Dear Raul, As to your post about the absolute judgement of cartridges vis a vis the real sound of music, my opinion is "yes and no". As you say, it is a very complex subject. It would be easy if there were one cartridge that could be taken as "the standard" or "the truth" (great name for a cartridge, by the way). Then we could judge others against it. As it stands, we are left to compare each individual cartridge to our imagination of the real thing. That gets messy. But you and I often have gently disagreed in this area, where I am a nihilist, and you are an optimist. I think if I were to play more classical music played in large concert halls, that would be a better way to get at your idea of choosing reality.
Thanks for the URL to find Alex. I understand that he can supply many different cantilever materials. Can he also supply many different stylus shapes, e.g., micro-ridge, shibata and variants thereof, etc? |
You guys scared me into checking the contents of the box that came to me from Italy. Fortunately for me, I seem to have gotten a bona fide 420. One wonders how an NOS 415 (or 412?) crawled into an NOS container for a 420, if I understand the situation correctly. Based on Raul's and Timeltel's opinions, the 415 would not be far behind, if at all behind, the 420 in terms of performance, assuming one can extrapolate from the 315 reviews. |
There is much merit in what you and Durand say. For what it's worth, I attend live performances at least twice a month, mostly jazz, either in night clubs or at the Kennedy Center in DC. The Terrace Theater at the KC has some of the best acoustics I know about, and if you want to hear clean real music, it's the best in DC, IMO. In other live venues (e.g., noisy and poorly miked jazz clubs or when I happen to have a bad seat or when the sound amplification system is a disaster), the sound is not always so great, nor do I want to reproduce it on my home system. I also sing once a week with a professional jazz pianist at a jazz vocal workshop, where i am standing right next to the full-size grand piano (not a keyboard), so I certainly know what piano can sound like. Yes, I seek all the qualities of live music in my home system. (What else would any self-respecting audiophile say?) But there are always variables we cannot control or choose, such as quality of the recording, record wear on used LPs, etc, etc. In my opinion, because of such issues, compounded by what actually happens at recording venues, there is an element of serendipity involved in the creation of a "real" sense of live music in my living room. These factors that can't be known to me leave room for falling in love with alternate visions of reality. |
Dear Henry, Why do you think absolute stable speed is more of a factor with MC cartridges than with MM ones? Unless your MCs are mistracking, it should make no difference. And mistracking would have little to do with speed stability, so I am puzzled. The only other way I can think of it is maybe there may be more stylus drag with some MCs vs some MMs, because of the shapes of the styli, perhaps? |
Dear Henry, Groove modulations increase friction, so they are in that sense one and the same. Further, i think you hit on something with your low compliance v high compliance post. If we say that on average low compliance cartridges do not track as well as high compliance ones, then it does stand to reason that mistracking is happening because of the lesser capability of the low compliance cartridge to negotiate the groove modulations. This also results in an increase in friction, as the stylus is yanked to and fro whilst traversing the groove. The worst case scenario is when the stylus is tossed completely out of the groove momentarily, which we hear as "mistracking". So I can believe that there may be more stylus drag (friction) with low compliance cartridges. (Define friction as all forces acting opposite to the vector of the torque of the turntable, and I think you will see that groove modulations are another source of friction, not the only source but an important one. Witness what you have already observed.) |
I am thankful that I can live without ever hearing the 1812 Overture again. |
Dear Nicola, If you refer to bass response, your statement does not apply to the Sound Lab 845PX; believe me. How about transient response to make those cannon shots sound "real"? ESLs do that better than most. (Also, and in parenthesis, the frequencies of the cannon shots are not in the low bass at all, more like 100 to 300 Hz range.) Transistor amps have trouble pushing ESLs in the low bass, because the impedance of an ESL is quite high at low frequencies (and conversely becomes quite low at high frequencies, just like a capacitor). It takes a sturdy tube amp, preferably an OTL, to bring out bass response in a big ESL. Anyway, I do not sit around listening for those cannon shots any more; I could not sit through the sturm und drang that comes before them. |
Dear Don, If you are that concerned about Raul's scoring system, I don't know how you can sleep at night. In the end, your own opinion of how each cartridge sounds on your own turntables, mounted on your own tonearms is ALL that counts. I use Raul's ratings as a rough guide for what I might buy or not buy, and that's as far as it can go. He has very different speakers and very very different electronics from me. (Don't know about your system.) |
Dear Raul, The only thing I would say for sure re your evaluation of the 420 is that it is specious to arrive at general conclusions based on only one sample, for a cartridge that is now 25-30 years old. It could be that yours has stiffened up more than other samples owned by others who are in disagreement. (I have not heard mine yet so have no opinion of 420.) Therefore, your conclusions are valid for your sample of the 420, so far, unless or until others hear what you are hearing in comparing 320 and 420. As far as that goes, what version of the LPM320STRIII is your reference in your comparison test? Original cantilever and stylus or re-tipped by vdH or Alex? It seems just about all the cartridges you like best are vdH or Alex re-tips.
