Mono Cartridge Recommendations

Here’s what Harry Weisfeld just posted the VAS Nova Mono on the VPI forums a couple days ago:

"Listening to my new NOVA MONO on a gimbal FatBoy and really loving the Ormandy Saint Saens 3rd on it. Shakes the house like the stereo cannot do.

Popped on a mono June Christy album and falling in love with those beautiful 50’s singers.

This cartridge is giving me 95% of the Miajima Zero for a lot less money and perfect tracking and compatibility with 3D arms which the Zero has issues with."

@Clearthink - What's with your tone?  Is there any reason to be anything but helpful here?  You quoted me a little out of context.  I said that "many" mono cartridges have low compliance, not all.  Particularly not stereo adopted mono cartridges.  But all the Miyajimas have compliance of 8, which is on the low side.  And, per Kevin at KAB, vintage mono cartridges were even stiffer - going back far enough the tracking forces were higher. Go back far enough and the vertical compliance was taken up by wearing of the stylus (e.g. cactus stylus on a gramophone).  If you use these really stiff cartridges on a modern vinyl recording, you can get excessive wear.  That may not be relevant to modern offerings.  In that case, I guess the question is whether the relatively low compliance of the Miyajimas is any cause for concern.  Anyhow - let's try to keep the answers helpful.

@bdp24 - Hi Eric.  I'm basing my statement about no vertical compliance on prior discussions here on Agon.  Perhaps I misunderstood.  But take a look at the sketch on the Miyajima Labs mono cartridge page and it shows a simple design where the cantilever is attached at a fixed angle to a vertical rod, that ONLY allows rotation in the lateral plane.  In that case, any vertical compliance becomes solely the material property of the cantilever, and none is provided by how the cantilever attaches.

@jbrainin - Thanks for the information.  Can you elaborate on what was meant by a "3D" arm?  Is a 2D arm a linear tracker?  Aren't most arms 3D?  I would still like to know whether the Nova is a stereo cartridge strapped into mono.

Thanks all.  Looking forward to more insight, and happy to be corrected (that is why I posted).  Peter

Re hum. Yes the Miyajimas can cause hum issues. I have a Zero and while I love it you will need to solve hum problems

The best solution is to use a phono stage or step up with a ground that can be lifted. Either that or having a mono switch on your amp. The latter causes (in my experience using an ARC Ref40) a slight drop in dynamics. My Music First step up has a three way ground switch and this clears all hum issues. The other suggested solution of using only one channel still left me with hum (which is clearly out of phase in each channel as the mono switch cancels it)

anyway expect hum and expect to need to work on dealing with it

@folkfreak Thank you for that info.  I do you have A mono switch, made by KAB, and it is well-made, but it is outboard and requires more RCA connections to place in the circuit. I was concerned about loss of dynamics. One Miyajima dealer told me that the hum could be removed by disconnecting one of the ground wires, but it sounds like that is only a partial fix based on your experience. With the equipment that I have, I don’t think I could offset the hum without some loss in performance. Unless there are other ideas or perspectives?

Re groove wear with low-compliance cartridges. If the tonearm bearings are excellent, and the effective mass is appropriate, it's a non-issue.