Detachable Head shell or Not?

I have a tonearm with a detachable headshell and a number of cartridges mounted in headshells.

I would not want a tonearm with a fixed headshell.

It really depends on what you want to do. If you don't ever plan to change a cartridge, except to replace when worn out it doesn't matter. If you like to listen to a number of different cartridges you want a detachable headshell tonearm.

Both of my main turntables have detachable headshells - a Technics SL 1200 MK2 and a Sota Sapphire with a Jelco 750D.  I have a number of cartridges and like being able to change things up.  If you are happy with just one cartridge, then a fixed headshell may be the way to go. 

I tend to look at things like this from a practical standpoint rather than getting into the minutiae of whether those "extra contact points" are going to degrade the sound or not.  Both of my tables sound great.  I've heard better of course, but I'm happy with what I have and how they function in my system with the other gear (cartridges) that I own.

Thank you everyone here for sharing their positive experience, convenience and happiness with removable head shell arms.

One other thing - tonearm cables.  Many years ago I tried several tonearm cables and have been using the Stealth Hyperphono for over a decade.  A couple others were good and less cost, most notably the Silver Audio Silver Breeze, but the Hyperphono made me aware of what I had been missing; the differences were not subtle. From the many cable evaluations I have done over the years, I have found the tonearm cable to be the second most senstive cable in the system after the line stage to amp IC.

I see many arms today with cabling all the way from cartridge clips to the RCA/XLR connectors.  If I was to order a new arm, I would want to talk to the dealer and/or designer about termination to a 5-pin DIN to allow for the use of the Hyperphono. 

Over a year ago, I had such a communication with a tonearm manufacturer.  He was certain that his Cardas cable all the way from pins to RCA's was the way to go but he did offer the DIN option if I wanted it.  I appreciate that kind of customer service.  I have no doubt that the Hyperphono would outperform the Cardas even with the DIN in the loop.  The pandemic delayed that tonearm purchase but I still see this product as second arm option.  It also supports removable head shells.  However, his arm design only deals with the head shell's mechanical coupling; the wiring is still from the pins to the RCA's.

Again, thank you all for the input here.

John

John,

The correct answer to your question requires that you first know yourself.  A person whose priority is collecting records first and being an audiophile second is likely to prefer detachable headshells.  Conversely a person who is principally concerned with getting the utmost performance from their cartridge is going to lean the other way.  There is a difference in sound quality.  I use both depending on the record being played.  Audiophile records are best served on my VPI HW40 with SoundSmith Experion.  All others work just fine on my SL1200 GAE used with a variety of cartridges, often mono..

There’s no question that it is much more practical to have a tonearm with a detachable head shell. There is also no question in my mind that, everything else being equal, having a fixed head shell has sonic advantages. Whether those sonic advantages are significant enough to justify giving up the practical advantages of detachable head shells is a personal call. Since it is practically impossible to compare both approaches in a situation where everything else is equal, the reason that I feel there are sonic advantages to fixed head shells is the following:

Years ago, when I had more time on my hands and was more obsessive about this hobby I spent quite a bit of time with a soldering iron modifying my components. As crazy as it sounds even to me today, at one point I actually had my entire system (with the exception of cartridge pins and power cords at the wall outlets) hard wired. Not a single connector on any of the cables, low level or high, in sight. Straight shot of tonearm wire from cartridge clips to preamp where it was soldered to the phono section’s circuit board. Interconnects to amplifier and speaker cables at both ends were, likewise, hardwired. My point in bringing this up is that every time that I eliminated a connector or some kind from the signal path there was an audible improvement in sound So, for me, it would defy logic to think that the elimination of the additional contact points introduced by a head shell would not result in a sonic improvement; especially considering a cartridge’s very low level,signal. Again, whether the improvement in sound is worth the hassle and inconvenience is a personal call; but the improvement was real.

However, this is really all academic since a superior arm design with a detachable head shell will be superior to a lesser design with a non-detachable head shell.  I am not aware of any arm that comes both ways, detachable and non-detachable.