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Cartridge Opinions - Sorry

Yeah, another dumb "what's your opinion on these cartridges" thread. Back in the late 80's we had dealers where you could listen to the stuff.

So anyhow I have a Linn LP12 with Ittok arm and a 30 year old Audioquest B200L cartridge. I'm running it through the phono stage of a Jeff Rowland Coherence One into a Spectral DMA90 through a set of Kef R300's.

I prefer a little more laid back sound (err on the side of forgiving instead of fatiguing) but I like a lot of upper end detail, precise soundstaging, air, etc.

So far I'm considering an Ortofon Quintet S Black, Hana SL or a Benz wood - something at or below the $1k level.

I'd love to hear any opinions, suggestions, and experiences with those cartridges or others in the price range. I could possibly go higher if there is something out there that really shines for less than $1,500.

Thanks.


klooker
coltrane1's avatar
coltrane1
792 posts
 
A good Grado is good enough. Period. 
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Coltrane, as long as it does not hum on your turntable!

Rauliruegas, there is a slight change in VTA with tracking error but it is so slight that it is most probably meaningless. The current standard VTA seems to be 92 degrees. I use a usb microscope and set VTA so that the oncoming surface of the stylus is exactly at 90 degrees. This seems to work well. I went through the process of changing VTA in about 20 minute increments up +- 1 degrees and could not hear a significant difference. This was with a Clearaudio Da Vinci a cartridge with a fine line stylus. 
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,841 posts
 
@mijostyn That 92 degree SRA thing is an approximation- an average. Any LP will actually be slightly different. Hard to know how much of it you'll actually hear.
yeti42's avatar
yeti42
287 posts
 
“ I have master tapes and I've only heard a couple of combinations that really held up in that regard.”

There’s an important word in here, combinations.


Do those using microscopes ever then vary it a little and listen to check it’s actually optimal?
Ag insider logo xs@2x
rauliruegas
13,095 posts
 
Dear @mijostyn : Other than what atmasphere posted and I agree with him is that those 90° and 92° can't remain over the recorded LP surface, no way LP is not perfect and pivoted tonearms has that tracking errors and your tonearm/cartridge/TT alignment can't be perfect either.

R.
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