Fremer's review of the Anna cartridge

Raul, Since you have experience with more cartridges than most people, what SRA do you think is the best starting point for an unknown cart? Do you feel some carts are better at a different SRA than others? If so how big of a variance is there?

Swampwalker
Acutusrex- Sorry to have offended you; I was just trying to light-heartedly say I agreed w you.

Swampwalker,
No offense taken; I gathered as much. To the rest of your post, I agree with your points, and I would too very much like to know what dictates those very high costs of retipping. This really had me scratching my head in light of the recent work I had done on my speakers. One of my tweeters failed, and I had it fixed (essentially rebuilt) by an experienced professional who does these things for a living. That entailed not only new materials and labor, but also "aging" the new tweeter to match the other tweeter. I was also told even things such as the tension of the screws matter and affect speaker performance and specifications. Those were things you just can't do yourself, if you want to have them done right. But the cost of the rebuilt was still a fraction of the cost of the speakers. So perhaps someone in-the-know can explain to us why a retip of a cartridge should cost nearly as much as its price when it's brand new.

Actus, The short answer is, it shouldn't, and it doesn't reflect the actual cost to the manufacturer of that repair. That's why SoundSmith and many others can do the same repair for much fewer dollars. The manufacturer is counting on audiophilia nervosa to drive the consumer back to him no matter what the cost. Or, at a less cynical level, the manufacturer is often giving you a new product in return, which probably does justify the cost, when that is the case.

The estimated lifetime of 1000-1200 hours has held true in my experience. Most recently I had my Benz LP retipped by SS after it developed some mistracking. I calculated that it was in the 1200 hour range. SS reported that the stylus had significant wear. The good news is that the retip was fast and inexpensive compared to a new cartridge. And it sounds and tracks like new.

Dear Sarcher30: First than all I would like to speak about VTA and not SRA and this because is more " practical ".

Now, for me is very " easy " an almost in " automatic " because when you are testing or trying different cartridges you learn where that start VTA/SRA is.

I have a process to make the cartridge set up that I use always. Inside that process I use always the same LPs recording tracks, this help me a lot because I know those tracks better than my " hands " ( I know even how should be listen to the clicks and pops in any of those trracks. ).
Btw, in the past I bought additional samples of those recordings but for my surprise the music information/presentation in the new ones ( that came from a different batch. ) was a little different so I been sticky with the old ones.

Now, with MM/MI cartridges normally I start with positive VTA ( tail up ) 2-3mm and from there things goes up/down depending on what I'm hearing. On the cartridge set up process first than all I want to fix both frequency extremes through my selected tracks: this is my main target on the starting set up and these is what I'm looking for from the start VTA. I don't go on till I'm satisfied with and if I can't fix both extremes I look to fix ( at least ) the bas frequency range and from here started again with VTA changes till with out loosing the bass extreme achieve better performance at the other frequency extreme.

With LOMC normally I start with even VTA followed by the same MM/MI process.

In both cases after that first frequency extremes set up I start the fine tunning process where azymuth set up is critical as is cartridge loading.

My cartridge set up process is a simple long one that through the day by day " excersice " converted in an easy tool for me, even there are some times that I jumped two-three steps on that process because the experiences I have.

In some ways each one of us have its own set up process some process more elaborated than other but I think we all have it. Mine works and worked for me with today 98% efficiency thank's to continuous process up dates.

The whole process involves not only the VTA/SRA but VTF, overhang, azymuth, tracking habilities, AS, etc, etc.

My reference is live music and in my home system I have 2-3 cartridges that functioning as references that are the cartridges that after " severe " fine tunning showed the higher overall quality performance level.

Anyway, I think you have the idea about.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.