I have a used M315 or 312 (can't remember, but the fat body early model). Is it your opinion that I should send that off to vdH or Alex for a re-tip to bring it up to M320 Nirvana or beyond? Is the M body the same across the whole range? |
Dear Raul, The only thing I would say for sure re your evaluation of the 420 is that it is specious to arrive at general conclusions based on only one sample, for a cartridge that is now 25-30 years old. It could be that yours has stiffened up more than other samples owned by others who are in disagreement. (I have not heard mine yet so have no opinion of 420.) Therefore, your conclusions are valid for your sample of the 420, so far, unless or until others hear what you are hearing in comparing 320 and 420. As far as that goes, what version of the LPM320STRIII is your reference in your comparison test? Original cantilever and stylus or re-tipped by vdH or Alex? It seems just about all the cartridges you like best are vdH or Alex re-tips.
I have a used M315 or 312 (can't remember, but the fat body early model). Is it your opinion that I should send that off to vdH or Alex for a re-tip to bring it up to M320 Nirvana or beyond? Is the M body the same across the whole range? |
Dear Raul, I am still hoping for your advice on whether to have my used M312 stylus rebuilt and by whom (vdH vs Alex). That is another way of asking whether you think such a chimera is likely to outperform my bone stock NOS LPM320STRIII, which is also a very up-front and center cartridge, Timeltel and others.
Reading all the reviews of the 420, I am struck, as someone else mentioned, by the dissimilarity, altho all seem to agree that it has an in-your-face sound. The differences of opinion do tend to make me think that there is a variable unknown factor due to age and possible suboptimal storage conditions. Along those lines, Raul, I don't see how you can say that the others are raving about this cartridge; there is some element of criticism in each person's comments, altho most seem to like theirs more than you like yours. |
But if you buy a Virtuoso, it has to be exactly the right type, with the black wood body, or is it the reddish brown one? And then you have to have it re-tipped by someone; I forget whom, either vdH or the eponymous "Axel".
Yes, I too am interested in other modern MM and MI cartridges. I seriously doubt that Clearaudio makes the best one of all time. Grados can be great, but I have not heard any of their current top line. Soundsmiths are MI, not MM, but can also be very excellent. And to grab one more name from nowhere, there are those new Garrott Bros cartridges now being made in Aus. Problem is that none of the really potentially good modern MM or MI cartridges are so cheap that one can buy them by the handful.
So if you live in the US, how do you get vdH to re-tip your LPM320STRIII? (And why would I get rid of that rare and precision tri-radial stylus, Timeltel?) |
Thanks, Nandric. Also, to Raul, I apologize for being a bit aggressive re the bit about "today standards". Since most of my vintage cartridges are NOS, even though they were "New" about 3 decades ago, I would think I have little to gain with a re-tip per se, and to change the cantilever would be to change completely the flavor of the cartridge, which could be good or bad. In fact, I would rather keep my "tip" and just have the suspension rejuvenated, but I imagine that most repair services would not be willing to focus on that one job. In my previous post, I was alluding to the fact that the scuttlebutt around getting things to and from vdH from the USA is that it is very expensive and difficult due to some deficiency of the US distributor. (I have no direct experience, so I apologize in advance if this criticism is unjust.) Other options for those of us in the US would of course include SoundSmith (also known to take forever to do work, but at least I can drive to their facility, push comes to shove, and Peter Ledermann is a lovely man who is easy to talk to) or Expert Stylus Repair in the UK or the mysterious "Axel". Does Axel take work direct from US customers? |
Dear Raul, I hate to be a pest, but you wrote, "We have to take in count that when you send a cartridge to VDH or Axel or any other source they not only change the cantilever and stylus to today standards but put the cartridge suspension right on target:..."
