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#1
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A good midprice turntable cartridge
I just got a Dual 1216 turntable at the flea market this weekend, in
good working condition. It has a Shure M91ED cartridge, and I bought a new but cheap imitation stylus which seems to work fine so far. I'm having a great time rediscovering my LP collection, but I'm thinking about getting a better quality cartridge and starting building a collection of brand new records, mainly jazz stuff (Blue Note offers a lot of reasonably priced LP reissues). I looked around on the web and newsgroup, and am considering Shure, Audio-Technica and maybe Grado. I looked at Garage-a-Records, and picked those three for comparison purpose. They're all slightly below a 100$ and seem to be generally well regarded: Shure M97xE Audio-Technica AT440ML Grado Silver I'd like to read opinions on these from people who have actually used them. Opinions on cheaper but good value cartridges are welcomed, too. I have a modest set-up, so I'm not considering high-end equipment. Thanks everybody! |
#2
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A good midprice turntable cartridge
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#3
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A good midprice turntable cartridge
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#5
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A good midprice turntable cartridge
"Allan Tremblay" wrote in message
om I just got a Dual 1216 turntable at the flea market this weekend, in good working condition. It has a Shure M91ED cartridge, and I bought a new but cheap imitation stylus which seems to work fine so far. I'm having a great time rediscovering my LP collection, but I'm thinking about getting a better quality cartridge and starting building a collection of brand new records, mainly jazz stuff (Blue Note offers a lot of reasonably priced LP reissues). I looked around on the web and newsgroup, and am considering Shure, Audio-Technica and maybe Grado. I looked at Garage-a-Records, and picked those three for comparison purpose. They're all slightly below a 100$ and seem to be generally well regarded: Shure M97xE Audio-Technica AT440ML Grado Silver I'd like to read opinions on these from people who have actually used them. I have a M97e and a Grado Silver. They are two really very different cartridges. Each is fine in its way. I don't have the same arm as you, and that is significant as well. My take is that the Shure is more tolerant of massy arms, but you have to get its capacitive loading right if you want it to have uncolored sound. In contrast the Grado is tolerant of various amounts of capacitive loading, but more intolerant of overly-massy tone arms. Both track loud passages and transients well. |
#6
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A good midprice turntable cartridge
On 14 Aug 2003 05:53:54 GMT, in rec.audio.opinion you wrote:
I'll second the suggestion re. Grado cartridges. I've used Grados for years, and have always considered them to be very good value for the money. Of course, they make models at a very large number of different price points. I've only heard of hum problems occurring with Grados when used with Rega turntables, but as you suggest, it would be good to check this out first. FWIW, I've often seen various Grado cartridges, "new in box" for sale on eBay and sometimes on Audiogon at significant savings. They are also known to have issues with AR turntables as well. I didn't know that about Rega. Origin Live, the leading Rega modders, recommend Grado on their website. |
#7
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A good midprice turntable cartridge
I have a Dual/AT440 combo and am relatively pleased.
