I have a Sumiko MMT arm with 4 detachable headshells: two for Koetsus, one for a Benz, and one for a Grado for 78s.
Detachable Head shell or Not?
I am in the process to up my game with some phono system tweaking.
I read in these forums of many people here with multiple arms, multiple cartridges and even multiple turntables. I am guilty of this myself but moderately compared to so many phono hardware diehards here.
All the continued comments on Talea vs. Schroeder vs. Kuzma, Da Vinci, Tri-Planar, etc., etc, on these forums. And the flavor of the day cartridge. One easy way to manage the use of many cartridges, easily swapping between them, and getting down to one turntable would be to run with a tonearm that supports removable head shells or arm tubes. And yet this does not seem to be widely done here. Is everybody just too proud of all the pretty phono hardware to admire?
Many highly respected arms of the past, FR 64/66, Ikeda, and now Glanz, Kuzma 4-Point, the new Tru-Glider, all with removable heads. And the Graham and Da Vinci with removable arm tubes. These products have a huge fan base and yet there seems to be an equal number of those against any extra mechanical couplings and cable junction boxes, din connections, etc.
I can appreciate having two cartridges, one to bring out that addictive lush bloomy performance and another that shows off that clarity and detail “to die for”. Being able to easily swap between the two, with hopefully only a quick VTF/VTA change, would be mighty nice. If too painful a process, I can understand the need for two arms here; like the idea of going through many LPs in an evening and not being obsessed with tweaking the arm for each. I hope I never get obsessed to do get to that point. But for different days/nights, to listen to different kinds of music, it could be mighty nice to swap out one cartridge for another in different head shells without the added cluster and cost of oh please, not another tonearm!. Do a minute or two of tweaking, ONCE, for that listening session, and then enjoy. There is always the added risk during the uninstall / install process to damage that prized cartridge.
Is running with a tonearm that has a detachable head shell all that sinful / shameful in the audiophile world ……. or not? I’d like to hear from those who have achieved musical bliss with removable head shell arms and also from those that if asked to try such a product would likely say, “over my dead body”!
John
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- 99 posts total
@edgewear I used a Sato Musen Zen Diamond..... |
@best-groove yup, the Zen Diamond is one of those ‘oldies’ that had me convinced that no ‘sea change’ in sonic improvement has occurred in recent years that would justify the ridiculous pricing of current top MC’s. And with your Pioneer Exclusive P3 even one tonearm is sufficient, by alternating between the straight and S-type armpipes. The very similar tonearm of the PL-70L II turntable was in fact also used to conduct the little comparative investigation with the Zen Diamond that convinced me there’s no decisive sonic advantage to fixed wiring. Anyone interested in the ‘fixed or not fixed headshell’ discussion should read Ken Kessler’s recent back page column in HiFiNews about this issue. He mentions the multitude of interruptions inside any audio component as argument against making too big a thing of this issue. But he’s an old guy too, so probably unable to hear the sonic differences our ‘transfixed to fixed’ forum members apparently do. |
It is not as bad as you think - a $1k cartridge in the mid 80’s would be $5-6k in todays money - 37 years later. Average wages have gone up 5-700% in that time period. Would you spend your prime years building the best cartridge in the world for $2.00 an hour ? Having said that $11-15k plus is gouging in my view. Unfortunately there are buyers prepared to pay stupid money to have something most people can't afford. The value add proposition is n longer sound quality - its ego. Have you noticed each time an outrageous price barrier is passed, for example the first $100k turntable, the floodgates open.
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- 99 posts total