probably just another reason to recommend: This is What it Sounds Like by Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas, ii found it of some value…
MC-MM-MI CARTRIDGES . DO YOU KNOW WHICH HAS BETTER QUALITY PERFORMANCE? REALLY?
Dear friends:The main subject of this thread is start a dialogue to find out the way we almost all think or be sure about the thread question : " true " answer.
Many years ago I started the long Agon MM thread where several audiophiles/Agoners and from other audio net forums participated to confirm or to discover the MM/MI/IM/MF/HOMC world and many of us, me including, was and still are" surprised for what we found out in that " new " cartridge world that as today is dominated by the LOMC cartridges.
Through that long thread I posted several times the superiority of the MM/types of cartridges over the LOMC ones even that I owned top LOMC cartridge samples to compare with and I remember very clearly that I posted that the MM and the like cartridges had lower distortion levels and better frequency range quality performance than the LOMC cartridges.
In those times j.carr ( Lyra designer ) was very active in Agon and in that thread I remember that he was truly emphatic posting that my MM conclusion was not true due that things on distortion cartridge levels in reality is the other way around: LOMC has lower distortion levels.
Well, he is not only a LOMC cartridge designer but an expert audiophile/MUSIC lover with a long long and diverse first hand experiences listening cartridges in top TT, top tonearms and top phono stages and listening not only LOMC cartridges but almost any kind of cartridges in his and other top room/systems.
I never touched again that subject in that thread and years or months latter the MM thread I started again to listening LOMC cartridges where my room/system overall was up-graded/dated to way superior quality performance levels than in the past and I posted somewhere that j.carr was just rigth: LOMC design were and are superior to the other MM type cartridges been vintage or today models.
I'm a MUSIC lover and I'm not " married " with any kind of audio items or audio technologies I'm married just with MUSIC and what can gives me the maximum enjoyment of that ( every kind ) MUSIC, even I'm not married with any of my opinions/ideas/specific way of thinking. Yes, I try hard to stay " always " UNBIASED other than MUSIC.
So, till today I followed listening to almost every kind of cartridges ( including field coil design. ) with almost every kind of tonearms and TTs and in the last 2 years my room/system quality performance levels were and is improved by several " stages " that permits me better MUSIC audio items judgements and different enjoyment levels in my system and other audio systems. Yes, I still usemy test audio items full comparison proccess using almost the same LP tracks every time and as always my true sound reference is Live MUSIC not other sound system reproduction.
I know that the main thread subject is way complicated and complex to achieve an unanimous conclusions due that exist a lot of inherent differences/advantages/unadvantages in cartridges even coming from the same manufacturer.
We all know that when we talk of a cartridge we are in reality talking of its cantilever buil material, stylus shape, tonearm used/TT, compliance, phono stage and the like and my " desire " is that we could concentrate in the cartridges as an " isolated " audio item and that any of our opinions when be posible stay in the premise: " everything the same ".
My take here is to learn from all of you and that all of us try to learn in between each to other and not who is the winner but at the " end " every one of us will be a winner.
So, your posts are all truly appreciated and is a thread where any one can participates even if today is not any more his analog alternative or is a newcomer or heavily experienced gentleman. Be my guest and thank's in advance.
Regards and ENJOY THE MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
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- 301 posts total
@lewm The Transconductance Phon' , I am referring to is the Paradise. I have heard this in various build guises, from an individual's DIY attempt. DIY Built with a renowned UK EE who builds these as the mentor and also the Bespoke Four Box Version produced by the renowned UK EE. I have never heard this as a sole listener, and always heard it as an attendee to a group get together, where the Resident System is costing approx' £200K. I have heard this Phon' debated by Directors of Audio Production Companies, Individuals who have commission designed Phon's for Audio Businesses, as well as a Proprietors of Audio Retail Business, where Phon's are handled up to multi £0000's. Across the entirety of the attendees most will agree, for the cost to produce this Phon', and the level of performance that can be eked from it between Basic Build and Bespoke Build. Ownership of one is a no brainer, as as £10K - £20K more will be required to get close to a version of a presentation that competes. My Tonearm Designers own Design SS Phon', only made available to the Broader Audio Community about a year ago has been compared to the above Phon'. Interesting outcomes have followed, as a few owners of the above Phon' have superseded this with the new available Phon'. Even more interesting one customer has superseded their very expensive commercial Phon', with this new available Phon'. I am very familiar with my Tonearm Designers Phon' and it is the one that I believe will be the SS Phon' that I will have around me for when I stop using Valves. |
It would appear that Pindac is a devotee of the "new" sciences. If the Paradise identifies as a trans it is all encompassing. The Paradise is a DIY phono that has a RIAA curve that has been jacked up in the bass ( "a slight enhancement in the lower frequency ranges" according to their website ). From what I can see it has a fixed 1600ohm MC input and you use loading resistors to adjust the load that the cartridge sees. Clearly there appears to be some confusion in this thread about transconcuctance and transimpedance. Transconductance converts voltage ( ex MC ) to current. Transimpedance converts current ( ex MC ) to voltage. So I assume ( I’m not a technical guru here ) that For a transconductance phono they converting the MC voltage to current, followed by a current amplication stage to amplify the signal, and then I would assume coverting the amplified current back to voltage, since most domestic audio components assume a voltage gain device precedes them. For a transimpedance phono, I would assume they convert the MC current to voltage at the input stage, and then amplify the signal using a voltage amplification stage. Unfortunately many audio reviewers describe transimpedance phono stages as current gain phonos, which is not strictly accurate. Most are what I assume would be a combination of current input and voltage gain stages. Of the transimpedance type personally I have listened to at length ( for some years ) to the Nibiru, BMC, Van den Hul Grail SE and a custom transimpedance head amp unit built by Reno Andreoli. The units built by Reto are so good I bought two of them. The Van den Hul Grail SE and Reto’s custom units are in a different league to the others. In terms of cartridge compatibility Reno’s cartridges are 40ohms and my units have truckloads of gain for all of my MC cartridges which range from 3-40 ohms. They will amplify any MC from 0.1mv up. The Van den Hul Grail SE I have set up with both low impedance ( Koetsu/Kuzma ) and medium impedance ( Van den Hul Grand Cru ) - plenty of gain for both. Actually the gain range with the Van den Hul phono is massive and is dialled in to the cartridge using internal selectable settings. From the owner of both the BMC and Nibiru he has found the matching with cartridges is quite sensitive and can produce different results between the 2 phonos.
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I don't know or didn't know what a "transconductance" phono stage is, but I do know that the word "transconductance" has a specific definition, in that it is a measure of how voltage output changes with respect to current input, usually measured in A/V, and since that is the inverse of an ohm, the units are "mhos". For triodes, typically expressed in micromhos. Anyway, Dover, thanks for your response to my question. If you are correct, then that seems a bit of an odd way to do RIAA, since the RIAA curve is defined based on voltage changes, owing to the fact that a magnetic phono cartridge of any category, increases its output voltage according to stylus velocity, which increases with frequency. So an RIAA filter operates based on db as a measure of relative signal voltage amplitude. But since db starts life as a measure of Power, I guess it can also be a measure of current. I dunno. |
- 301 posts total