Isn't one of the main points of this gigantic thread that "today standards" are not so great compared to "vintage" standards? I think that was part of your mantra. I think the main gain from the vdH work would be to have the suspension freshened. But this is an issue with every and all vintage cartridges, so have we been kidding ourselves? Anyway, I take your point. It seems that in the US I would have to go through the distributor, who does not have such a great reputation, as far as I know. I will do some investigation. Perhaps I would be better off with Soundsmith. Any thoughts on that? |
Acman, Willie Ruff played around New Haven, internationally (their greatest successes were in Europe, I think), and on LPs with the jazz pianist Dwike Mitchell; they were known as the "Mitchell-Ruff Duo". Look for the LPs under that moniker. I have one on which the two of them play with Dizzy Gillespie. Just sublime. |
Did you ever hear Coltrane in person, or are you surmising based on listening to live sax or his LPs? I ask kind of in fun; I agree with your basic tenet. This came across to me vividly when I sat in a club in downtown DC about 2 weeks ago, listening to.... a very "live" saxophone player. The dynamics of the sax and trumpet in real life are thrilling.
I DID hear Coltrane play, when he was on this earth, at least twice that I can recall, but I have no particular memory of the bite of his sax. I am sure it was there, however. |
Fleib, I have all of Dexter's work on Steeplechase. Found them in one place at one time and gobbled them up. His Scandinavian sidemen on those LPs are great, too. I've also got one or two of Shirley Horn on Steeplechase. Back in the day, aficionados knew that European pressings were likely to be superb. ECM is one of my faves too.
"Our Man in Paris"... way cool. |
Acman, I heard Coltrane first in a small jazz club in New Haven, CT, where I grew up. The club was owned by Willie Ruff, who was himself a great jazz player who is under-appreciated; he played French horn and the tone was amazing. (I've got two or three of his LPs, heard him often around New Haven.) He later became a professor in the music department at Yale and wrote a book on his life in jazz. Anyway, this was a snowy night in dead of winter, and my friend and I got in there with fake driver's licenses. We were not yet 18. Coltrane was a sideman but he was already known. Don't recall who he was playing with. As the snow accumulated, we just sat there. The group was no more than 10 feet from our table. Soon the snow was too deep for anyone to go anywhere. The lights were low. There was no cover charge. It was way cool and we felt like aficionados, I am sure. Cool cats. The second time was when I was in med school in NYC. I took a date down to the Village Gate to hear Coltrane who was by then a big star and very into his most esoteric phase, when he was fascinated with Bartok and atonal music, etc. I was trying hard to get into it, but my date could not hack it, made me leave early. Yes, I heard the bite in his playing that day. But when Coltrane played ballads, he was as mellow and melodious as most, maybe not Ben Webster mellow, but mellow. I also love Dexter Gordon on ballads. |
Guys, I got on the Acutex bandwagon a long time ago, and since then I accumulated several of the cartridges, used and NOS. I am reluctant, however, to submit my much loved LPM320STR to Axel or someone like him for a re-tip, because I do like it so much. So I am thinking about re-tipping my used LPM412 and/or my M312 in the hopes that the lesser styli on those models are no hindrance to the potential of a re-tip. Are the LPM3xx bodies all the same? Are the LPM4xx bodies also like unto each other? And same question for M series. If so, I would rather re-tip a lesser model than to mess around with a 320 or 420. (Yes, I got an NOS LPM420 from that Italian source; it's still in its box. Can't see why I would re-tip it a priori.) |
So, does anyone know whether all that distinguishes a 310, 312, 315, and 320 from one another, in either M or LPM body, are the different styli? If so, one may as well send off a used LPM312 as to send off a new LPM320 or the like. |
Alex, Thanks for that. I have the package insert and so could have figured out some of that stuff, but the author of that long post knows, shall we say, perhaps TOO much about Acutex.
Raul, Thanks for your insights. Please forgive me if I say that I do not see proof that the bodies of a 315 and a 320 are not the same. I do accept that they sound different, but that does not prove that the stylus assembly is not responsible for the difference. Anyway, I do take seriously your opinion. I have a 320 or 315 body (can't recall which) that fell apart, would be interested to compare it to its opposite, if anyone has a broken one. No doubt in my mind however that the top tier models are different in every way from the lower level ones.
