Shun Mook Record Weight

A shun mook is a shun mook. A fake is a fake. Just like everything else. I own one of these along with many other high end record weights/clamps. By far my favoirite in terms of music reproduction.

My now dead former neighbor Lars had the entire Mpingo disk treatment in his isolated sound room...installed by the Shun Mook dudes...absolute expensive audio exotica stuck to speakers, walls, on little stands...I'm not sure if it made much difference, but I now think I almost sort of semi understand it maybe.

A complicated subject to say the least. As I recall, the Shun Mook retailed for something like $2400.00 some years ago. I don't know what they go for now even on the used market if you can find one. For those willing to spend the money, it often was the preferred weight. I have seen them in systems over the years but I never had the opportunity to compare it to others. I use the HRS Record Weight which I find to be not invasive of high frequencies, too heavy for my TT motor/bearing, or too much wieght causing record "dishing." Unfortunately this is an area of high end audio that requires endless listening to endless weights, in endless weights and made of endless materials.

Just saw an ad in a Hong Kong audio mag, Audiotechnique, that there is a distributor in Hong Kong for Shun Mook products - www.wiwitubes.com. I know that Shun Mook was operated by a few guys from Hong Kong here in the SF Bay Area. But I also recall some report many years ago that this place had sold some fake tubes.

I had tried several record weights and found the results to be surprising. It affects the sound more than the outer ring. I had purchased a DIY weight made out of some African Ebony and it sucked out all the bass. HRS is the most benign one. It sounded good on almost any type of music, and on any table. I had recently purchased a Malaysian Ebony weight from eBay. It sounded very nice. It added some air to the sound, and the texture of wood body on instruments like guitars, violins, and cello. A friend of mine, after hearing it, bought the heavier one, and he preferred it over the Kuzma ebony weight.

FrankC