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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
dover
2,243 posts
 
@halcro cc @frogman

Palladian/London Decca Reference/Sony XL

Great music. Beautiful.
In a nutshell firstly comparing the Palladian to the Decca, again ibuds, the Decca wins, most notably I can hear the chest and body of the female choristers, even individually. On the Palladian it sounds like they are singing from the top of their throat - no chest. The Decca more accurately conveys the full weight of the choristers and the room acoustics.

Then comparing the Sony XL88D to the Decca - wow. More transparent and the majesty of the performance and the completeness of the full orchestral spectrum conveyed by the Sony is fabulous. There appears to be more chest/body with the choristers from the Decca, but the vocals from uppermids to top end on the Sony appear far more transparent. As the full orchestra comes in the Sony is simply wonderful, the most complete cartridge for me of the three..    

At this point I am done with comparisons - could you please just send me the Sony for Xmas. Now back to the music....


dover
2,243 posts
 
PP
Still listening to the Sony whilst I'm posting, will be interesting to hear from Frogman, to my ears I'm hearing far more of the individual tonal colours of individual voices and the orchestral instruments appear far more realistic in tonal colour and timbre with this cartridge. 
frogman
7,444 posts
 
Excellent comments re the Sony/Palladian, Dover. Loved the Formula 1 analogy.  We are hearing the same things even if described somewhat differently.  Comments on the “three way” forthcoming; a little busy for a day or so.  Regards to all.
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
Thanks Dover for your brilliant commentary....👍
At this point I am done with comparisons - could you please just send me the Sony for Xmas.
Hahaha 🤣
And no......it’s not your imagination! The Sony is a wonderment...
Don’t forget....after dozens of ’shoot-outs’ and comparisons with nearly 30 cartridges, the Palladian and DLR have both risen to the top (in our collective opinions)...and sometimes by just very subtle and incremental degrees.
In other words...they are the ’Creme de la Creme’...🤗
To then have the XL-88D come along and literally ’blow’ them out of the water is unfathomable 🤯
I have never before, heard a cartridge display such obvious overwhelming superiority...And it’s scary 😳
As I stated in my ’Diamond Cantilever Thread’....how can I now listen to anything else?!
But at the same time.....how can I play it AT ALL......knowing with every revolution of the platter that I am slowly ’killing it’ 🥴
Perhaps I should ’digitise’ all my favourite recordings with the Sony to preserve its sound for posterity?
"Perfect Sound Forever" 🎼💿🎶
edgewear
543 posts
 
@halcro,
Digitizing would be very silly of course, but you now have the perfect excuse to buy the best open reel tape machine you can afford to preserve the Sony sound in all analog.......

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