Cartridge Opinions - Sorry

I am not going to say you have low level knowledge because of that.

:)  +1

elliottbnewcombjr,

Actually you and I are not to far off. You just have had maybe a little more time (and maybe money☺!) than my hihfi budget can afford right now.

My current phono preamp is MM only but my next phono pre upgrade will have a internal SUT. I actually have been a big fan of JICO styli too but right now I’m only interested in vintage cartridges such as the Audio Technica AT-ML180/OCC or OFC cartridges and the OEM corresponding styli.

atmasphere,

I’ve always admired the courteous and gracious manner when you respond to others posts. You remind me of an old school gentleman always willing to share and teach in layman like terms to explain the most complex points of music reproduction. Please don’t change, for no one.

And much thanks to you for helping me understand what an OTL tube rig is.

Although I do agree with others here that the stylus and cartridge maybe more important than the tone arm WHEN mechanically reproducing sound from vinyl.

scar972,

This thread is actually quite tepid compared to some others here on gone, or haven’t you noticed before?

I’m only interested in vintage cartridges such as the Audio Technica AT-ML180/OCC or OFC cartridges and the OEM corresponding styli.

This is a hell of a cartridge and much better than AT's LOMC 
I don't know how but i bought two NOS styli for my AT-ML180 after 5 years of searching. Another (very close) model is AT-ML170 @tyray

 

Yeah chakster the only reason I haven’t gotten back to you is the funds aren’t available yet.

Although I do agree with others here that the stylus and cartridge maybe more important than the tone arm WHEN mechanically reproducing sound from vinyl.

@tyray Dave Slagle recently sent an article to me by Peter Moncreif, who did some testing on cartridges and how they make distortion. It was an interesting read! I found it interesting that while he was able to show that the cartridges did seem to make distortion, he really didn't go into much about the arm despite testing a good number of cartridges. Yet no mention of the arm, but we all know that getting the cartridge/arm combination to work its mechanical resonance has to be in the 7-12Hz range, and otherwise how tiny little tweaks in the adjustment can have a huge affect on the result!


It obvious to me that if there is an adjustment on an arm that is tricky to set up, the chances of getting it correct are vastly reduced. We've all heard cartridges make distortion; if you can set all the parameters right, then its clear that distortion is reduced. I've seen arms that don't allow for adjusting the VTA, others that allow you to adjust it, but only by loosening a screw and moving the entire arm (the old Grace is an example of this); many have no adjustment for azimuth whatsoever... To put this to an extreme to make my point, you can't expect to put a $5000 cartridge in a Voice of Music tonearm (google images...) and expect it to work properly! So at what point do you draw the line? What I've found is that the arm is more important if you really want to get things right- so that is where I make that distinction.