Can anyone listen to side 1 of Tchaikovsky "1812 Overture"?

Back when the Telarc  came out in the late 70's or early 80's, it was used to demo mainlyAudio Technica cartridges, which co-produced the recording. Not surprisingly, AT cartridges could easily track all cannons, as could Shures, Empires, and many other high compliance cartridges. of the day. The Mercury Living presence recording better showcases the music, but many play the Telarc to see if their cartridge can track it, which most, especially MC's, can't. I have several  blogs about this subject on Audiogon, which you can look up, under my user name;One, especially, discusses this in my entry "Progtess?" 

Yeah thanks guys. I checked the set-up and it should be fine. It skips when the cannons fire.
I will check out the Mahler - thanks for the recommendation! 

vpi hw-19 mk iv.  jelco 250-st. with shure V15 Type VxMR

all good until the cannons fire

Try a gimbal tonearm.

A terrible piece of music! Try instead the last movement of Gustav Mahler's Symphony 1. My favorite on LP was the DG Ozawa and the Boston Symphony.

I'd check your cart setup if you haven't already.  Also, I believe VPI recommends setting VTF on the higher end of the scale for carts.  YMMV

Yes that is the LP that skips most rigs.I use that track to break in new cartridges quickly.My Rega clearaudio just barely tracks it with a little more weight but not at my normal adjustment for the rest of my collection.Did you see the space between the grooves on that LP?Incredible.

yup - repeatedly. The warnings says teh same on the inner sleeve of teh record

So, what happens when it hits those canon shot grooves? It skips? Just wondering.

Thank you all!

Ortofon MC 2000 

I have played my copy of the 1812..., (1979 imported Telarc digital copy) on a REGA RP3 with a Dynavector 10X5...no problem.


Matt M

I have the Mercury Living Presence version and my carts track it just fine. Questions?

No problems with the Telarc 1812 on my VPI Scout II and Dynavector 20x2L, even at high volumes (using  SW too)..

Back in the day, my AR ES-1 turntable with various cartridges never had a problem with the canon shots.  I still have the record, but not a vinyl set up right now so I can’t test it.