The only criticism of the AT440 I have is that it seems to have an annoying ability to get small dirt/dust particles wedged behind the tip of the stylus. This happens once every few months and I generally keep my collection clean and I always use a Discwasher brush before every playing. As far as sound quality, it sounds excellent. As Moi said, the AT440 is pretty bright, but that's a good match for my laid-back system and the bass extension is great. It's dead quiet in terms of background noise. You'd probably have to spend 3 times as much to get significantly better sound. I haven't used the other 2 cartridges, so I can't compare to them. BTM "Allan Tremblay" wrote in message om... I just got a Dual 1216 turntable at the flea market this weekend, in good working condition. It has a Shure M91ED cartridge, and I bought a new but cheap imitation stylus which seems to work fine so far. I'm having a great time rediscovering my LP collection, but I'm thinking about getting a better quality cartridge and starting building a collection of brand new records, mainly jazz stuff (Blue Note offers a lot of reasonably priced LP reissues). I looked around on the web and newsgroup, and am considering Shure, Audio-Technica and maybe Grado. I looked at Garage-a-Records, and picked those three for comparison purpose. They're all slightly below a 100$ and seem to be generally well regarded: Shure M97xE Audio-Technica AT440ML Grado Silver I'd like to read opinions on these from people who have actually used them. Opinions on cheaper but good value cartridges are welcomed, too. I have a modest set-up, so I'm not considering high-end equipment. Thanks everybody! |
#8
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A good midprice turntable cartridge
dave said:
On 14 Aug 2003 05:53:54 GMT, in rec.audio.opinion you wrote: I'll second the suggestion re. Grado cartridges. I've used Grados for years, and have always considered them to be very good value for the money. Of course, they make models at a very large number of different price points. I've only heard of hum problems occurring with Grados when used with Rega turntables, but as you suggest, it would be good to check this out first. FWIW, I've often seen various Grado cartridges, "new in box" for sale on eBay and sometimes on Audiogon at significant savings. They are also known to have issues with AR turntables as well. I didn't know that about Rega. Origin Live, the leading Rega modders, recommend Grado on their website. Grados can definitely cause hum problems in Regas, but it appears that the wooden-bodied Grados are much better than the Prestiges and the older models in this respect. A lot of tweaking (i.e. very careful set-up) can also ameliorate the hum. I've also had a few people report that Grados can hum with some Music halls. |
#9
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A good midprice turntable cartridge
Mr. Phillips wrote:
dave said: On 14 Aug 2003 05:53:54 GMT, in rec.audio.opinion you wrote: I'll second the suggestion re. Grado cartridges. I've used Grados for years, and have always considered them to be very good value for the money. Of course, they make models at a very large number of different price points. I've only heard of hum problems occurring with Grados when used with Rega turntables, but as you suggest, it would be good to check this out first. FWIW, I've often seen various Grado cartridges, "new in box" for sale on eBay and sometimes on Audiogon at significant savings. They are also known to have issues with AR turntables as well. I didn't know that about Rega. Origin Live, the leading Rega modders, recommend Grado on their website. Grados can definitely cause hum problems in Regas, but it appears that the wooden-bodied Grados are much better than the Prestiges and the older models in this respect. A lot of tweaking (i.e. very careful set-up) can also ameliorate the hum. I've also had a few people report that Grados can hum with some Music halls. I've had no problems, however, with Grados and VPI turntables (VPI Jr., Mark IV, or Aries). I've used, over a period of time, the Grado MCZ, Platinum & Reference. While the last 2 are wood-bodies, the MCZ was not, and even that cartridge performed satisfactorily on a VPI Jr. I agree that careful attention to setup and grounding definitely helps. Bruce J. Richman |
#10
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A good midprice turntable cartridge
Thank you everyone for your recommendations!
