2. analog
  3. 1326659106

Sota+SME IV=Ugh !!!

Greetings,
I’m driving myself crazy, once again! I’m trying to determine which of the below wood body cartridges will give me the warmest, richest, and most romantic sound. Detail and attack are secondary. I listen to a lot of female jazz vocalists, and classical music. My room is rather bright (a lot of glass and hardwood flooring).

My components:
Sota Star Sapphire w/ SME Series IV
Conrad Johnson Premier 16 pre, Premier 12 monos, CJ’s EF1 Phono pre
Tannoy Turnberry Speakers
Stealth PGS I/C’s
VandenHul Bi wire

My Options for a cartridge:
Clear Audio Maestro
Grado (Reference or Sonata)
Benz SH Woodbody
As suggested…

Want to stay with wood body and around $1,000 - $1,400 in cost. Thanks so much for any opinions put forth!
rbschauman
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
6,372 posts
 
Yup...not only me, but my dealer did as well. Rebalanced it many times, but the suspension kept sagging.
dover
2,187 posts
 
Stringeen, I can understand springs sagging, but we had no probs with Dynavector 505's which are twice the weight of the SME V, so its a bit of a surprise.
rccc
216 posts
 
The SME/Sota combo is well documented as being a very good complimentary system. If there were balancing problems it was either operator error or defective suspension. After owning most of the Sota line and refurbishing several tables Im betting on operator error.
almarg's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
almarg
9,670 posts
 
03-02-12: Stringreen
The hum that the above poster is talking about comes from the Grado cartridge. They don't do well with some arms. Even if the hum is inaudible when playing music, it depletes the amp from valuable power and lessons the quality of the audio.
While I would not completely rule out the possibility of adverse effects on audio quality, if there were any such effects it would not be because of power depletion. For typical speaker efficiencies the hum levels we are discussing probably correspond to less than a thousandth of a watt.

Regards,
-- Al
poppynogood
2 posts
 
Why do you feel you need to have a wood-body cartridge? There are many other cartridges which will give you the sound you are looking for. From your description of what you want to hear my suggestion would be a Sumiko Blackbird.
More to discover