$800 Cartridge Shootout and Upgrade Path

FWIW, I am humbled that you found anything I posted about record cleaning to be of value. One caveat. I have since learned a great deal about the leaching of plasticizers in vinyl and no longer recommend the use of dishwashing detergent (including the fragrence ingredients in Dawn) or various other household cleansers when doing the sink washing. Others still swear by their use, but I don't want to be responsible for someone using the "wrong" product. Some quite distressing reading regarding the use of enzyme-based fluids and their effect on certain plasticizers (including dioctyl phthalate, dibasic fatty acid, and the most common plasticizer in vinyl). Others will argue, too, that you shouldn't use tap water for an initial rinse before moving to the RCM and RRL fluids. Unless your water is extremely hard or in an area that has an abundance of chemicals, I don't think there is much of a risk unless you air dry. I've done the sink and tap water route and the distilled water route and don't tell a difference. Of course I always use the RRL regimen immediately afterwards.

OK, now this thread can move to a discussion of the best pressing of Beethoven’s

4yanx,

Oh no, the Beethoven wars!

Here's a few of my Beethoven favorites:

Beethoven: Symphony no 9, Furtwangler, Schwarzkopf, Angle Records

Beethoven: Piano Concerto Nos. 1-5 (Set), George Szell, Emil Gilels, Cleveland Orchestra

Beethoven: Symphony no 9 / Normandy, Tabernacle Choir, Philadelphia Orchestra, CBS Records

Twl,

I have a question regarding the Denon DL103R and the Origin Live Encounter tonearm.

The resonance frequency of the DL103R on the OL Encounter seems to be 15 Hz by my calculations. Can this be right?

In an earlier post, you indicated that you have used the DL103R on the OL Silver, which has an effective mass only one-half gram less than the OL Encounter, but yet this combination worked well, right?

I think I could use a little clarification because my calculations would indicate a mismatch. Did I miss something?

Thanks!

I second Artar1's recommendation of the Moerch DP-6, especially the 12" wand. I use the 12" wand with my Galiber Quattro ALU and it sounds very nice. (It also looks great with the Galibier's shiny aluminum finish.) By a number of accounts, the 12" wand sounds considerably better than the 9" wands. I don't have first-hand experience on this since I've only heard the 12".

Dave

Hi Artar, yes there is something else in the equation. The OL Silver I use has the "HiFi" mod, which increases the horizontal effective mass greatly, and provides better matching with low compliance cartridges like the DL103R. The OL Encounter has a heavy bearing housing that also provides a similar effect.

Actually, the effective mass figures that are published are primarily vertical effective mass, and encompass mainly the tonearm alone. The horizontal effective mass encompasses any mass that rotates on the bearing along with the tonearm, such as the bearing housing. In effect, there are 2 effective mass figures for most toneams, horizontal and vertical, but vertical is the one that is most mentioned in specs, and horizontal is probably more important when figuring in the cartridge compliance and stability issues.

Some tonearms strive to have the same(or similar) effective mass in both planes. Others are significantly different in each plane. The needs of the tonearm are very different in each plane of motion. The vertical needs low effective mass for good warp tracking, and the horizontal may need higher effective mass to stabilize the arm against unwanted lateral movement caused by the stiffness of some low compliance cartridge suspensions overdriving the horizontal effective mass of the tonearm. Any lateral deflection of the tonearm over the groove during play caused by the movement of the stylus, will cause loss of information or reduced dynamics, because all the motion of the stylus is intended to be transduced into electrical signal by the cartridge generator coils, and movement of the tonearm actually cancels this process to some degree, depending on the amount of unwanted arm movement. The arm should remain motionless and centered over the groove during play. If it is not, then some of the energy that is supposed to be tranduced into electrical signal is lost in mechanical movement of the arm, and will never be heard. This is the subject of my HiFi tonearm modification that is discussed in depth in the "Strange Tonearm Tweak" thread in the Analog Forum pages.