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Hear my Cartridges....đŸŽ¶

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.....đŸ€Ș
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.....đŸ€—
128x128halcro
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,664 posts
 
Since finding my 'Holy Grail' of cartridges (SONY XL-88D)....I wondered whether or not I would be able to listen to all the other cartridges I have collected and culled over the last 12 years...👂
As I intimated in my last Post....the MOST important link in the analogue chain, is the quality of the recording, mastering, engineering and pressing of the actual disc.
After discovering the superlative quality of the series of recordings of the Complete Works of Richard Strauss with Rudolf Kempe conducting the Dresden State Orchestra in 1973 released by EMI and HMV in 1974....I bought every record I could find on Discogs for pittances.
I'm done with purchasing new re-releases offered for $30-60 with warps, surface noice, clicks and pops and inferior sound to the original releases 😡
Whatever you can hear on this video, is nothing compared to the quality filling my room.
Dynamic performances of massed orchestras in full flight are the hardest to both record and playback with the realism of the 'live' event.
That's why you rarely hear any exhibitor at a HiFi Show attempt it...
These recordings (by VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin DDR) come closer than almost any I have heard.

Although the music of Richard Strauss is not to everyone's taste....if you couldn't be happy with the sound from these recordings played with a vintage MM Cartridge....I think you may be too fussy đŸ€—

RICHARD STRAUSS 
edgewear
543 posts
 
Good find, Halcro. Kempe was surely one of the great Strauss conductors. You should also try his way with Wagner and Brahms. And HMV did some historic recordings behind the iron curtain in the 70's. Another high point was Karajan's Meistersinger, also with the Dresden orchestra.

For me, Strauss' greatest instrumental piece is Don Quichote, a Cello Concerto in all but name. Paul Tortelier as soloist on the Dresden set is fantastic, but Kempe's recording with Pierre Fournier more than a decade earlier with the Berlin Philharmonic (also on HMV) is perhaps even better. Both performances by these great cellists are masterly - but very different - studies into the Don's complex character. The tenderness, the melancholy, the lunacy. Marvelous stuff!

frogman
7,441 posts
 
Great comments, edgewear.  I share you appreciation of Strauss’ “Don Quixote”.  Fantastic work.  Tone poem which, as you say, is practically a cello concerto; although the role of the viola (Sancho Panza) in this work is not to be underestimated.  One of many examples of Strauss’ genius.  Hard for me to name a best Strauss composition since there are so many great ones.  I would also point to “An Alpine Symphony”, “Till Eulenspiegels”, “Ein Heldenleben” as particularly good examples of his orchestration genius,  And, of course, his operas; for me, “Elektra” in particular.  

Halcro, being a fan of Decca recordings, if you don’t own it, the Decca “Elektra” with Solti/Vienna is fantastic and available as a reissue from Speakers Corner.  Hair raising music.  I am also particularly fond of his “Four Last Songs”.  Schwarzkopf’s recording on EMI is fantastic.  If forced to pick a favorite Strauss work, this might be it.  
Regards.
edgewear
543 posts
 
My previous message prompted me to play that record again and what do you know, I had the names mixed up. The earlier BPO recording is also with Paul Tortelier. Oeps.....

I played both versions and my memory that they're quite different still makes sense, thank goodness. It just goes to show how a decade can change an artist's interpretation, in this case both the cellist and the conductor. Fascinating. 

edgewear
543 posts
 
Great suggestions frogman, the Four Last Song by Schwarzkopf and Szell would be one of my desert island picks. Solti’s Elektra too (yup, I’d need a pretty big island...). But the original ED2 label Decca pressing is actually cheaper than the Speakers Corner reissue and probably sounds much better.

Halcro, if you ARE a Decca fan (and which classic music fan isn’t?) you should really hear ’An Alpine Symphony’ by Mehta. A sonic spectacular in the best sense of the word. This guy had a great tenure with the LAPO, yielding many excellent recordings. Most of these are from the later ’narrow band’ label era that ’pressing snobs’ usually sneeze at, so they’re available at very modest prices. His ’Ein Heldenleben and ’Don Quichote’ are also very good.

While we’re at it, I’ll even go on record saying that his Mahler 3 is THE best sounding orchestral recording in my entire collection. You won’t believe what you’ll hear.


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