Cartridges

Last night, i pulled my very nice-sounding ART-9 MC cart, and put my Acutex M320 III STR cartridge in.

I haven't listened to it lately, but after some adjustments with the settings on my Modwright SWP 9.0 Sig phono stage, I was amazed at hearing the best sounding music I've ever heard from my system. I don't know what I did differenly, but I was captivated by the extrordinarily great sound I was hearing.

I know you can spend any amount you want to on a cartridge, but my Acutex only cost me around $90 a few years ago, yet deliverers mind-blowing sound (to my ears), on my middle-of-the-road system, but whatever you do, enjoy the music!

Regards,

Dan

 the folks who put down the uni pivot is because it is too difficult for their level of mechanical knowledge to adjust it properly. 

What an arrogant statement.

Not in my case mate.

I have listened to VPi unipivots for 30 years, set up a few, along with many other unipivots - Hadcock, Mayware, Audiocraft, and many others - still own a Naim Aro.

It is the VPI unipivot that is the issue - it's not a great arm. It might meet your standards, it doesn't meet mine - and has nothing to do with set up. The Naim Aro or even an older Graham unipivot will leave it for dead.

Lunacy to put a $5-12k cartridge on an average performing tonearm. Yes, it will sound better, but upgrading the tt & arm for the same budget will yield much more.

Didn't mean to show arrogance, sorry for those offended. I see many posts of folks who don't even attempt to install a cart on a uni pivot and have to get a "professional" to do it for them and charge them multiple hours labor to do so. That's what I am referring to, if you ever want a cart to sound right to your ears, you must learn to install it yourself and know how to tinker with it since all the slightest adjustments will result in a different sound. If you don't learn that, your cart will always end up under performing. Carts always end up needing "tune ups", like anything else. Many folks end up disenchanted with their unipivot because of that lack of mechanical know-how. I personally am very pleased with working on my uni pivot since it is more challenging to get it right than other arms. Just me. 

+1 @dover 

I have witnessed this owning many VPI unipivot arms from the basic aluminum JMW 10.5, the 10” 3D with Valhalla wire, and two 12” 3DR. They are actually decent tonearms, but in hindsight I would never recommend putting a $5K+ cartridge on it because the arms will not get the most out of what the cartridge can provide. It doesn’t mean that the cartridges wont sound good on the arm, but anyone who does so is wasting their investment a bit.

Case in point - I at first put a $9K My Sonic Lab Signature Gold cartridge on the 12” 3DR which was mounted on a Clearaudio Innovation Wood. It sounded good and was a notable upgrade to a slightly cheaper Air Tight PC-1s. But after the cartridge broke in, I upgraded the arm to a Tri-Planar U12. It was a night and day difference. The improvement in clarity and imaging, and the reduction in groove noise ans resonance made the sonics elevate multiple levels over any other cartridge upgrade I had before it.

The moral of the story is that VPI tables and tonearms are very good, especially doe what you might be able to get them for, but there are other worthwhile areas of investment beyond an incredible cartridge, that can reap even larger gains. 

I can appreciate the importance of an arm and it has been very well explained by a few here. But thing is, if I had not fallen so much in love with streaming, I would probably consider it. But that ship has sailed. Even with over 2,000 vinyl, my analog rig listening time is now no more than 10%. Also10% on CD rig, meanin80% streaming. Point is, anyone on the fence between streaming and vinyl needs to take a real long look at it before investing.