is a little rough, but I did a lot of formal study (orchestration, counterpoint, etc.) when a youth. Only after I quit the lessons did I start playing an old Melodion (sort of a foot pump organ that used reeds) in my parents' house, and got into blues improvisation. The instrument sounded like a big deep harmonica. What I do with digital is play files from an SSD, so they can range from redbook standard 44.1 to high level DSD/PCM. I use a DDC (digital interface) that not only isolates the usb input, but also affords an I2S output which is what I use for one of the DACs. It's the best sound I've gotten from digital. I do have a good transport-a C.E.C. TL5, their entry model, but I find the sonics on files running through the above described chain to be very musical. For a long time, I did not like the sound of digital. I only began to appreciate it in seeing and hearing what archival restoration projects yielded. It impressed the hell out of me. It took me a long time to warm to digital. For the modest amount I've invested, the results are unexpectedly impressive to me, a long time analog/tube guy. |
whart, I wish I could warm to digital. Perhaps I have not spent enough $ on it. I recently bought the least expensive Moon (280D) streamer with DAC. I compared it against a $9K Linn and hardly heard any difference. When I put on a record (varying by recordings, of course) it is so much more present than even the best digital. I think the best digital recording I have heard is Patricia Barber's "Clique." It's at least 192 sampling and sounds damn good, but it just doesn't come from an envelope of air the way vinyl does, at least in my system. Again, though, I have put much more money into my analogue front end. One thing I do like about digital is that it is smoother, but music, as I'm sure you know, is not always smooth. You said you played the French horn. Saturday I heard Dudamel conduct Mahler's Fifth. Man, that French horn jumped out at me. From my experience, I can only come close to that kind of sound on vinyl. |
It is not entirely level of investment... although an appropriate level of investment vs ones analog end is important, and so is the brand choice. I owned Sim for many years... and that is not the equipment you want to be putting up against analog. It is just too digital sounding.
I also have a lot of experience with Linn streamers and DACs. There are multiple levels of DAC and need to be paired with appropriate preamp / amp. But careful choices and investment digital streaming can sound as good or better than analog. |
@audio-b-dog - I spent very little money, especially compared to what my vinyl front end involves. Given my considerable pile of records, some quite rare and never issued beyond a first pressing on vinyl, as well as a large catalog of material I accumulated (I think I've mentioned I got rid of over 12,000 records between the move to Texas and a further culling once here), I'm not walking away from records. But the combo I described, which involves playing off a drive through a DDC using the I2s connection has really upped the quality considerably and none of the gear itself was expensive. @inna - I had ARC stuff for decades but didn't need the power. For a while I used an unusual amp, the Audiopax 88, and I did meet with Kevin at one show (I don't do shows much anymore) and at the time I bought the Lamms, I only knew CAT for its preamp. The Lamms were magical and I also had the L2 line stage, a two chassis model with a solid state audio path and tube rectified power supply. When the manufacturer of Veloce came over, I passed on the first version, but loved the second version. Unfortunately, it uses the 6H30 and in its circuit, the old DR Reflector is substantially better than the modern production. My amps are very early and came through a trade from someone who was possibly Vlad's first dealer. I doubt I'll ever get rid of them. And Vytas, who designed the Veloce, is still very much active. He worked as a technical director for OMA for a period but am informed that he has upgrades for the Veloce line stages. I just hate shipping gear. In NY metro, it was much easier b/c we could drive to several of the manufacturers for repair/check up. |
whart, 12,000 is a whole heaping lot of records! I can understand why you thinned them out. I have about a tenth that many, and that's a lot. Like most people, I will go back to certain records many times before I play a more obscure record. Some will never get played again. I think I played them all at least once when I first acquired them. The more I think about it, my Moon 280D doesn't really sound "digital" to me, unless you mean by "digital" smoothing off rough edges. For example, I have a vinyl set of Starker playing the Bach Cello Suites and he attacks the strings with an aggressiveness that can be heard on analogue. On digital the vibration of the bow against the strings is not so "there." On certain digital recordings with a very high sampling rate, digital recordings are almost like analogue. And, of course, not every analogue recording is great. Some are tinny and compressed. But with the best of both worlds, a very good digital recording at a high sampling rate and a very good analogue recording are extremely close even with my relatively inexpensive Moon 280D. I think in order to be significantly better than the Moon, a digital front end would have to cost significantly more. I was running my computer into a Chord Qutest DAC, and when I compared it to my Moon 280D, the Qutest sounded much darker and less lively. I loved the Qutest when I first heard it, but I think having all the parts in one integrated box reduces jitter. And I'm guessing a DDC might have helped the Qutest. But I play analogue and digital for different reasons. I write sitting in front of my Sonus Faber speakers. I play records while writing for a number of reasons. To my ear they sound better, but also having to turn them over forces me to get up every 20 to 30 minutes. Sitting too long is not good for my old body. In the afternoons when I am reading or writing things like this post, I play digital. I like exploring new recordings and new artists. I am listening to Dvorak's 7th Symphony which I also have on record, but this version is with Dudamel conducting. In the end, as I think you suggested earlier, what matters most is having and fulfilling the interest in music. It's a very important part of my life. And I've enjoyed listening to recordings from my first Sears Silvertone portable stereo in college, through so many different pieces of gear I can't remember them all. The only constant is that I have continued to expend more $ as I have earned more money and my wife allows. Pretty standard, I'm sure. |