Thank you for that thoughtful and detailed reply! It certainly helped be better understand your reasoning.
Best wishes,
Don
Curious Why Benz Micro Slid Into Obscurity
I remember there was a time when Benz Micro was one of the more prominent cartridge manufacturers out there. The Ace and Glider sure were popular cartridges. Then there was a hiatus in production. The company recognition seems to have never recovered. There are still new cartridges for sale on the various sites. But none of ther upper tier cartridges seem to gather the same recognition or praise that the earlier cartridges did.
Is perception of them changed that much, or is it the fact that the brand has aged out? Are the designs that dated to where people no longer believe quality and value are there?
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You’re welcome! I think about this stuff way too much lol. One correction: when I was saying "ohms to output" ratio I really meant the reverse "output to ohms". For an "ideal" transducer (and SUT match) you want as much output voltage as possible from as little coils (lower ohms) as possible. So looking at output voltages in microVolts (uV) might help get a nicer ratio number for comparisons: So why do they use a rube plate in the upper Benz models? The theory is that a piece of moving iron (iron cross) dynamically disrupts the magnetic field (it should remain static in an "ideal" transducer), which causes distortion. They can also use a much larger & stronger neodymium magnet in these models - it’s so powerful it would be impossible to accurately position the iron cross in there. The ruby plate has no problem there. "Air coils" achieves the same thing, but without the structure (and mass) provided by the plate - but these are rare. An alternative technique: Dynavector has that big copper coil wound around its front pole piece to "damp" magnetic flux disturbances from the moving iron armature. It's not in the signal path, it's just there to bleed off magnetic flux disturbances. |
@lewm Yes - current, amperes! Silly me lol |
IMHO Benz Gullwing beats Lyra Atlas Lamda SL, Clear Audio Goldfinger, Koetsu Blue Lace Diamond, Ortofon Verismo and its big brother Benz LP. In an ET 2 arm in the Oracle 6 the Gullwing exceeds those other great cartridges by a country mile. Deeper bass and lifelike presentation of a symphony orchestra in, ahem, full flight. * There's no body like no body. |
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