The DJ catgeorization got sullied by the Numark/Vestax/Stanton legion of tables that sacrificed a lot of audiophile features to deliver a high torque and reversible platter specifically for heavy cueing and scratching (and the stylii built for that purpose are specifically not outstanding).
Creature comforts are always going to play into the choices we make, I've always removed the dust cover on any and all TTs, so that didn't bother me at all and I had already known I was going to be grabbing the Jelco head shells going in, again, you go with what checks off the most boxes for you. I just wanted to reiterate the PLX's place in the grand scheme of things
And when I was involved in that world, all of the legit DJs that I knew viewed those decks with the same disdain the vast majority of us view the Crossley tables. sure, they’re cheap entry points, but that they’re not good.
Can’t please all the people all the time. There’s no “right” answer. Grado doesn’t work with everything so you have to figure out if it works with your setup. If you’re planning on upgrading your TT then I wouldn’t really buy a cart now until you know what TT you would upgrade to. You want to make sure that A) the new TT doesn’t have any motor hum with the Grado or B) the tone arm is a good match. This applies for any cartridge though.
that upgrade is not for a good while.. at least a year or two.
i like a clear mid for vocals and a lot of detail retrieved but still clearly a warmth to make the music fun.
im mostly fine besides the fact that with the 58X and the powered speakers it feels like some songs end up fairly muffled on vocals, which can be fixed with a cartridge and amp upgrade. its just i dont want to stay at a low tier all the time, i need to make some kind of spending goal and my goals are the cartridge (which my stylus is probably dying anyway), the preamp (a maybe decision) and the amp (liquid spark or magni 3+), plus i guess i just always feel kinda like i need to make it all better in some way.. to reach a kind of drugged out bliss
I’ll keep you posted on how the Grado goes for me. Just installed the Gold 3 today but so far the bass is much nicer than my Ortofon Bronze and it has a lot of detail from the few albums I spun with it so far. The Ortofon Bronze and even the lower models are nice carts too and people generally like Ortofons. I switched because I have only had ortofons and wanted to hear something new and was due for an upgrade.
i just need one that can power headphones stronger.. some theorized that my muffled sound might be because the powered speakers have too high an output impedance, from what i hear the magni 3+ has a more fun sound than the analytical heresy and the liquid spark has an almost tube preampish sound from what some said... both seem good choices and they are the same price and thats the hard part
The nuts are designed to rest flat against the side of the cart so that when you screw the screws in from above, the nuts will hold themselves in place once it catches the thread if that makes sense...you shouldn't turn the nut, you should turn the screw.
Yes, I was turning the screw and not the nut and was going for the flat side against the cartridge. The screw had turned the nut somewhat. I straightened it out and the splay was less but still not perfectly straight. Initial impressions are not staggering. There’s a pretty big difference in sound but the 2M Red definitely does Julia Jacklin’s vocals substantially better. Grado is getting a better balanced sound and way more texture out of the music. I was expecting night and day improvement in every way with zero points for the Red but the Red is coming out as the value proposition of the century considering the price difference.
Having made that exact same transition, I have to believe that something is off in your set up. On my system it is straight up a night and day difference. Transition between the two carts does require me to adjust every setting of the tonearm. Counterweight, VTA, and anti-skate all must be adjusted on my PLX.
