Stereo5, Nagaoka, Goldring, Grace, AT, etc, will make your rock records sing, in part depending upon your tonearm, phono stage, amplifiers, and speakers. The world is full of good cartridges. Hana can do it too, but MC cartridges in your budget tend to a thin, bleached sound IMO.
Still looking for a new Moving Coil Cartridge
I noticed that Music Direct has 20% off cartridge sale on select cartridges. I am still using a ZU/Denon DL103 MC cartridge Series 1 with the cartridges tightest tolerances. I purchased it here from “Audiofiel” back in 2010 and have used it sparingly since. I had been using a Dynavector DV20XL cartridge which I bought a couple of years ago but my 6 yo nephew destroyed it (that’s another story) so I am back to the ZU/Denon.
My table is a Technics SL1200G which I truly love. I have been looking at the Hana Low out put MC cartridges. I am interested in the low output “S” series as the $600.00 price is right where I want to be. Now, the million dollar questions: I listen to 95% 60’s, 70’s and 80’s Rock and want whatever cartridge I purchase to make the records sound good without excessive surface noise. Will the Hana S be up to the task? My Mac C2500 tube preamp has cartridge loading from 50 ohms up to 1000 ohms so I should be ok. I just want to be sure this cartridge will be very musical and full bodied sound. I do no want a thin sound. So there you have it, yay or neigh?
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Dear @stereo5 : Your best option should be to get a Dynavector again. Obviously you can't go wrong with and today that model comes with up-dates over the one you have.
Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS, R. |
Hello, You were asking about surface noise or to have a cartridge that produces very little. The issue is that is usually caused by the record or more likely a poor cartridge setup. SRA/VTA (not the same thing) can be very forgiving. This is why there are tonearms with VTA towers to adjust on the fly. Also, anti- skate isn’t always exact unless you have the right tools to set it up. Azimuth is only setup electronically. Yes you can make sure you cartridge or headshell is level but the problem is that more times than not it is setup wrong. A Fozgometer 2 cost along with the AP record is $450. So what’s left? The most important thing which is zenith or your cartridge being moved left or right in the headshell. You should not just eyeball the cantilever on a lined mirror. The stylus can be off by upto 5 degrees from the manufacture. The reason why I am bringing this up is to tell you to skip a Shibata Stylus. It is very difficult to get it setup right. The Hana SL, Dynavecktor 10x5 mk 2 and a few others have this stylus. I would try to find a Fine Line or Geiger (Ortofon) stylus that mimics a cutter. |
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