Phono Cartridges - Your favorites and least favorites?

Joe Mac said:
If you want to use a heavier headshell/cartridge on the GR one easy workaround is to buy the aux weight for the G. It can be picked up on its own as a part and it is a bit heavier but fits the GR the same. Let’s you play with some funky headshells or heavier MC carts.
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Thanks for the tip, didn’t know if it would fit! Will be a tempting little accessory to get.
 
zombie.modernist said:
Thanks for the tip, didn’t know if it would fit! Will be a tempting little accessory to get.
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I saw it mentioned on another forum, or maybe on socials, somewhere where someone was using it for that to run a graphite headshell and some exotic cartridge on a GR!
 
zombie.modernist said:
I’ve found it’s a funny balance with some carts and heavy headshells. Are you targeting higher than 1.8g VTF? Some people will advocate for a heavier headshell just to get the counterweight as close as physically possible to the arm pivot. Pretty much what I’m running now with my AT, but the compliance on that is lower than the MP series. I’m also unconvinced the tracking is that much better. I’ve personally just stuck with a Technics headshell on my old MP-110 (just use it for beaters), curious what sounds best to you with this series though!
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I’m targeting 1.8g on VTF. I actually had to dial back the counterweight setting to negative 0.5g to achieve a 1.8g VTF, even when using the auxiliary counterweight. Without the counterweight, I could not get to static balance. I presume that the nuts and longer screws I needed to use for the MP-300 also came into play. I did not use nuts for the Ortofon 2M and the screws were half as long.
 
Man, I swapped my MasterTracker back into the system and…boy, it sounds different than the Soundsmith. Bass is much larger (and flabbier), vocals feel recessed, sound field feels smaller. Lacks the detail and the sparkle of the Zephyr.

Gonna be a rough however-long-it-takes-to-rebuild-my-cartridge.
 
kvetcha said:
Man, I swapped my MasterTracker back into the system and…boy, it sounds different than the Soundsmith. Bass is much larger (and flabbier), vocals feel recessed, sound field feels smaller. Lacks the detail and the sparkle of the Zephyr.

Gonna be a rough however-long-it-takes-to-rebuild-my-cartridge.
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yeah I feel you. On a different but related note, I recently send my climbing shoes for resoling and have been using my older, less technical shoes, and I can't wait to get my fancy shoes back...
 
kvetcha said:
Man, I swapped my MasterTracker back into the system and…boy, it sounds different than the Soundsmith. Bass is much larger (and flabbier), vocals feel recessed, sound field feels smaller. Lacks the detail and the sparkle of the Zephyr.

Gonna be a rough however-long-it-takes-to-rebuild-my-cartridge.
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Mastertracker:
1655397490081.png
Frequency response curves for the MasterTracker MM, (–8dB re. 5cm/sec) lateral (L+R, black) versus vertical (L-R, red)

Zephyr:
1655397533971.png
Freq. resp. curves (–8dB re. 5cm/sec) lateral (L+R, black) vs. vertical (L–R, red) vs. stereo dashed

Yup, I can see the difference. Hope for smooth sailing on the re-build.
 
kvetcha said:
Man, I swapped my MasterTracker back into the system and…boy, it sounds different than the Soundsmith. Bass is much larger (and flabbier), vocals feel recessed, sound field feels smaller. Lacks the detail and the sparkle of the Zephyr.

Gonna be a rough however-long-it-takes-to-rebuild-my-cartridge.
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Whats the TAT on the rebuild? I have no clue how much time I have left on my zephyr, but I've had it for a couple years I think?
 
Splunders said:
Whats the TAT on the rebuild? I have no clue how much time I have left on my zephyr, but I've had it for a couple years I think?
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I just emailed them asking this, actually. Peter Green let me know the rebuild department is very backed up, but didn’t provide a timeline in his initial response. Will let you know when I hear back.

For a $350 rebuild on a $2k cartridge, I can’t be too mad. If I get tired of the MasterTracker maybe I’ll look into alternatives to tide me over.
 
kvetcha said:
I just emailed them asking this, actually. Peter Green let me know the rebuild department is very backed up, but didn’t provide a timeline in his initial response. Will let you know when I hear back.

For a $350 rebuild on a $2k cartridge, I can’t be too mad. If I get tired of the MasterTracker maybe I’ll look into alternatives to tide me over.
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$350 is not bad at all. I spent $245 to re-tip a $750 retail cartridge.
 
Splunders said:
Whats the TAT on the rebuild? I have no clue how much time I have left on my zephyr, but I've had it for a couple years I think?
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Update: Peter Green just said 'several months at least,' so I'm gritting my teeth a little. We'll see if I get used to the MoFi again.
 
kvetcha said:
Man, I swapped my MasterTracker back into the system and…boy, it sounds different than the Soundsmith. Bass is much larger (and flabbier), vocals feel recessed, sound field feels smaller. Lacks the detail and the sparkle of the Zephyr.

Gonna be a rough however-long-it-takes-to-rebuild-my-cartridge.
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I feel like it’s a SLIGHTLY unfair comparison - it’s a Zephyr!!!
 
kvetcha said:
Man, I swapped my MasterTracker back into the system and…boy, it sounds different than the Soundsmith. Bass is much larger (and flabbier), vocals feel recessed, sound field feels smaller. Lacks the detail and the sparkle of the Zephyr.

Gonna be a rough however-long-it-takes-to-rebuild-my-cartridge.
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UPDATE: Guess who forgot to swap the loading back to 47k on his phono stage.

The MasterTracker sounds good now. Channel separation still isn’t as extraordinary as the SoundSmith, and the detail isn’t as crisp, but it thumps nicely and no longer sounds bafflingly weird.

My apologies to MoFi.
 
kvetcha said:
UPDATE: Guess who forgot to swap the loading back to 47k on his phono stage.

The MasterTracker sounds good now. Channel separation still isn’t as extraordinary as the SoundSmith, and the detail isn’t as crisp, but it thumps nicely and no longer sounds bafflingly weird.

My apologies to MoFi.
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Ya, I've never done that ;)
 
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