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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
 
For over 10 years I've been a big fan of the Japanese Victor Company and their design engineering 'know-how' in the 'Golden Age' of analogue.
It started when I bought one of their vintage TT-81 DD Turntables followed by their top-of-the-line TT-101 Motor Unit shortly afterwards.

I now have probably a dozen of their cartridges (THE BEST) and every product of their's that I've tried has been worthy.

For over two years I have been looking for a good example of their X-1 MM Cartridge with its original stylus/cantilever assembly and finally found one (with a bonus SPARE replacement stylus).
I couldn't believe my luck when just a few weeks ago....an original Victor X-1II Cartridge came up for auction and when I received it....its condition was almost MINT!

I now had the Victor TOP THREE- X-1, X-1II and X-1IIE....

Frogman seemed to be impressed with the sound of the Victors he heard in my previous comparisons.....and he wondered which was the best of the three...?
Perhaps he can now tell us.....? 🤗

VICTOR X-1 MM Cartridge
Mounted in DV-507/II ToneArm on solid Bronze ArmPod surrounding Vintage Victor TT-101 DD Turntable

VICTOR X-1II MM Cartridge
Mounted in DV-507/II ToneArm on solid Bronze ArmPod surrounding Vintage Victor TT-101 DD Turntable

VICTOR X-1IIE MM Cartridge
Mounted in DV-507/II ToneArm on solid Bronze ArmPod surrounding Vintage Victor TT-101 DD Turntable

frogman
7,471 posts
 
Perhaps it wasn’t clear from my earlier comments, and to reiterate and clarify: I think that the AT 180 is an excellent sounding cartridge.  My comments, as always, were about the subtle differences between it and the other cartridge (the 150) being compared.  By no means should my commemts be taken to suggest that I thought the 180 is a “bad” sounding cartridge.

Re the Sony/SPU Silver:

I agree with noromance’s comment that the SPU sounds thinner and more “spluttery” (love it!) on the pipes.  However, my feeling is that the SPU is doing a better job of telling us what is actually on the recording, splutter and all.  The first clue to this possibility is heard with the very first note of the recording.  The guitar sounds more realistic with the SPU, letting us hear a more appropriate metal “twang” on that first note and throughout the piece.  By comparison, the attack of the guitar plucks sound a little too round and covered with the Sony.  The Sony also has a rather bleached tonal character while the SPU lets us hear more of the natural colors of the instruments.  There is also more overall clarity with the SPU letting us more clearly hear the very gentle conga drum playing which gets a little lost in the background with the Sony.

To me the SPU sounds more realistic overall.  In the folk music (with some Baroque thrown in) style heard here pipes are normally played with the very prominent and almost percussive breath attack that we hear  The question becomes whether the SPU is exaggerating this splutteriness 😊 or not.  Given the SPU’s more realistic guitar sounds which normally have a lot of high frequency content and the slightly covered guitar sound of the Sony, my sense is that the SPU is the more accurate (to the recording) of the two.


frogman
7,471 posts
 
Victors:

Well, I am not prepared to say which is the best by listening to only one recording this way, but I am pretty comfortable saying which is my favorite: The X-1IIE. My least favorite: the X-1II

With both the X-1 and X-1II high frequencies sound overly prominent to the point of distraction and with excessive sibilance on the vocals. I like the X-1 very much for its very naturally colorful midrange. With the X1IIE the midrange is also naturally colorful, but high frequencies are much better controlled and balanced. Possibly as a result of this, vocals and the midrange in general sound fuller and more natural.
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
Love it Frogman.......👌
I could read your descriptions all day long.....🗣
I’m off to buy some more cartridges to keep your contributions coming..
harold-not-the-barrel
895 posts
 
Don´t get me wrong, I just found my ML-180 outperforming all the MM AT´s I have tried over the years, hence my expression bad. The same goes for my statement about TOTL ACUTEX models, they are superb performers as you have discovered too.  But not magical IME. And there may very well be a subtle difference between the samples. 

That X-1IIE with titanium pipe cantilever and Shibata stylus ?
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