Removable headshells 101

I'm looking to upgrade my headshell leads to silver wire. Anyone have recommendations? Are the Van den Hul leads that use MCS 150m good? What about MCS 300?

Nandric, what is your source that the Orsonics now being sold are made in China? I recently purchased a "NOS" AV-101 and if it is a gray market copy, someone did a pretty good job. The fit and finish are high quality. Also, the standard box is marked MADE IN JAPAN. If I can find a friend locally who owns one old enough to be confident it is an original, it would be interesting to compare mine to see if we can find any differences.

I bought the Orsonic because I needed a headshell with a little more mass and I thought it had a long-standing reputation for quality. Henry's observations seem to be contrary to other users over the years. Unfortunately the arm I will use is not mounted yet so I've not had the chance to try my Orsonic.

Timeltel ... TA?

Also the use of wood as a damping/vibration modification material is interesting.
I have some mpingo wood shims I had made up for the Revox (where cartridge mounting requires shims for adjustment)

They are usually sold/advertised as "cartridge dampers"...

I have to admit to not having experimented with these other than using them as shims on the Revox (where they do an excellent job)

Wood has a couple of interesting properties:
Different speed of sound along grain vs across grain
This results in quite complex reflection/refraction patterns of vibration movement - with the potential for frequencies being altered/spread (refraction) resulting in damping...
Add to that the shear influences at the material boundaries.

The potential may indeed be there - but like any of these vibration related issues, the environment is so complex as to make it intractable other than as a black art. (frustrating that!)

bye for now

David

Pryso - yes interesting isn't it, Henry's comments amount to "this emperor has no clothes" :)

Dear pryso/Dlaloum: I totally agree with Halcro on the Orsonic hadshells ( I owned all the different original models. ) that IMHO are just a crap of headshell full of distortions.

Of course there are people that loves those distortions because IMHO they don't know/be aware that part of what they are hearing through this headshell in reality is added distortion.

This Orsonic headshell is one more myth in the analog audio that sellers spread the " rumor " that was a " great one " with out IMHO any precise/clear evidence and with out any other " help " ( for we customers. ) that makes easy money.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.