Theres no denying the tenacity of Nikola
.
Here we have an esoteric cartridge Thread begun by Dgob (no slouch in the perseverance stakes himself) which may well have died from lack of contributors were it not for the surprising intervention of Nandric?
Surprising
in that he himself had no experience with the topic at hand
.nor was he to gain any for almost the entire duration of the Thread?
Floundering initially in the vacuum he found himself
.Dgob kept plugging away, enticing us with tales of myth and promise and begging for responses
information
.contributions.
Anyone?
.anyone?
..
And then came Nikola
.into the fray at first like some tentative Dutchman
.but gently and increasingly displaying his Slavic origins by somehow managing to contribute readable posts without offering the qualifications one normally requires of a mentor?
Sucked in by this audacity
..others
.. also suitably unqualified enough to speak
.found their tongues and so the Thread survived.
Still prodded back to life by Dgob however, whenever it seemed to collapse under its own lack of substance
..until out of the gloom (and without fanfare of any kind) dropped a post by Vetterone who, like Dgob, actually had heard and owned some Glanz cartridges.
To Nikola
this was just what he needed. Validation from an expert practitioner in the field of analogue
And so the quest began in earnest for Nandric to acquire these unicorn cartridges for himself. And in this he was successful to the tune of four different models
.
And why, you may ask
..do I summarise all this for the patient, baffled readers still wondering why they continue to read about cartridges they have never seen nor heard and are unlikely ever to do?
Because dear readers
I now have all four of those
Glanz cartridges belonging to Nandric.
Look well dear readers at these cartridges, for you are unlikely ever to see so many Glanzs (Glanzae? Glanzi?) in the one place at the one time?
Nandric wanted me to hear these mythical beasts and give my opinions.
So
for what its worth, here it is
.
The
G5 (M5 stylus) with its sexy chromed integral headshell was initially mounted in one of my Fidelity Research
FR-66s 12 tonearms on the Raven AC-2 turntable whilst the
MFG-31L,
MFG-51L and
MFG-71L were all mounted in wood headshells on the SAEC-8000/ST tonearm on the nude Victor TT-101 DD turntable.
After suitable run-in times for all cartridges
..listening began.
At first it was almost impossible to distinguish between the 31L, 51L and 71L
.so alike were their sounds.
This is unsurprising when one studies the specifications of each cartridge to discover that they are to all intents and purposes identical?
Dgob began this Thread by focusing on the G5 integral headshell model and continued with his enthusiasm
.eventually including the G7, also an integral headshell design.
I found the G5 to be a pleasant but unremarkable cartridge
.very dependent on tonearm matching (it sounded fine in the FR-66s tonearm but in the
Micro Seiki MA-505s the sound became recessed and boring with a loss of bass slam and an overall lethargy to the music).
The normal Glanzs were rather more convincing in their overall presentation with a better refined frequency extension.
The bottom depth does not compete with the hard-hitters in my collection
..but I can certainly live with the smooth, unfussed beauty they provide.
I was able to pick up some slight differences in the three models with my preference going to the MFG-51L over the MFG-31L.
The MFG-71L strangely enough
..was my least favourite
.although I stress again the differences were subtle in the extreme.
Had I heard these cartridges a year or so ago
I would have ranked them quite highly but recently I have acquired some samples (all MMs)
..which have raised the bar and revealed a presentation and information extraction that has shocked and delighted me
..
Nevertheless
..I kept the Glanz MFG-51L and sent Nandric a pristine example of an AT-155Lc cartridge complete with its original square shank, nude mounted line contact stylus on its beryllium cantilever for transplanting into his Signet TK-7LCa.
It will be interesting to hear his views on that compared to the Glanz G5?
