Yuour cartridge for Reed 3P "12 Cocobolo


Hello, my question is for Reed users:

- Which cartridge do you use with this tonearm in your system ?

- Which one perfectly match with Reed effective mass (18g) ?

- What is tonearm/cartridge resonanse in your system ?

Finally I got my new Reed 3p "12 cocobolo tonearm with effective mass 18g. Right now i use it with Audio Technica ART-2000 (limited edition) MC cartridge and LF tonearm/cartridge resonanse close to ideal (with my HiFi Test Records it's somewhere between 9-11Hz).

Audio-Technics ART2000 MC
9x10-6 (100 Hz,Japan)
line contact stylus
Weight 8g.
Tracking force 1.8g (recommended)

I'm gonna mount my next cartridge soon:

Argent MC500HS
8x10-6 um/nm (most likely at 10Hz, cos cartrige made for US market, but maybe it was made in Japan)
Weight 7g
Tracking force 2g (recommended)

In the future i would like to try few more cartridges, if anyone tried them on Reed please share your experience:

Miyajima Kansui MC
7x10-6 (100Hz,Japan)
Weight 10.4g
Tracking force 2.25g

Zyx Premium 4D with Silver Base MC
12x10-6 (100Hz,Japan) vertical
15x10-6 (100Hz,Japan) horizontal
Weight 7.9g
Tracking force 2g

Probably ZYX compliance is too high for Reed's 18g effective mass. Also i'm not sure is that correct to multiply 100Hz compliance on 1,5 or 1,75 to get 10Hz compliance ?
128x128chakster
Ninetynine, it looks nice. The shape of "headshell" on my reed is different, it's not removable from the armwand, probably earlier version, looks more like Da Vinci than current round shaped reed shell. That's interesting, i'll check for EMT.
Just swapped my Audio-Technica ART-2000 with vintage Argent MC500HS on Reed 3p and love the sound even better. It's something special about this very rare and almost unknown cartridge. I've been using Argent MC on Thomas Schick "12 and it was really good, but on Reed 3P it sounds much better. While the resonant frequency is a bit lover than ideal (AT ART2000 was ideal near 10Hz) i love the sound of high output Argent MC500HS. Maybe it's because of sapphire cantilever. Their stylus specify as Hyper Elliptical and on their paper sheet it's similar to Stereohydron / Fine Line / Line Contact / Long Line / Line Trace.

Anyone on here experienced with Argent top of the line cartridges ?
I can only post my experience in my system that since early 2013 employs Reed 2A 12" Cocobolo partnered with Zyx 4D Gold (without silver base, 0,48 mv output).
The 2A Reed has 17 gr mass instead of 18 of your 3P model so this is not exactly the same; neverthless it seems that the matching works fine with no audible resonances.
best
Marco
Cheers Marco
Hmm, i always thought Silver Base is an improvement (not just additional weight). My previous model of ZYX was Airy-3 without silver base. My next model was 4D Premium with Silver Base 2 (i don't have it now, shipped for service to Japan).
Cheers Chakster
I asked myself sometimes if the Silverbase will be an improvement; also me in the past I used an Airy 3 so we made a similar journey in analog domain.
my actual turntable is a Feickert Blackbird.
since I'm curious... where exactly you send the cartridge to Japan for service? maybe in the future it will useful to know for me; here in Italy we have an expert for retipping but he don't make service to Zyxs...
best
Marco