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Affordable Mono Cartridge For VPI Scout

I have a Shelter 501 with my scout/super platter, but I have several mono records and an interest in music from the 1950s. I am looking into getting a new arm wand to experiment. Shelter has a Mono cartridge, but the price seems ridiculous to me, at $1,750, plus I might as well take the opportunity to experiment with a different sounding cartridge. So far, I have been thinking about Lyra Dorian, Cartridge Man Music Maker, the Sound Smith Denon mods or one of the Benz mono cartridges. I'll upgrade my table when finances permit, probably a few years from now....looking for a cartridge that will be good for a long time, even with a better table (e.g, TW-Acustic). Any suggestions would be much appreciated. All the best, Mark
mcmprov
br3098
1,000 posts
 
Plinko, if you read the specifications for the Denon DL 102 it does have vertical compliance. This is what makes it suitable for mono playback of stero recordings. But this will also make it noisier than a mono cartridge that does not pick up information in the vertical recording plane.

From the DL 102 Instruction Sheet:
Unlike conventional mono cartridges, this one is most effective when utilized in mono replay during stereo recordings because of its ability to comply to appropriate up/down movements.
If it's working well for you, great. I'm sure that there are a lot of happy campers using the DL 102. It's a great family of cartridges. But for the OP's intended use (50's era mono recordings), my opinion is that the Denon may not be the best choice.
plinko
256 posts
 
BR,

Can you answer my question regarding the Soundsmith cartridge?

Regarding the Denon 102, I don't believe you are correct.

Read this link and in particular, the last paragraph below (if this is not clear, examine the graph...it's the same author as the link you provided):

http://www3.sympatico.ca/murraya/DenonMonoPage.htm

"As can be seen in this photo, the cartridge consists of a single solenoid wound moving coil mounted between fixed parallel pole pieces.

The pole piece faces are oriented at a 90° angle to the horizontal axis of the cantilever resulting in the cartridge producing its maximum output from lateral stylus motion, as is required for mono reproduction.

Stylus motions with angular displacement other than 90° to the horizontal axis, produces progressively diminished output, with a distinct null when the stylus motion is vertical"
br3098
1,000 posts
 
Plinko, I will try to answer your question and address your comments to the best of my limited ability.

1- re: the Soundsmith cartridges - I do not believe that there are any differences besides the coil detail. Having said that, since Soundsmith is also offers a premier cartridge re-tipping service there are opportunities for customization. One can select between a variety of stylus tips.

2- I think that we can both agree that the DL 102 was designed to output a single channel (mono) signal. As you have suggested, the common practice is to connect both channel leads to the single signal pin on the cart. The problem with this, of course, is that by passing the high output of a single channel to both channels of a stero preamp you are effectivey reducing the output by half. So it then becomes necessary to increase the output of the phono stage, by either increasing the gain or the volume at the preamp. This leads to more noise. This same problem exists if you utilize a mono switch on your preamp. The dual-coil design of the Soundsmith (and other) mono cartridges mean that you have a seprate mono signal generator for each phono stage channel. This would not be preferred if you were using a single-channel (true mono) system.

3- re: the DL 102 page - I saw the same text that you copied. I can't explain it because I didn't write it, but it seems to be in contradiction to what Denon claims is the intended purpose of the cartridge (mono playback of stereo LPs). Also, if there is no output in the vertical plane why does Denon bother to publish a vertical compliance figure for the cart?
stanwal's avatar
stanwal
3,147 posts
 
I use the 103 in both the 9" and 12.7 VPI arms, the recommended arm mass for the 103 is 6-16 grams, both arms fall well within this range. When it was tested by HiFI Choice in 1985 they estimated the actual compliance as 13 both lat and vert., which is higher than the figure of 10 or so often given. I doubt that they have changed the construction in the intervening years.
br3098
1,000 posts
 
Stanwal, as I recall we (and others) had a discussion about this subject a few months ago. All I can tell you is that I did not find the DL 103R to be the best match for my original JMW (10") tonearm. Admittedly, I have not tried a DL cart on a 9 or 9.5 arm. But in general I find that the JMW unipivot arms seem to do better with lower mass cartridges. But I am glad that it's working well for you.
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