Hear my Cartridges....🎶


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.....🤪
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.....🤗
128x128halcro
How can we trust (or rate) all the various opinions espoused by HiFi journalists and Reviewers whose hearing abilities are unknown?
Many years ago at a show in London, where they were demoing an Aragon system, I crossed paths with one Ken Kessler. I asked him how could anyone like that sound as it was rolled off, plodding, and simply dull. His reply knocked me. "That's the way music is supposed to sound."
Post removed 
@halcro 
@frogman 

Re headshell comparison.

Yes.
Apart from the qualifier that, for me, MM cartridges are like green eggs and ham.
So with my mac air & Air buds circa 2012..

With the FR3 shell I can hear the initial rosiny striking of the bow on Ottos violin. This initial strike is lost with the Yamamoto. To me in general the violin sounds quite congealed in the upper mid lower treble on the Yamamoto.

With the harpsichord, I can hear more of the key strike on the strings, and more acoustical space around the individal notes with the FR3.

The FR3 to my ears presents a more robust and developed upper base lower mid, particularly when the full orhestra comes in - more weight.

FR3 a clear winner on this comparison.

I'll leave frogman to provide the technical analysis. I suspect he might find the FR3 a little coloured like the FR7 cartridges - be interesting to hear his view.

As an aside did you know Audiosilente does an aluminium screw for the FR3 - I assume this would reduce the mass somewhat.

Have you tried the newer Ikeda heashell IS2-T with the titanium collar, I have the older one that came with my Ikeda Kiwame cartridge, it has quite a robust sound that works well with some cartridges. I used it on my Dynavector from time to time.

Unfortunately I don't have the playback tools and/or the golden ears of dover and frogman to make a valid judgment call on these audio files. But it's nice that others acknowledge the merits of the FR-3 headshell. For some reason it has a bad rep with several members of this community. It's clunky and looks decidedly old school, but I like the way it sounds, especially with FR64S. Robust and meaty are indeed words that come to mind. Same with the slightly less bulbous FR-S/5. But perhaps I'm biased as I really dislike carbon fiber headshells like Yamamoto or Oyaide, both of which I tried.

For threaded cartridges the later FR RS-121 and RS-141 are also recommended, while for unthreaded cartridges I've always had great results with the Audiocraft AS-4PL and AS-12K headshells.

@dover I have several versions of the Ikeda IS-2T headshell (2TB, 2TW and 2TCR) and they are better than the regular IS-2 as well as the earlier IS-1R series. The T's are the most neutral headshells I have tried so far. They're a perfect match for the 'high precision' school of cartridges, like Transfiguration and MSL. But for my Ikeda 9 Rex I kept the IS-1G in place, simply because it looks so pretty.Â