2. analog
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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
 
This should be an interesting comparison....🤗
Five years ago, at the start of the mono-cartridge ’fad’.......I bought the AUDIO-TECHNICA AT-33 MONO LOMC Cartridge to see if there was an improvement over using my stereo cartridges with my Phonostage MONO switch engaged.
The AT-33 MONO has a 0.65 ml conical stylus on a Duralumin pipe cantilever with a reasonably high static compliance of 20×10-6cm/dyne and a low dynamic compliance of 6×10-6cm/dyne (100Hz).
It has a reasonably healthy output for a LOMC of 0.35mV (1kHz and 5cm/sec. horizontal signal).

AUDIO-TECHNICA AT-33 MONO LOMC Cartridge

LONDON DECCA REFERENCE MI Cartridge (Mono Switch)
thuchan
1,009 posts
 
Nice sound Henry. I love Mono and know these two carts very well.
did you book a coaching day at Hollywood Studios to become a director? 😂
best E.
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
Hahaha......
Coming from you Eckart, that is high praise 😇
I know how much you love mono, and I also know how much you love jazz 🎹🥁🎷🎺
You should get this Ray Charles boxset from Discogs.
It contains 5 discs (10 sides) of his wonderful music mostly recorded before he hit the big time of international success.

I may have more MM cartridges than you my friend......but you have the greatest collection of vintage and modern LOMCs that I know of. Some of them never seen nor heard by the majority of true analogue-lovers.
You should make some Youtube videos of them for posterity....🎼

Incidentally......which cartridge do you prefer in mono?

Regards
frogman
7,469 posts
 
Thanks, Halcro. I think you may have missed the point I tried to make re the live concert you posted. I have to assume that you have attended live music performances in a first rate concert hall and not just in awful spaces like the one you posted. THAT is what is HP and many have referred to as “the absolute sound”; and the sound in a venue like that is unmatched by any audio system. Unless, of course:

**** I want ’theatre’ ⚡️💥🎉 ****

That makes it all clear.

https://youtu.be/VRkZYdWCe7w

☺️

frogman
7,469 posts
 
AT-33/LDR:

Wonderful Ray Charles; thanks.

You keep reinforcing for for me why I need to buy a LDR. It’s really no contest between the two. I don’t know what spatial or sound staging drama one can hear “in situ”, but from the first one or two piano notes it is obvious that the AT sounds two covered in the highs. The piano (and all instruments) sound with diminished upper most harmonics in their sounds; a little dull. Less “leading edge” to the attack of notes. This contributes to an overall rhythmically polite and slightly “lazy”, (and not in a good musical way) rhythmic feel in the music. Specifically:

With the Decca one hears more appropriate sound of metal in the high hat cymbal beginning at :40. And, when the drummer begins to play the repeated triplets on brushes (ONE,2,3  ONE,2,3 ONE,2,3, etc.) at 2:20 the propulsive feeling that this is intended to create is almost lost with the AT; with the Decca it is obvious and signals the beginning of a new chorus in the music.

Overall, across the board more realistic instrumental timbres with the LDR with more realistic rhythmic impetus to the music; particularly important in music at a slow tempo such as this.

In spite of Decca’s not being known for their tracking ability, it sounds superior to the AT in that regard which sounds as if just on the verge of breakup on sharply struck piano notes or chords.

Btw, somewhat of a rarity, Ray himself is the alto saxophone player on this. Pretty good saxophone player for a great piano player/singer.

Thanks, as always.


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