Logical cartridge upgrade for a long time Shure M44-7 user
Nick, look for Audio-Technica with MicroLine stylus if you want something new, relatively cheap and good sounding (not dark sounding like those cheap Conical m44-7). Stylus tip responsible for frequency response. Better carts than new AT are those vintage MM or MI with advanced profiles. The best AT MM is AT-ML170 and AT-ML180 (absolutely killer carts). |
Thanks, @chakster - I'm looking at the AT carts and trying to find an entry-level/budget MicroLine; would that be the VM540ML? That one is a bit more than I'd like to spend (not sure if there are cheaper options?), but if it constitutes a major upgrade from the M44-7 and offers high value for the price, I'd probably go for it. |
One reason the M44 is so bright is that the tonearm cable has a certain capacitance, and this is interacting with the rather high inductance of this cartridge to produce a high frequency peak that is quite audible! I doubt any cartridge with 5mV will be as bright. If that is what one has been listening to for years, they might regard it as normal, but it really isn't! For more information on how this works, take a look at this webpage: http://www.hagtech.com/loading.html Its realistic to assume (without knowing otherwise) that the inductance of the cartridge is nearly double that of a cartridge with half the output. So drop '1000' into the calculator for the inductance value and you will see that the peak is centered around 11KHz! You might want to play a different cartridge (like the Grado Gold) for quite a while to get used to the more neutral presentation... |
Thank you all for your recommendations. @nickpish I'm usually slow moving with pulling the trigger on upgrades etc., so it may be a while. But I do always try to come back to threads to give an update for due diligence. Great to see someone else trying to figure out their next move past the M44. @atmasphere Wow. Thanks for that info. It's funny - while my ears have gotten quite used to M44, I always assumed that some of the distortion I hear (probably around 8 - 12Khz range) was due to other factors in my system. This makes a lot of sense. I don't have a lot of experience with different cartridges, but I've had a hard time fully buying into the 'musical' descriptor for a lot of components, including carts. I feel like it's often used to justify muffled, dull characteristics. If I know for fact that Stuart Staples' singing on Tindersticks albums include a subtle but always recognizably breathy, throat-y texture (years of smoking + whiskey?), and I'm used to hearing that clearly while a cartridge like Nagaoka completely fails to extract that from the vinyl, it's hard for me to buy into the idea of it being more 'musical'. I'd say the opposite. Thanks for the recommendations and knowledge, really appreciate it! |
