kvetcha
Well-Known Member
Channel separation baybeeee
Phono Cartridges - Your favorites and least favorites?
- Thread starter imajindat
- Start date
Slimwhit33
Well-Known Member
Why Mather, yes, I think a Paua Tour is a great idea. Put me on the list! So generous!
You're all welcome to come to Chez Mather dans le Canada. @marshall came last year, we went to a Leafs game and saw Muse in concert. Both were very entertaining and very ridiculous.
kvetcha
Well-Known Member
aww, that rules. Maybe I'll exploit your hospitality next time I'm in Toronno.
Absolutely!
fuck yeah dude. Sounds like you’re having some fun!
My wife told me recently the moment where she felt the sound on my system increased the most drastically and noticeably was when I swapped to Grado Opus for a Hana SL. She said that’s the only moment when she’s been actually impressed by an upgrade hahah.
The Ultradeck was underwhelming to her.
The Lintons were underwhelming to her.
The NAD was underwhelming to her.
The Sutherland was underwhelming to her.
But the cartridge change made her actually go whoa. I tried to explain to her that it was the cherry on top of the stack and not the whole thing but she didn’t care for that much.
It’s a pretty damn special carriage for the price in fairness. I was never anything but impressed by it!
TrainFan73
Frothy
You are lucky, the only thing I did to the system so far that made an improvement to my wife (that was worthy of comment - I'll explain in a minute) was when I isolated the ELACS.
From lp60 to u-turn and pluto - nothing
from the crap KLH to ELAC - nothing
fucking shitty ort to grado (and every upgrade since) - nothing
from sony to NAD - nothing (said anyhow - I can play the music a lot louder without her complaining about it now - I've not pointed this out to her, because then she will be like well stop playing it so loud)
But putting the speakers in a worse position while offsetting what I lost with great isolation, that was the thing she noticed. (To be fair, they do sound way better where they are now than before, ideal placement be damned)
Angsty
Well-Known Member
One factor we may not always account for is capacitance. High capacitance in the phono and cables will tend to boost high frequencies on a MM cart and can make bright cartridges even more so.
The Bronze calls for a recommended load capacitance of 150-300 pF. I’ve seen some notable 1m cables hit 500 pF for just the cable alone. I’d imagine a 500 pF cable with a line contact MM cartridge could possibly create a “howler monkey” if you have HF hearing sensitivity.
Yeah that makes perfect sense. I know when I was testing out speaker cables one of them was something very silver forward and it was a screechy disaster.
Angsty
Well-Known Member
I’m simply impressed that your wife cares two sh*ts about how your system sounds!
Here, my wife is consistently less than impressed with my audio fiddlings.
Angsty
Well-Known Member
Here’s where things can get confusing; the 2M Red, the 2M Blue and the Soundsmith Otello all have the same effective tip mass. I’d bet that the Hana EL has the same 0.5mg tip mass, but they don’t publish that spec.
Unlike the distinctive differences mainstream cartridge manufacturers had in the heyday of vinyl, it seems now that most of the stylus/cantilever assemblies come from the same few suppliers. The stylus and cantilever are the largest contributors to effective tip mass.
This is the geeky stuff that is less important than how we enjoy the music produced, but I do find it fascinating.
Woof. Wish me luck, going to attempt to realign my Hana SL tmm, I've never successfully aligned a cart before. Getting a lot of IGD as of late that wasn't so noticeable before my amp upgrade but now is pretty glaring. Tried adjusting VTA and antiskate to limited success. I'm going to be using the Hudson Hi-Fi alignment kit as I really really didn't enjoy the MoFi geodisc thing, the whole "point this at the center of your arm" felt far too fussy and inaccurate.
Any pointers for a first timer?
Going to be properly checking VTA + tracking force before I start fiddling with the mount but I'm feeling this is likely a misalignment thing!
Any pointers for a first timer?
Going to be properly checking VTA + tracking force before I start fiddling with the mount but I'm feeling this is likely a misalignment thing!
kvetcha
Well-Known Member
hm, I've always had an easy time with the GeoDisc, but it helps to have a straight edge to ensure you're actually aiming dead center at the pivot point.
TrainFan73
Frothy
be sure to check VTF when you are done fooling around with everything.
Angsty
Well-Known Member
When using an alignment gauge, be prepared to spend some time. It will be an iterative process to check between the two null points to make sure everything aligns at both points. Depending on the table and cart, it could take 30 minutes or more.
The Geodisc simplifies by having only one null point, but requires a line of sight to the pivot point instead. I use a metal yardstick to align the line of sight instead of just eyeballing it as MoFi describes.
Interesting. I’m going to use both to verify the current alignment status. My issue with the Geodisc is that seeing the pivot point on the MoFi is a bit of a faf, and I never actually know if I’m dead center or not. For example:
What to my eyes currently shows as dead center says my cart is perfectly aligned, but I push it a smidge to a place that also feels pretty dead center then my cart overshoots the the landing zone by a bit. My brain is telling me the dual landing zone protractor will be a bit more reliable in helping me understand if it’s out of alignment to begin with.
Also will be checking azimuth + VTA properly before I start loosening any screws on the cart! Will keep y’all updated as I get into it tmm.
kvetcha
Well-Known Member
I will say that the Geodisc works extremely well with the Sol and it's easily eyeballed unipivot.
I’m fucking hilarious.
My alignment was dead on for both parts on the Baerwald protractor *thank god*
Buttttt
• My VTA was off, I was running tail down by a good bit.
• My tracking force was off by a couple grams
• And my left speaker was where my right speaker should’ve been and vise versa and I had the right grill on the left speaker and the left grill on the right speaker
So now sitting down and spinning a record and it would appear my records do indeed sound much better.
Just your yearly reminder to read your instruction manuals for speaker set up after a cross country move and stop eyeballing things like VTA
My alignment was dead on for both parts on the Baerwald protractor *thank god*
Buttttt
• My VTA was off, I was running tail down by a good bit.
• My tracking force was off by a couple grams
• And my left speaker was where my right speaker should’ve been and vise versa and I had the right grill on the left speaker and the left grill on the right speaker
So now sitting down and spinning a record and it would appear my records do indeed sound much better.
Just your yearly reminder to read your instruction manuals for speaker set up after a cross country move and stop eyeballing things like VTA
I’m fucking hilarious.
My alignment was dead on for both parts on the Baerwald protractor *thank god*
Buttttt
• My VTA was off, I was running tail down by a good bit.
• My tracking force was off by a couple grams
• And my left speaker was where my right speaker should’ve been and vise versa and I had the right grill on the left speaker and the left grill on the right speaker
So now sitting down and spinning a record and it would appear my records do indeed sound much better.
Just your yearly reminder to read your instruction manuals for speaker set up after a cross country move and stop eyeballing things like VTA
Sometimes it really does pay off to just sit back, relax and enjoy the tunes! Preferably with your favourite tipple!