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Which cartridge ?

Ok , has been talked about till death but even then I need help . Believe me if there were anyway I could listen to my options on my rig I wouldn't be here with this question as I'm one of those who believes in hearing in your rig before commiting to buying .

Having said that I recently destroyed my Ortofon Salsa MC cartridge . Don't ask , I'm pretty pissed off as it is . Having read great reviews on the Nagaoka MP110 my daughter got me one for fathers day . Overall Im not satisfied with it . I don't know what it is . Maybe an incompatability with tonearm mass or what ever .

After the disaster with the Ortofon I had a old Grado Black hanging around which I had never used for years . Mounted it on my turntable . It sounded very good . To my ears and taste , liked it better then the Nagaoka MP110 .
Now Im in the market for a Cartridge to replace my Ortofon . Been searching and shopping and have nailed down my options to these . 
Denon DL 103R and DL 110
Audio Technica OC9 cartridge line
Ortofon Quintet Red
Grado Red3 Grado Gold3 and New Grado Timbre . ( I have read that in the Grado Prestige line you can get progressively better sound up to the Red . That the Gold sounds inferior to the Red but since I've read that many swear by the Gold I've kept the Gold in my list .)
I can go up to 400 dollars 
 My system is comprised of
Project 1expression2 modified , 
Elekit TU 8500 tube preamp with solidstate MM and MC phono stage ( you have to hear this one , it truly is an  overachiever ) 
Mccormack DNA125 amp
Magnepan MG12 w/modified external crossover
Everything connected with JPS Labs superconducter interconnect and speaker cable and power cables into a Richard Grey Power Station.
My musical taste is ecleptic , my favorite music is classic rock and jazz and classical with a little bit of everything else sprinkled in except most rap . Tonearm is a 8.5 affair with medium mass straight line . 
mcmvmx
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
The Denon cartridges I’m referring to are the Dl 103R and the DL 110 . None of them have a conical stylus as that would be the DL 103 which does have the lower grade conical Stylus . Both DL103R and DL 110 are moving coil designs with super polished Elliptical stylus .

You’re wrong.
Denon DL103R has a CONICAL STYLUS, look at the specs here. DL103R "Stylus tip: 0.02 mm special round solid diamond"
all styli are polished.

The difference between 103 and 103R is ONLY the 99.9999% high purity (6N) copper coils wire inside the "R" version. This is why 103R is better, but the stylus is Conical @mcmvmx

Some have stipulated that the Nagaoka even though being a MM design its cantilever is really low compliance and not medium or high as some think it to be .


It is a low compliance for MM and you can look at the specs here, and it’s an average cartridge, nothing special.
If you will look carefully you will see that the stylus tip is BONDED (not nude). It is a low grade cartridge even in Nagaoka family. Being a low compliance MM (6cu at 100Hz) it will work better on higher mass tonearm.

Denon 103R compliance is 5cu at 100hz
Nagaoka MP110 compliance is 6cu at 100Hz

They are both low compliance design for high mass tonearms.

Your Grado with higher grade stylus from 8MZ or XTZ is superior high compliance MI cartridge.

If you trust Peter at SoundSmith you have to watch his lecture where he’s hardly promote MI (Moving Iron) cartridges, you already have such MI cartridge.

With $400 budget the best you can do is to buy high-end stylus for your Grado Black body.

mcmvmx OP
108 posts
 
Your right . The Denon DL 103r does have a round stylus tip and the only difference is the high purity copper coils . Thank you for correcting me . Curious that the Nagaoka being MM should have been design around a low compliance cantilevel . I understand that the Japs use a different method then others in arriving at their compliance specification and you should take this into consideration when comparing specs . This is talked about alot at the Vinyl Engine website . 
intactaudio
293 posts
 
The high purity copper coils do not change the internal impedance from 40Ω to 14Ω.  The 103R has fewer turns of thicker wire and a stronger magnet to make up for the lowered output voltage from the reduction of turns.

Dave

mcmvmx OP
108 posts
 
But it seems to change the caracter of the sound as many swear by the Denon DL 103R . What does have me a bit confused is the sound caracter of my Nagaoka MP 110 . Where ever you go reviews are extremely positive but on my rig its the other way around even though Chakster considers it in no way special even in the Nagaoka lineup of cartridges . 



I just ordered some Blu tack in order to try to add mass to my tonearm and see if with the added mass the Nagaoka might sound better especially in that upper midrange which on high level signals it sounds grainy , harsh and upfront , in your face if you will .
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