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Hear my Cartridges....🎶

Many Forums have a 'Show your Turntables' Thread or 'Show your Cartridges' Thread but that's just 'eye-candy'.... These days, it's possible to see and HEAR your turntables/arms and cartridges via YouTube videos.
Peter Breuninger does it on his AV Showrooms Site and Michael Fremer does it with high-res digital files made from his analogue front ends.
Now Fremer claims that the 'sound' on his high-res digital files captures the complex, ephemeral nuances and differences that he hears directly from the analogue equipment in his room.
That may well be....when he plays it through the rest of his high-end setup 😎
But when I play his files through my humble iMac speakers or even worse.....my iPad speakers.....they sound no more convincing than the YouTube videos produced by Breuninger.
Of course YouTube videos struggle to capture 'soundstage' (side to side and front to back) and obviously can't reproduce the effects of the lowest octaves out of subwoofers.....but.....they can sometimes give a reasonably accurate IMPRESSION of the overall sound of a system.

With that in mind.....see if any of you can distinguish the differences between some of my vintage (and modern) cartridges.
VICTOR X1
This cartridge is the pinnacle of the Victor MM designs and has a Shibata stylus on a beryllium cantilever. Almost impossible to find these days with its original Victor stylus assembly but if you are lucky enough to do so.....be prepared to pay over US$1000.....🤪
VICTOR 4MD-X1
This cartridge is down the ladder from the X1 but still has a Shibata stylus (don't know if the cantilever is beryllium?)
This cartridge was designed for 4-Channel reproduction and so has a wide frequency response 10Hz-60KHz.
Easier to find than the X1 but a lot cheaper (I got this one for US$130).
AUDIO TECHNICA AT ML180 OCC
Top of the line MM cartridge from Audio Technica with Microline Stylus on Gold-Plated Boron Tube cantilever.
Expensive if you can find one....think US$1000.

I will be interested if people can hear any differences in these three vintage MM cartridges....
Then I might post some vintage MMs against vintage and MODERN LOMC cartridges.....🤗
128x128halcro
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
And now for something completely different......🎸

The Empire 4000D/III Gold was one of the first vintage MM cartridges I acquired after reading about it in Raul's MM Thread here on A'Gon.
It was cheap (even though NOS) and it opened my eyes (and ears) to the 'real' sound of music I had been missing since my last MMs 20 years previously.
The 4000D/III was high-compliance with a miniature nude stylus on a tapered gold-anodised aluminium cantilever.
It had a wide frequency range of 5-50K Hertz making it suitable for 4-Channel.

The Fidelity Research FR-6SE on the other hand was far lower in compliance, consistent with the Company's obvious aim to make it compatible with their high-mass Tonearms like the FR-64S and FR-66S.
The FR-6SE, with its Elliptical Stylus, sounds unlike most other cartridges you will hear being warm, full-bodied and robust. No brittleness or high-end annoyance in sight 😎

EMPIRE 4000D/III GOLD MM Cartridge
Mounted in DV-507/II ToneArm on solid Bronze ArmPod surrounding Vintage Victor TT-101 DD Turntable.

FIDELITY RESEARCH FR-6SE MM Cartridge
Mounted in FR-64S (Silver-Wired) ToneArm on solid Bronze ArmPod surrounding Vintage Victor TT-101 DD Turntable.
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,907 posts
 
Why not put the FR-6SE on the FR-66S arm?
frogman
7,476 posts
 
The Empire was also one of the first MM’s that I acquired after starting to follow Raul’s thread (the first was the Azden MP50VL).

I find the comments re the FR’s warmth interesting and I may be reading too much into them and halcro’s choice to point this out re the FR and not the Empire. I don’t disagree about the description, but it is interesting because to my ears the Empire is even more so in the camp of warm and full-bodied. The FR, compared to the Empire, seems to rob the slide guitar of body. When Ry plays in the uppermost range of the instrument it almost sounds as if the strings are suspended in air as opposed to being attached to the body of the guitar. The sound in that range is thinner and more metallic, while with the Empire the guitar’s resonating cavity is more easily heard for what I think is a better tonal balance.

For me this comparison highlights one of the most interesting aspects of system tuning. It also goes to a question that halcro asked early on: Is it possible to hear that his system’s amplification is ss?  My system is all tube and in that context, while the Empire sounds very good it tends to tilt the balance too far in the direction of warmth and the sound can be overly full without enough incisiveness in transients and high frequencies in general. What I am hearing in the context of halcro’s ss based system sounds fantastic. The Empire seems a better fit in a ss system than in an all tube system like mine.
harold-not-the-barrel
895 posts
 
Thanks Frogman, very very interesting review again and we much appreciate your insight.
Henry, I´m afraid your Empire is 100 kOhm impedance ? And what´s capacitance ?
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
Mea Culpa Frogman.....
I shouldn't have editorialised so much in the prologue...🥺
And you're right about the similarities of both cartridges.....that's why I paired them.
You're also astute in picking the slight 'edge' that the Empire has over the FR-6SE.
The Empire is a very under-rated cartridge IMO with not many audiophiles sampling it because:-
  • It's MM
  • It's high-compliance
  • It's cheap on the 'used' market
The Fidelity Research MMs need high-mass, high-quality arms to show their best.
The FR-6SE's 'cousins'....the FR-5 and FR-5E are even warmer and 'murkier' making them too much for even a SS amplification system (unless your speakers and room are also too 'bright').

But you've brought up a serious point about synergy and 'system matching'......
There are many cartridges which will match a particular 'system' more than others will.
It should not be a blanket statement about the 'quality' of such cartridges.
That's why it's so advantageous to sample a wide range of cartridges in your particular system to find those that 'illuminate'....🎇🎼

With vintage MMs.....that task is easy and 'fun' whilst if you attempt that exercise with current MCs......you need a friendly 'banker' 🤯

Harold.....both cartridges loaded at 60K Ohms with no added Capacitance.
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