Dgob, You are indeed an aficionado if you would pay THAT much for the Miles Davis/John Coltrane series LPs. I bought one of the re-issue sets, Classic, I think. I also have one or two of the original Prestige pressings that I just "have" since I was a kid. I've got a "thing" for Dexter Gordon, myself. |
I think it has something to do with seeing Dexter Gordon as an actor in the movie "Awakenings", the story of the first use of L-dopa to treat what was essentially Parkinson's Disease in persons who had "frozen". Dexter was so powerful in his supporting role, as well as in the movie "'Round Midnight". One never got that close to Coltrane as a person. Then.... have you ever heard Dexter play a ballad? To die for. I admit I am a sucker for jazz ballads.
I was going to say that a difference in sound that occurs when you take a stylus off one body and install it on another could as well have to do with a tiny difference in "fit" between two hand-made objects as it could have to do with substantive differences in their construction. Therefore, it is "dangerous" to draw conclusions based on listening tests. |
Dgob, It's OK, appreciated in fact. We are both OT in this case anyway. But where can I get a German copy of "L'Ascenseur"? That music is haunting, and I only have it on CD. A friend who now lives in France says that he has the LP for me, but it may take forever to get it from him, and I don't know the provenance of his. |
It's not that Acutex would be stupid; it's more their estimation of the intelligence of the buying public. The most cost-effective thing they could do would be to build the same body and equip it with different styli to sell at different price points. That kind of philosophy is endemic in audio products. And it's OK, if the performance is proportional to cost, which seems to be the case with Acutex cartridges, LPM420 notwithstanding.
Speaking of this philosophy, has anyone heard a Grado Statement? I got an Acoustic Sounds catalog in the mail and was reading the ads this morning. The Statement can be had in "low output" configuration. Funny how they refer to it as a "fixed coil" cartridge and never once use the term "moving magnet" or more correctly "induced magnet", which is what it is. But I did once love my Grado TLZ and they know how to build cartridges (Raul liked the Tribute), so I am curious about their current TOTL IM cartridges. Could be better even than a Virtuoso, ne c'est pas? |
John, Timeltel and I were discussing the issue you bring up just today by private email. Send me a contact, and I will try to respond to your last sentence. I have a new take on why it is possible that for some tonearms and some cartridges and probably "some" music, use of AS may not be needed, as many good listeners do report. |
Raul, Re Keith Jarrett. I think his label was ECM, like Chick Corea who is another under-appreciated artist. Anyway, Keith Jarrett was and is quite vocal about his preference for viinyl over CDs. He is a kindred spirit, as well as a fantastic artist. |
Dgob and Pryso, I once read that Miles Davis had a very difficult time composing for that movie. I think at one point they just improvised while watching the action. Anyway, after it was over, Miles declared that he would be doing no more movie soundtracks, and it seems that he kept his promise. Like many great artists, he was his own harshest critic. IMO, he created a masterpiece of movie music. |
Dear Nandric, With MM and MI cartridges, the coils are not so at risk as they are with MC cartridges. You can safely measure R without concern. Sorry to learn that you got the wrong pizza from the Italian source. Anchovies ain't so bad if you hold your nose.
