$800 Cartridge Shootout and Upgrade Path

Jphii,

Thanks for the offer! I live in Tracy, California; that's the Central Valley, but it's close to the Bay Area.

It seems like a lot of people like the Denon DL 103R and the AT-OC9 ML/II. One fellow on the AudioAsylum Vinyl bulletin board has gone so far as to say that the AT-OC9 is better than a $4,000 Dynavector XV-1! While I am not going to spend four big ones on a cartridge, I have to wonder about the validity of that statement. So what I would like to know is the Denon better than the Shelter 501? Now I don't want to start a cyberwar or anything but that's a legitimate question, I think?

Okay everyone,

This is where I'm at on the turntable decision. It looks like I will be going for the Teres 160 ($2,250) using the Shelter 501 cartridge. It's now a question of tonearms. Which should it be, the Hadcock 242SE Integra or the Moerch DP-6? I would love to go with the Hadcock because it's cheaper and real nice according to the 6 Moons review. But the Moerch is also very nice. Help! Also, is there anyone who thinks the Teres 160/Shelter 501 combination can be outdone by something else in that price range? Any further help would be appreciated! Thanks guys!

For your arm choice, just get the Schroeder Model 2, it will be a lot better than any of the other choices.

Between the Denon and the Shelter, its a matter of personal taste. For the Denon, a little more care is required with the arm setup and the phono gain as its a low compliance design. Frank Schroeder has a brass plate mount for the 103R and you'll be fine. For the Denon, you will need >60db of phono gain due to the low output.

I've not heard the Shelter, so let others comment.

Artar,

Just as TWL pointed out in his followup on his Music Maker review the cartridge is a bit picky about what tonearms it mates well with. I feel that the Hadcock tonearm is very similar in that regard. I initially purchased a Benz ACE H2 cart to go with mine, but after 8 months of never getting things to perfectly come together I decided I needed to just splurge and get the cart that is designed for use on the Hadcock tonearm - the Music Maker. It was a huge leap forward in sound. So I am saying I would be hesitant in recommending the Hadcock to anyone who isn't going to go with the Music Maker as well, as with just any other cart you may run into mismatch problems. For example you would be the first that I have heard of mating a Shelter to a Hadcock? Maybe? Hopefully???

Artar, if you intend to use the Shelter cartridges, I don't think that the Hadcock will be a suitable platform for them. The Shelter cartridges have shown themselves to be quite difficult for unstabilized unipivot tonearms. I concur that for the Hadcock arm, the Music Maker would be better suited.

For the Shelter cartridges(and Koetsu, Denon DL103R, and other MC with <10cu compliance)you truly "need" a quality gimbal bearing arm of at least 11.5g effective mass, or a very capable stabilized unipivot of similar mass or more.

The Morch DP-6 with it's "dual pivot" design, may be stable enough for it, but I never used that combination myself. I do know that you can get a suitable armwand for effective mass matching. I suspect it would be a much better match for the Shelters than the Hadcock.

If you want a Jewel-like tonearm, I may suggest a Triplanar.

Regarding your gain levels, the 80db gain you have in the system should be fine for the Shelters and other 0.4mv output level cartridges.

When you start bringing "looks" into the equation, and thinking that performance may not be affected, you are venturing into very dangerous territory.