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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
harold-not-the-barrel
895 posts
 
Ah, Frogman now I get it: you use a linear tracker : ) Excellent. 
As for the reference and a reminder, really ; ) for the carts in question, I sold my ACUTEX M320 STR III (short nose, their finest according to some experts) but still have both Grace F-14, Ruby and Boron/ML, both for reasonable prices and only 10 - 100 hours use (grin) thanks to great Victor the Dealer here on A´gon (probably a Russian).

So I would like to hear Grace´s flagship (well, one of them at least) evaluated here someday please ...
What an interesting thread this is... keep them coming .....
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
Thank you Harold....
I didn't know how this Thread would be received as I didn't know whether the subtleties of different cartridges.......and we are talking MINUTE subtleties in many instances.......would be able to be discerned via the YouTube sound capabilities? 🤔
To say I'm astounded by Frogman's ability to hear artefacts and nuances that I was never 'consciously' aware of sitting in front of 'The Real Thing'....simply blows my mind 🤯

I have played records for several musicians but none has had the ability to separate the 'performance' from the attempted recreation of the 'musical fidelity'.

I have never heard audio equipment designers speak in the same terms as Frogman....
Current manufacturers  seem to have different 'approaches' to WHAT they are trying to accomplish in their designs and HOW they attempt to achieve them.

All Audio Designers would do well I believe.........to carefully read Frogman's comments in this Thread and 'reflect'.....
Only 'good' can come of listening well and taking note 🎼 
schubert
7,386 posts
 
EVERY Acutex cart sounded good , even the ones who cost 10 bucks a pop if dealer bought a hundred at a time in the 70’s !
frogman loves words as much(almost?) as music , not unusual in artists but his expression skill is .Often an intelligent person like him who is not a native speaker of English has studied the language to a much higher level than those of us who just picked it up at moms knee .
There is a cliff you fall over , a door that opens, after you hear X time of LIVE acoustic music where all the pieces just
fall together like it does to a puzzle freak with 50 years at the card table under their belt .

frogman
7,472 posts
 
Wow!  Thanks for the nice comments, gentlemen.  And this in spite of the fact that I once mistook halcro’s phone ringtones for an electronic keyboard; ringing perfectly in time to the music.  Glad I was able to regain some cred 😊. 
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
I admit to being a little surprised by how the London Decca Reference beat the Fidelity Research FR-7f LOMC in the 'Love Letters' Test because the FR-7f is a great cartridge.....

Let's try the LDR against my second Signet TK-7LCa with a NOS original stylus.
This stylus is so new....it has less than 3 hours play-time on it 🤗

SIGNET TK-7LCa MM Cartridge
Mounted in vintage Fidelity Research FR-66S on TW Acustic AC-2 Belt-Drive Turntable.

LONDON DECCA REFERENCE MI Cartridge
Mounted in vintage Fidelity Research FR-66S on TW Acustic AC-2 Belt-Drive Turntable.
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