Dgob, One more: "Anatomy of a Murder" with music by Duke Ellington. For that matter, the movie "'Round Midnight" with Dexter et al. OK, that's two. Mea culpa. There are many more good jazz sound tracks from movies of the 50s and 60s, when jazz came closest to being "popular music" in the US. |
I agree, Raul. There are so many great sax and other horn players who get very little mention these days. Among other lesser stars I admire I would include on tenor sax Joe Henderson, Charlie Roush (who played with Monk for many years and was a native Washingtonian), Benny Golson, Ben Webster, Johnny Hodges, Zoot, Stan Getz, Lester Young, etc. Then on alto we have Art Pepper, Paul Desmond, and many others who are not remembered with the same religiosity as that accorded Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. On trumpet, I love Art Farmer, Chet Baker, Harry "Sweets" Edison, etc. I keep meaning to dig out my Art Farmer LPs and give myself a concert, in fact. Well, on piano, equally famous as Bill Evans we have Oscar Peterson,Monk, Brubeck, Shearing, Garner, the aforementioned Dwike Mitchell who played with Willie Ruff.... Sorry to be so long-winded. |
Raul, Lay persons such as ourselves should be really careful in ranking famous musicians based on our perceptions of their musical abilities. I take my cue from professional musicians. One of my local idols is a jazz pianist who is also a professor of music at the University of Maryland. He can tell you why Bill Evans was a truly great innovator, held in high esteem by OTHER jazz pianists, even in his day. Marian McPartland also was a big fan of Evans. Similarly with Dizzy; his fame is not just due to his funny-looking trumpet or his sense of humor. He was an innovator; he made new music, or to put it another way, he made music new, a founding father of bebop. By the same token, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Brubeck, Mulligan... these guys were up in the clouds over everyone else back in their day. Real musicians who understand the structure of music know why; it is not for us to doubt that. But of course everyone and anyone is free to dislike the output of this or that genius based on personal taste. Fifty years after most of these musicians had reached their peaks, we still have nothing better or even as good. For me, that's proof enough. |
Nikola, My Acutex experience is limited to LPM320STRIII, which I like quite a bit, as you know. I have not tried any of the others. Indeed, I think I have only one 3XX series LPM body that is not broken (the one that is in use), so I would have to swap styli. The others have me wondering whether I should just send off my Italian NOS LPM420 for a re-tip, before even listening to it.
My system is really cooking these days, now that I finally finished my amplifier project and have modified the Sound Lab electronics to render the speaker much much easier to drive with an OTL tube amp. All cliche's apply. |
Dear Nikola, As per your swiss cheese metaphor, think of it this way: You now own enough Acutex 412s to become a dealer. You have cornered the market on Acutex 412. If price goes up, you are a winner. |
Nikola, I was wondering out loud about the wisdom of re-tipping a brand new cartridge, just as you are. I raised the issue only to learn more about the experience of others who have done it. My conclusion is perhaps to re-tip one of my used and lesser ranking Acutex's, if I re-tip anything, not my LPM320STR, surely. So we are in accord. By the way, what you say about how re-tips are done, by just removing the cantilever/stylus and installing a new cantilever/stylus is enlightening. But is it not the case that the new cantilever can be made of something other than alu? SoundSmith offer ruby, for example. Can Axel do other than alu? One other imagined benefit of a re-tip, in fact for me the major one, would be to renew the suspension. Are you saying that the suspension is not rebuilt? I am pretty sure Raul is having the suspensions rebuilt by vdH. |
OMG; I just spent an evening listening to June Christy using a (you should pardon the expression) "MC" cartridge I actually bought from Raul about two years ago, or more, the Ortofon MC7500. It sounded magnificent tonight on those old Capitol mono LPs (June Christy recordings). In fact, I never before appreciated how crystalline and delicate her voice could be when she wanted to convey the emotion of a song. I've been on the verge of selling the MC7500 several times, and then it puts on a stellar performance, and I can't. I am so happy to have a working system that sounds great (better than ever) that I may get over my obsession with cartridges in general. I've gotta stick one of my MMs in that tonearm (Reed 10.5-inch) and see whether it is the Ortofon I love or something else. Is there a special quality to wood tonearms? I think so. |
Sbrownnw, As I have stated here before and based on my limited experience with a variety of HOMC cartridges and a wider variety of MM and MI cartridges, I would rank the goodness in the following order, high to low: LOMC~MM~MI>HOMC. In other words, I put HOMC cartridges at the low end of the spectrum, AS A CLASS. This is not to say that some one or another of them is not good. But I have owned and listened extensively to some pretty well regarded HOMCs, including Transfiguration, Benz, and Sumiko. None of them rang my bell the way the best of the other types can do. I privately considered the years spent with those cartridges to have been wasted audio time. Can an MM/MI cartridge sound "woolly"? Yes. Can an MC cartridge sound "woolly"? Yes. |
While we are at it, the word is "Shinon", not "Shinnon", for god's sake. "Honnestly", I just don't know why you guys can't spell.