Well, so far the AT440 seems to have the edge... I'm only wondering how it will react to some old and not-so-clean LPs. Aren't high precision carts more sensitive to scratches and dirt? Maybe I could try to find another TT and have one for crappy LPs and another for mint condition ones... Anyway, for the moment, the old M91ED is working great for the money I've put on it... And it's not a bad cart, from some posts I read in the archives. Thanks again. |
#11
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A good midprice turntable cartridge
Alan Tremblay wrote:
Thank you everyone for your recommendations! Well, so far the AT440 seems to have the edge... I'm only wondering how it will react to some old and not-so-clean LPs. Aren't high precision carts more sensitive to scratches and dirt? Maybe I could try to find another TT and have one for crappy LPs and another for mint condition ones... You may not be able to eliminate scratches on your records that are deep enough to produce audible noise (not all scratches are audible during playback). However, the best product I've found to deal with dirty records, which can produce a lot of noise, is the Disc Doctor brush and cleaner system. These products have been endorsed by a number of record archives, journalists, etc. You can read about them at: www.discdoc.com The "before-and-after" effects of this system on really dirty records is not subtle! Check it out. Anyway, for the moment, the old M91ED is working great for the money I've put on it... And it's not a bad cart, from some posts I read in the archives. Thanks again. Bruce J. Richman |
#12
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A good midprice turntable cartridge
"Bruce J. Richman" wrote The "before-and-after" effects of this system on really dirty records is not subtle! Check it out. I received a new Musicdirect catalog. There is a new product by DuPont call Premier LP Cleaner... an aerosol spray cleaner for use with a dry brush. It can also be used as a pre-cleaner before vacuuming. http://www.amusicdirect.com/products...l.asp?sku=AMCP |
#13
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A good midprice turntable cartridge
Powell wrote:
"Bruce J. Richman" wrote The "before-and-after" effects of this system on really dirty records is not subtle! Check it out. I received a new Musicdirect catalog. There is a new product by DuPont call Premier LP Cleaner... an aerosol spray cleaner for use with a dry brush. It can also be used as a pre-cleaner before vacuuming. http://www.amusicdirect.com/products...l.asp?sku=AMCP I actually use thr Disc Disc brushes and cleaner in conjunction with a VPI 16.5 record cleaning machine, but basically jusst use the machine for the vacuum drying. The DD brushes are better (as is the cleaner) than the brush and fluid that comes with the machine. It's also more effective than Torumat and other liquid cleaners I've tried in the past. By the way, you're not allowed to mention MusicDirect around here Nor Acoustic Sounds, Red Trumpet, eBay, Better Records, etc. Certain digital and PC bigots salivate like one of Pavlov's dogs when they see these words. Bruce J. Richman |
#14
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A good midprice turntable cartridge
On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 09:55:14 -0400, "Shrivel"
wrote in : I have a Dual/AT440 combo and am relatively pleased. The only criticism of the AT440 I have is that it seems to have an annoying ability to get small dirt/dust particles wedged behind the tip of the stylus. This happens once every few months and I generally keep my collection clean and I always use a Discwasher brush before every playing. This is pretty normal with a line-contact stylus... they contact significantly more groove area, so tend to pick up more dust & dirt (they're also quite a bit smaller than the average 0.3 mil elliptical... in the case of the 440ML, 0.12 mil). As far as sound quality, it sounds excellent. As Moi said, the AT440 is pretty bright, but that's a good match for my laid-back system and the bass extension is great. It definitely has a hump in upper treble (I measured it)... something like between 5KHz and 10KHz, if I remember right. Neutrality is better of course, but I personally prefer a tipped-up treble (sort of enhances the sense of detail) than the "warm" tipped up midbass of Stantons, which sounds really unnatural to my ears. It's dead quiet in terms of background noise. You'd probably have to spend 3 times as much to get significantly better sound. Agreed... maybe even 5 times as much. Detail retrieval is really remarkable, in my opinion... it's a very "fast" cartridge and I've never noticed any sibilance, even with LP's that just brought the M97xE to its figurative knees. Audio-Technica really has something going with this cart at the price they're selling it, and I've noticed it just keeps getting more & more popular and talked/raved about on vinyl-related forums recently -- IMHO for good reason. |
#15
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P.S. on the AT440ML cartridge
If there's any interest I'd be happy to post a 30-second sample of something well known, recorded with my AT440ML/TD-160 combination, in some reasonably high quality format. Even if it's MP3, it'll give a good idea of the general frequency balance of the cartridge (at least with my system, which is completely solid state). |
#16
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A good midprice turntable cartridge
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#17
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A good midprice turntable cartridge
Moi wrote in message . ..
On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 09:55:14 -0400, "Shrivel" wrote in : As far as sound quality, it sounds excellent. As Moi said, the AT440 is pretty bright, but that's a good match for my laid-back system and the bass extension is great. It definitely has a hump in upper treble (I measured it)... something like between 5KHz and 10KHz, if I remember right. What is a "hump" and what does that mean in terms of sound quality? Thanks. |
#18
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A good midprice turntable cartridge
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#19
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A good midprice turntable cartridge
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