Removable headshells 101


Due to the influence of Raul's thread on MM cartridges, I believe that some of us (perhaps for the first time), have acquired a tonearm/s with a removable headshell?
In my case, there was a vacuum of knowledge or information about what makes a good headshell and for the last 6 months a great deal of my time and effort has been expended in acquiring personal hands-on experience.
Perhaps a Forum to share experiences will help new adherents to this once denigrated (by the High End) segment of tonearm design?
128x128halcro
Dear Nandric: +++++ " I am not able to understand your
conviction that an forum is somehow more objective. Ie one
get usualy 15 different answers from 10 persons. " +++++

normally I don't trust on professional reviewers that are biased some way or the other to commercial compromises, I don't trust either in 30 years old reviews where the audio items ( audio systems. ) used are way different from today ones.

I don't trust on reviewers where things were that their reports are faulty ( by its review process. ) and where their findings are different from what we heard on different home systems or that are out of reality against live events taked as music reference.

Even that Halcro and I are not always in agreement ( we are in the main audio targets. ), fortunately, I trust with out doubt over say MF. There are many reasons why I trust in Halcro but one critical is that Halcro is not biased in any commercial way and in his honesty that he reports what he heard, it does not matters if I agree or not.

In this forum there are several persons whom I trust with out doubt over any single reviewer out there.

Do you think that I don't trust in Downunder only because he and I almost always are in disagrement?, no I trust in him that's not biased in anyway.

There are several other persons in this forum that are very well regarded, that own great audio systems and that I don't trust on them, mainly because are biased: biased or in a commercial way or biased to support some one.

In good shape: can I trust in Dertonarm or Syntax or Nandric ? could you?

Yes, I trust in non-biased people in this and other forums against/over reviewers even if we have " 15 different answers from 10 persons ", the subject here is which of those 15 answers are the " one " and only your skills/experience/know-how level along some type of research ( who is telling what, which audio system they own, music sound priorities of those persons, biased?: to what, etc, etc ) can tell you.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.
Dear Raul, you know very well that there is no way on this earth that I could proof something so that you would agree wholeheartedly.
It is just plain not possible.
Just as I am unable to proof anything to you, - so are you vice versa.
So where is the problem ? It is always nothing else then a subjective statement. I in most cases I try to choose a point of view based on fairly neutral technical ground - you most of the time are rather on the side of subjective sonic reception.
I guess that both points of view have their merits.
I for one think, that if a cartridge needs a "good match", then the cartridge's body has problems.
I for one believe in audio components which do not require sonic matches.
If an audio component needs a certain sonic counterpart to produce neutral sound, then the designer of that specific component has not finished his design/job. In other words - I think it is a problem, if a certain given cartridge calls for a certain "sonic match" in a headshell to perform it's best.
The 4 headshells I have named above will rank in the top class of every survey which would analyze headshells regarding rigidity, lack of resonance and energy transfer ( can be measured...).
It is not just about MM/MI cartridges.
Give any of the later 3 headshells a try with serious LOMCs (MM and MI aren't the only cartridges out there ...;-) ...) and you'll see/hear what I mean. Here it is much more about energy transfer and much less about damping resonances of a cartridge's body.
However - I think the AV-1 may be very good even with the ADC and AT20ss.
Cheers,
D.
Dear Raul, The expression I used was 'objectivity' not 'trust'. I don't believe that you will choose any component because of your trust in somebody but because you
believe in your own capability to make a choice. The most of us need in the first place the information about 'what there is' or what is available. This information we can get from HI-FI magazines, forums, friends,etc. We then try
to compere technical info about preselected items,etc and
then make a choice. When we actualy own the item in casu we can be satisfied or disatisfied. I have subscription i.a. for Sterephile for more then 10 years but never bought anything recommanded by Fremer. But as you noticed
I have some headshells recommended 30 years ago by the German Magazine 'Das Ohr'. It may be an coincidence but I noticed that Dertonarm refered to the same headshells. We
know each other for about 2 years so no conspiracy was possible 30 years ago. There may be persons who buy their
gear because Fremer of Pearson recommended them but I am not among them. Not because I trust or distrast them but
because I learned to make my own choice.

Regards,
Looking for opinions on the Micro Seiki headshells. They have a lower COG as opposed to all other headshells out there.

Would it be advisable to not use any other headshell for the Micro Tonearms?

I never seen this brought up before on the net and would think there should be some discusion about this out there.
Dear Dertonarm: Of course that I already used those headshell with LOMCs. The Orsonic and AT headshell ( older the Ors. ) were out there way before I started to test MM/MIs.

About cartridge body I think almost all cartridges have " problems " and are not perfect as you and other persons ( including me ) can whish but this is true with almost any other audio item so: what's the point?, I posted several times that all the TTs are unfinished designs ( you and me already discussed on this subject. ) but on tonearms we can say the same as with cartridges or speakers or amplifiers.

My point is that due that our audio world is not perfect we have to have the tools ( in this case: headshells/tonearms. ) for our cartridges can shows always at its best and this means ( between other things . ) that we have to look for matched items.

You are a wise man and I know that you know way before your last post what I'm refering to. Dertonarm I think that the time when we always want to win a discussion are past and our today contribution are " deeper " than that self misunderstooded satisfaction. I think and believe in your maturity even that several times you ( IMHO ) don't shows it.

Anyway, I don't want to follow opening more " windows " in this thread.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.