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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
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
Thanks Frogman....and HAPPY NEW YEAR 🎉 to you and those who are 'listening to my cartridges' 🧐

Very interesting analysis once again and you're right.....it IS interesting how differently we 'hear' or 'react' to certain qualities in recorded sound.
I for one....can't hear the differences you have highlighted between the two cartridges....🤔
To me....they sound almost identical !!

I agree that this Leonard Cohen live recording sounds wonderful  but I can't discover on what machines it was recorded....other than Bob Ludwig did the Mastering.
As it was first released on CD and DVD, it's a safe bet that it was digitally recorded but it sure ranks in my books as the 'warmest' digital recording I've yet heard.
So much so....that when I heard it on my audio buddy's all-tube system in Munich 2017.....it was 'unlistenable'....😱
I felt guilty as he had bought the album on my recommendation....🤬
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
Let's hear how a vintage 'Classic' LOMC cartridge like the Sony XL-55 compares with a modern-day 'Classic' LOMC like the SPU Silver Meister.
The XL-55 features a rather UNIQUE DESIGN utilising a 'coreless' armature coil in a 'figure 8' pattern with an aluminium cantilever extending through a carbon-fibre 'stub' pipe.

VINTAGE SONY XL-55 LOMC Cartridge
Mounted in Vintage FR-66S ToneArm on TW Acustic Raven AC-2 Belt-Drive Turntable

ORTOFON SPU SILVER MEISTER LOMC Cartridge 
Mounted in Vintage FR-66S ToneArm on TW Acustic Raven AC-2 Belt-Drive Turntable
harold-not-the-barrel
895 posts
 
Wait a minute. My AT-ML180 doesn´t sound that bad. Probably because of its special design with ceramic top and miniature stylus tip it may very well be extremely sensitive to where it´s attached ? Mine has a thin layer of damping sheet between top and aluminium wand and this slightly improves SQ. I´m sure that it will perform better, sound balance and high register presentation with an other headshell/wand. Additionally, IME AT´s best models benefit from very low capacitance and impedance values, I use 120 pF and 33 kOhm. What are your setting now Henry ?  Furthermore, in general on that sensitive level even different samples may have subtle differences ?
Its overall performance is not the finest of cartridges that I have heard though.
frogman
7,475 posts
 
**** To me....they sound almost identical !! ****

Ah, but you said “almost”; not, identical to. You did also say that to you the 180 “had the magic”. You clearly are hearing differences. So, how to describe what keeps them from sounding identical and one less magical? It always helps to somehow try and relate what one hears in audiophillic terms to the music. “Correct” terminology is secondary. I may have gotten more detailed in my descriptions, but all those details go under two general categories of types of details that noromance pointed out in his description: “clearer and with more insight”. We agree about the two cartridges and said essentially the same thing.





noromance's avatar
noromance
9,901 posts
 
SPU Silver sounds thin and spluttery on much of the pipe blowing, especially in the higher frequencies.
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