"HELP" tired Koetsu

Hi Tom. Maxgain, I just have to ask since you seem to be an older guy too. How much vinyl do you have? As Tom mentioned, getting quality vinyl isn't that hard to do but requires a little work. It doesn't need to be expensive either. I'm with Tom on generally preferring the earlier pressings, especially if they are imports. Gotta beat the bushes and buy collections and discard the dogs.

I believe it was Max that was complaining about surface noise. I think you should really borrow another preamp just to see if your phono stage is out of shape. My gear doesn't come close to what you guys are using and the lack of noise is spooky. I have guests that accuse me of pretending to play records it's so quiet.

Lugnut,(just turned 45 about a week ago)I am down to about 250-300 records. It is hard to find the most new stuff I am interseted in listening to. It culled my record colletion a few years back and it's about 1/4 of what it was. I never got a lot of the classic jazz & classical I should have bought years ago since I always thought I would get around to it. I got to hear that sfuff so much at work and at friends houses it didn't seem important to buy it at the time. I am by no means a record collector, who just buys stuff to have it. So my collection is sort of an odd blend of stuff that isn't real exciting to me right at the moment.Don't get me wrong I do have a lot of gems in there. What do you do if you want to listen to, say, a new band you just found out about like, Calexico. Where the hell you gonna find a copy of "The Black Light" on vinyl? Not gonna happen!

I think the pre is fine. Not everthing sounds noisy, but some of my favorites that were dead silent with the MC seem annoying now. It could be that I just have gotten too used to the sound of CD's.

You don't list your rig, what are you spinning your fuzzy warbles on(ever seen "A Clockwork Orange", "come hear all proper")? You know, flat, black, and circular. Licorice pizza.

Gentleman if you want to read some very good reviews on the shelter cartridges and the Koetsu Black, Rosewood, Rosewood Signature, and Urushi Moving Coil Cartridges go to jerrys audio pages http://www.21stcenturyservices.com/audio/
This guy is good. The shelter 501 is actually the Crown Jewel which Michael Fremer reviewed in Stereophile (v.20 no. 4) where it was given a “Class A” rating, had a $2650 price tag. Mike also said in mike speak that it was as good as any in class A. He also along with other reviews I have read on this cartridge said that the 501 or Crown Jewel conveyed the emotion of the music better than any heard. I guess this is the trait of the Japanese sound, so to speak. years back when I started using mc's I could take the same lp from my house, and play it on my freinds Linn's with mm cartridges. I believe a v15 mark whatever and the noise was terrible. When played on my old systemdeck, silence. The noise you are hearing on the records, is I beleive, the mm cartridge you are using. I have a van den hull frog, that I like very much, unlike the benz I had before. I asked a reviewer of the 501 to give me his opinion, if he thought the 501 was as good or better than the frog. He said his "friend", tried both and perferred the frog. What about the old audio technica Signet oc9 II, with the Boron? I really liked the old verision years ago when I used them. The new one with the boron should be better, also the cantiliver on the 501 is aluminum just like the old signet oc9. Mr. Van den hull says boron is the best for cantilivers. But hey, I don't know. Hope you can use some of this information.
Ron

Maxgain,

I have an all Linn Aktiv system, LP12/Ittok/Valhalla, Wakonda, Genki, (2)Lk100's, Keilidh. I've had the LP12 since '84 and owned a previous version bought in the late '70's prior to that. I previously had a modest Naim kit consisting of 42.5/110 and Linn Sara's. Early on I had AR/Klipsch/Thorens. I guess I am a collector of lp's since I have rarely parted with anything I bought. Maybe I'm fortunate to not live in an area with worthy radio stations so I don't get exposed to a lot of new music. Our local library is my source for auditioning new tunes. I go there a couple of times a week and check out 5 cd's. I have two used record stores locally and one of them has fair prices with most lp's being less than $10 and the quality is great. The new music that I like I buy in whatever format they are made. My vinyl library is too large to give you an exact count but is over 3,000. Oh yeah, I use a Blue Point Special and would like to get either a new DL 103R or have my FR1 MKII rebuilt. Both of these choices would require a step up device and that's what is putting a cartridge change on hold.

Lugnut and Rockinroni,

The step up thing baffles me as well. I know if I had the money to buy any phono stage and cartridge that I desired this would be a non issue. I could get The Groove, or an ARC REF Phono, and run the microscopic mv coils evryone loves. I guess it is the sound that MM's make that I don't like. Perhaps I will try another MC before I dump it all. It's tough to get new releases on LP. If you do find them they are the expensive heavy weight audiophile pressings. It sounds like you guys get your newer stuff on CD. Does your BPS read noise like mad, Lugnut? I know Twl didn't have much good to say about it, what do you think of it? I could live with a few warts if the damn thing was quiet.