If it's OK to talk MC cartridges here, that Ortofon MC7500 must be like unto the Shinon Red. It is very "in your face" and detailed at the same time. With my new set-up, it is easy to play music very loud, and I do find myself a bit overwhelmed after a 2-hour session with the MC7500. But it sure finds a lot of music in them grooves. The Koetsu Urushi gives that big musical sound but not so etched as the Ortofon. The Acutex LPM320 sounds something like the MC7500 but more "musical", for want of a better word. Sort of in between the Koetsu and the Orto. Probably it's a bit less detailed than the Orto, in keeping with the lore surrounding MM cartridges vs MC. Could there be another long thread on the subject of "vintage MC cartridges"? I suspect so, but the cartridges themselves are IMO more likely to have deteriorated due to the ravages of time and use and ain't so easy to re-new. |
Hi, Tim. "I'd want to keep the sonic character as close to original as possible." That's always a concern when one is very fond of a cartridge. Who was the original maker of the Shinon Red? Perhaps they have transmogrified into another company name that could hope to repair your Red.
Dear Nikola, Do you mean to tell us that Axel said he cannot or does not renew the suspension when he does a re-tip? Or can he do it for extra cost? I agree with you that this is an important issue. |
I think we all need to gather our rosebuds while we may. Axel is "over 65". Peter Ledermann is no spring chicken. Mr. van den Hul is elderly as well. I have heard that the guy(s) at Expert Stylus repair are also past middle age. Who will repair cartridges when all of these sources are no longer available? The skills need to be passed on to a younger generation. |
In Japan, I think it is a tradition to pass on high level manual skill from one generation to the next, which is apparently what happened with Koetsu and probably other companies I do not know about. Men who build cartridges for a living are like the fine craftsmen who made timepieces a generation ago and for hundreds of years before the art of watchmaking was trivialized. In fact, Herb Papier, who designed and hand-made the Triplanar tonearms in his basement up until around 10 years ago, was himself a watchmaker by trade (with an engineering and musical background). For some of these guys, I think ego (not greed) may get in the way of their willingness to teach others how to do what they do so well. Herb only did it finally when he saw that he simply was no longer capable of the work, due to age and a myriad of illnesses. |
Nikola, I felt that way only rarely as a student, and never after I left high school. If one feels that one is smarter than one's teacher, one ought to move on to another teacher or another school. Anyway, Luigi can think whatever he likes. And any of the rest of us may disagree with him freely.
Back in the 70s, elliptical styli were "the latest thing". At that time Harry Pearson fell desperately in love with the Decca cartridge that had a spherical stylus (and no suspension, basically). He stuck with it for at least a year or more, and of course, being the Pied Piper that he was, he convinced many others of the supremacy of the Decca and revived the argument re spherical vs elliptical. But it all faded away when HP's ardor for the Decca faded. A friend had one; it had a nice midrange but not much top or bottom. (Sort of like certain movie actresses after Hollywood makes them get skinny.) |
A small pause for peace on earth that lasted for one day, and then we are apparently back to the vintage Signet cartridge wars even before "feliz compleanos".
I have never been happier with my audio system, and I have never had a system sounding this good. I don't own any Signets, either. |
I am using a Silvaweld phono stage for MM. I just installed Mundorf Silver/oil output coupling caps tonight, after breaking them in for a week on a capacitor torture device I devised. I was ambivalent about the Mundorf's , just wanted to try them. Also, the Silvaweld needed a higher value output cap to deliver better low end performance. Then I had a listen with my Acutex LPM320 mounted in a Dynavector on my Lenco. Holy caramba!!! This was a huge step up; I never knew the Acutex could be THIS good. Images carved in holographic space. Bass lines cleaner than ever before. Goes to show that downstream equipment makes such a big difference in our evaluation of a phono cartridge. |
Mike, I am soon going to install a Khozmo attenuator into my main full function preamp, the Atma MP1, wired up as a balanced shunt. I have had the thing sitting on my desk for maybe 6 months whilst I was working on the Atma amplifiers. It's so nice to be back in the business of listening to music that I have been procrastinating on installation of the Khozmo. The MP1 comes with a standard balanced series type attenuator of very high quality, but I expect that the balanced shunt will be superior just due to the advantages of the shunt topology and the fact that in balanced shunt there is always perfect matching between phases of the balanced signal. (I use the MP1 for LOMC and high level inputs.)
