Psychicanimal, the vintage Audio Technicas sound nothing like the new family sound of overdamped bass and leaning-towards-the-bright current crop (which has advantages in too-warm or flabby systems however): they are rich, smoooooth and very very musical. The first of these superb vintage cartridges is likely the AT13 with various tips (Shibata/stereohedron, hyper-elliptical, elliptical, conical), moving through the AT-14, AT15 and then the AT20, each of which is superb, with the '20 likely being the best of the bunch. They still have a "neutral" flavour as compared with other vintage MMs like the ADCs. All of these are worth seeking out and trying, if one is into MMs. They also had a "TK" line (TK-9, TK-7, TK-5) which sounds rich and excellent. I haven't heard the latest '150, but I assume anyway it will have the current traditional A-T sound.
Hi Dan, while in Berlin recently I discovered an elliptical-tipped Denon DL-103 which I bought along with a new plain 103. I'll be comparing the two to see what pluses and minuses there are relative to each other, since there is some buzz that the conical tip is in fact responsible for its great sense of gestalt/organic wholeness. Phonophono in Berlin sells these retipped by a German fellow and orderable for 147 euros (!) from www.phonophono.de, though it isn't on their website (you'll have to ask for it specifically in an e-mail or phonecall). They are apparently modified from trade-ins by a man they call The Needle Man (apparently not many names for cartridge builder/modifiers). They claim this Denon DL-103"E" is greatly superior to the "R" version, to add to the confusion ;-)! In the meantime, I continue to be a great admirer of the plain DL-103. If the elliptical tip adds without subtracting I'll be one mesmerized fellow!
Hi Dan, while in Berlin recently I discovered an elliptical-tipped Denon DL-103 which I bought along with a new plain 103. I'll be comparing the two to see what pluses and minuses there are relative to each other, since there is some buzz that the conical tip is in fact responsible for its great sense of gestalt/organic wholeness. Phonophono in Berlin sells these retipped by a German fellow and orderable for 147 euros (!) from www.phonophono.de, though it isn't on their website (you'll have to ask for it specifically in an e-mail or phonecall). They are apparently modified from trade-ins by a man they call The Needle Man (apparently not many names for cartridge builder/modifiers). They claim this Denon DL-103"E" is greatly superior to the "R" version, to add to the confusion ;-)! In the meantime, I continue to be a great admirer of the plain DL-103. If the elliptical tip adds without subtracting I'll be one mesmerized fellow!