The 'tube-transistor' enigma by MC carts?

Dear Nandric: I can't understand in a precise way what you mean by cartridge " iron bobins ".

Perhaps you are reffering to the cartridge armature where the coils goes on.

There are different type ( like you say ) bobins like cross-shaped, v-shaped, square-shaped, etc, etc.

Fron the point of view by some cartridge builders the non-magnetic/non-conductive cartridge armature build material is more linear, example: Ortofon in its top of the line MC cartridges use carbon-fiber material.

IMHO a cartridge quality performance depend on many design factors and the execution quality on the design, I think that there is no single/aisle cartridge design factor that could define the whole cartridge quality performance but the " wise " choice/synergy of all cartridge factors in the final design/build product.

+++++ " The advantage: stronger signal and some kind of 'pleasing warm sound.the disadvantage:(more)distortion. " +++++

if that is true that is a trade-off like almost always in any audio item design, which cartridge trade-offs design/build are the best?, well which quality cartridge performance do you like more.

Now, IMHO I think that other than a direct cartridge builder ( like Dynavector or Scan-Tech ) the right person in this analog forum to give us an in deep explanation on the subject is JCarr, I hope he can share its knowledge with all of us.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Dear Raul.I hate the 'semantical chatter' but the Swiss
used 'platchen' to refer to the 'thing'.The matter is even
more complicated because Swiss-German is not 'the same' as
the German-German (see'Zelle'= cart versus 'Tonabnehmer'=
cart in German). The 'platchen' should be a kind of 'disc'
in English but I thought that 'bobbin' is an known technical term so I translated as such. As Casey stated
the issue is 'very simple';one need only to look at allnicaudio.com to see 'the light' and,I assume ,not make
a fool of hemself.Maybe I already deed by asking stupid
question. There is nobody I know of who knows more about
carts then you so for me it was 'natural' to ask Raul.
J.Carr is the right person but Mr.Carr must 'care' about
the so-called 'intellectual property rights' because he
is designer-developer for Scan-Tech.
But if he wish to be so kind then, of course ,gladly.
BTW there is something 'secretive' by the producers about
the,say,'amalgam'(alloy) that they use for the 'bobbin'.

Kind regards,
Nandric

Nandric, I suspect the comparison of different cartridge construction to tube vs solid state is likely a red herring. Tube phono sections do not have to have higher distortion, and some transistor phono sections OTOH can have quite high distortion. There there is also the question of what distortion is important to the ear and what is not. Research has shown that all humans detect distortions in the same way- but that is a topic for another thread.

In phono cartridges, you are also faced with loading issues, and the ability of the tone arm to allow the cartridge to track. These variables play a huge role in the resulting sound you get- Raul is absolutely right as well about the design tradeoffs that a cartridge designer faces, along with the execution. It is not something that can be so cut and dried.

Dear Raul.We are waiting for J.Carr but I made some investigation in between.There is obviously the problem
of the language we use to describe 'sound' so no wonder
the musician invented they own notation (Pearson also
mention this problem and trys some Chinise metaphors).
Despite of this we are aiming,it seems to me,at 'the same'
goal. Your description was: 'more linearity' my was 'more
neutrality'. But I attributed this,say, 'quality' to the
'not-iron bobbins'. Not I but the Swiss guy (from Benz)
stated that Ortofons SPU is a'classic example' of 'iron-bobbin'construction. I knew that there are persons who
will kill,so to speak, for this cart but also that the
majority don't care about this cart.But I had no idea why.
So the information from the Swiss 'lightened' something in
my brain. 'Spying' is also 'a form' of investigation so I
deed some 'spy- work' at your cart-collection.Alas nobody
will pay me on 'cent' for my effort. One 'second alas' is
the fact that I deed not see SPU of any(Ortofon) kind there. So my quess is:someone with such an collection can
unlikely have forget or miss such one 'item'. So my second
quess is:there is something about the SPU that Raul don't
like(?).
BTW there is one 'special' about the SPU on our forum.
About the SPU I will quote two statements:
a.'unusualy high output and a soft IRON circuit with high
saturation';
b. SPU Synergy versus Jubilee. SPU 'more weight&solidity
but not the air of the Jubilee.
You mentioned Ortofon in the context of 'bobbin kinds'and
you named 'armature' and 'carbon-fiber' as ,I assume,the
material of which the 'bobbin' is made.
HI-FInews (from UK) has payd a visit to Ortofon as a kind
of introduction for the review of Windfeld (Dec.2007).
The information:80% are MM carts. The MC carts are produced
by special 'force' with the ability to 'wind' with accuracy
the wire on the 'bobbins'. The 'top' carts are an fraction
of the production and SPU is a small part of MC carts.
I don't know if you know that Windfeld has the same diamond
as your 7500: Replicant 100.
Windfeld is 'basicaly' Jubilee with some mod. As mentioned
the Replicant (more extension in both 'extremes')and some
small mod. to the 'bobbin' so that the coils (copper-gold
alloy) should be more precise wound. The result:0.2 dB
channel sep. and Fre.20-20000 +/_ 1dB.
So there is still progress in the 'art'.

Cheers

Dear Nandric: Yes, fortunately there is progress.

SPU: many years ago I owned and change it for other cartridges that ( in that time ) like me more.
Last year I had two SPU experiences ( unfortunately not in my system ) and I can't find nothing that motivate to go for it. To be fair about maybe it is time to try a listen in my system, yes why not.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.