I had been thinking that the Lenco was dispensable, until I heard it last night in concert with the Silvaweld/Dynavector/Acutex/Sound Labs. Frank Sinatra was IN my living room. And later on, so was Gerry Mulligan. I had not felt thrilled like that by audio for quite some time. Women, yes. But not audio. |
Dear Nikola, What kind of name is "Reto". I have never seen that before, and it does not sound Italian but must be. Maybe they call him Reto because he writes in German. |
Dear Dover and Nikola, I know a little about Switzerland. I travel to Geneva once or twice a year to attend World Health Organization meetings. Geneva of course is French-dominant. I have also traveled by car from Geneva all the way down the lake to Gstaad. Have eaten dinner in Fribourg, whilst in the company of a Swiss friend. One forgets about Zurich and Bern. Really, my question was just for fun, kind of a straight line for Nikola to take off on. Geneva is rich. Zurich is too clean; it scares me. Orson Welles put his finger on something with his famous quip about Switzerland (from the movie, "The Third Man".) |
I was just listening to (and being enchanted by) Sarah Vaughn's 2-LP Japan concert (on Mainstream, an under-appreciated jazz label) using my Acutex LPM320, and I was thinking how great a leap it was for me to come to appreciate this cartridge, the Stanton 980LZS, and the many other vintage ones that I have yet to audition. I have to thank Raul for that most of all, but also it is always great fun to argue with you guys, or to agree with you. Feliz Navidad, indeed. |
Dear Raul, I wonder whether it is a strain gauge cartridge that has your admiration currently. Just kidding. Sort of.
What DAC do you have? Must we be kept in the dark?
Hey T_bone, Hope you are coming to earth gently from your move. Tell me more about the MC7500. On some days, it is fantastic. On other days, I think it can sound too "clinical" or analytical, much like what I read about the A90.
As for me, with the input of some folks in Henry's continent, I have been able to make some very radical improvements to the input network in my Sound Lab speakers, and I would have to say that the sound is now good enough on the best LPs to bring a tear to my eye, with either an MM or an MC cartridge. Really. Advanced modified Atma-sphere OTL amplifiers driving SL speakers with a very high input impedance and high efficiency. This is what I have been after for 35 years. |
T, Good point; strain gauge is not an MC. But Raul likes to generate a mystery. I was also poking fun at Raul a bit, because he once went off on the Sound Smith strain gauge ensemble for its failure to adhere accurately to RIAA.
Don't you think that the choice of cartridge alignment geometry should be with reference to the design goal of the tonearm, the headshell offset angle, etc? In my experience with the Dynavector DV505, this is the case. One can implement Baerwald (and probably most other geometries) with the 505, but if you use anything other than Stevenson, the cartridge must be twisted with respect to the long axis of the headshell. I could not make the 505 sound really "good", until I re-aligned using Stevenson, which geometry alone permits the cartridge to align with the headshell. This simple change made the DV505 "great", IMO. The negative effect of twisting the cartridge body may be exaggerated with the DV tonearms, because of the very short vertically pivoting element and the physical separation of the vertical from the horizontal pivot points. One other guy on VE reported a similar experience. |
Dear Audpulse, "I think I have a clue since the cartridge can be purchased used for around $200.00" Where was that information revealed? I must have been on vacation without a computer. Could be a Denon or an AT. Not much else in LOMC at that second hand price. If your info is accurate, my money is on AT. Which brings me the fact that I have been seriously considering the mono version AT33Mono. Anyone using it? |
T, Good point; strain gauge is not an MC. But Raul likes to generate a mystery. I was also poking fun at Raul a bit, because he once went off on the Sound Smith strain gauge ensemble for its failure to adhere accurately to RIAA.
Don't you think that the choice of cartridge alignment geometry should be with reference to the design goal of the tonearm, the headshell offset angle, etc? In my experience with the Dynavector DV505, this is the case. One can implement Baerwald (and probably most other geometries) with the 505, but if you use anything other than Stevenson, the cartridge must be twisted with respect to the long axis of the headshell. I could not make the 505 sound really "good", until I re-aligned using Stevenson, which geometry alone permits the cartridge to align with the headshell. This simple change made the DV505 "great", IMO. The negative effect of twisting the cartridge body may be exaggerated with the DV tonearms, because of the very short vertically pivoting element and the physical separation of the vertical from the horizontal pivot points. One other guy on VE reported a similar experience. |