What Cartridge(s) Is Everyone Using

jdza said:
More than 20 years ago I bought an EMT cartridge. It was in use for almost 10 years. Finally the suspension became so stiff that I stopped using it. The maid then broke the cantilever and the cart was put in the trash. Somehow it landed in an old fertiliser bag in the tool shed. The other day I found it it send it as a joke to Blue Angel cartridge builder Andre Hanekom.

emtrat2.jpg


emtrat.jpg


Never one to not top a joke Andre returned these pictures of the same cartridge!

emtcart2.jpg


emtpost.jpg
Click to expand...

Reminds me of the voice over at the beginning of the Six Million Dollar Man TV show.

"We can rebuild him. We have the technology." :)
 
Here are two more cartridges. The first is a Magic Diamond - again with a ruby cantilever. I think that these gem cantilevers give the 103's refinement and dynamics in spades.

View attachment 2942


And a Denon 100th Anniversary DL-A100.

View attachment 2941

Don't know if anyone has noticed it by now, but neither of my arms have a fingerlift. I think that they both sound better this way.

I also have a Naim Aro, but that doesn't have an armlift, and without a fingerlift, it's quite a challenge to use it without breaking cantilevers.
 
garylkoh said:
Here are two more cartridges. The first is a Magic Diamond - again with a ruby cantilever. I think that these gem cantilevers give the 103's refinement and dynamics in spades.

View attachment 2942

mes to arms!


And a Denon 100th Anniversary DL-A100.

View attachment 2941

Don't know if anyone has noticed it by now, but neither of my arms have a fingerlift. I think that they both sound better this way.

I also have a Naim Aro, but that doesn't have an armlift, and without a fingerlift, it's quite a challenge to use it without breaking cantilevers.
Click to expand...

You're absolutely right--if you can get away with it? Less is definitely more when it co
 
You guys are giving us some fantastic shots! Thank you! :b

* No fingerlift; but is it truly worth it? Like can you not simply adjust the overall arm balance,
and without affecting the sound quality (god tracking)?
... And it is so much more practical, safe, better to have a fingerlift.
 
NorthStar said:
You guys are giving us some fantastic shots! Thank you! :b

* No fingerlift; but is it truly worth it? Like can you not simply adjust the overall arm balance,
and without affecting the sound quality (god tracking)?
... And it is so much more practical, safe, better to have a fingerlift.
Click to expand...


Most of the time you're using the armlift to cue and lift anyway. So, the fingerlift becomes superfluous.

I started doing without the fingerlift because the Naim Aro sounded different with a steel fingerlift and a brass fingerlift. It sounded best without a fingerlift, but it's then a pig to cue since it does not have an armlift.
 
Are you guys losing some perspective? :b ... Do you have what it takes to be precise, safe,
and without damaging your needles?

Gary, I always cue manually at the beginning of each album's playing.
I don't let the table do it for me.
... And I start exactly where I want without the table deciding for me.
The groove just before the one that starts playing the music.
 
garylkoh said:
No fingerlift either :D Is this a trend starting??
Click to expand...

Breuer doesn't really nead the finger lift since it has a queing lever. So you can que any track you want without worry. Breuer states in his brief manual that it was built intentionally without a finger lift. Breuer has been around for almost 40 years.
 
pcosta said:
Breuer doesn't really nead the finger lift since it has a queing lever. So you can que any track you want without worry. Breuer states in his brief manual that it was built intentionally without a finger lift. Breuer has been around for almost 40 years.
Click to expand...

Yes, but how is it that some people say that it sounds better without?

Can someone splain that to me please? ...Vibrations into the fingerlift???
 
NorthStar said:
Can someone splain that to me please? ...Vibrations into the fingerlift???
Click to expand...
Bob, I haven't done LP for decades, but the friend has; because the inital source to electrical conversion is a totally mechanical process, it's staggeringly sensitive to absolutely everything.

My recent doodling with audio has certainly highlighted to me how easy it is to change vinyl sound: just play with virtually anything, and you acquire a different cartridge. So to speak.

The way cartridges are held in position over the groove is so fragile, it's amazing it works as well as it does. So the slightest change of dynamic balance in that area, extra pieces of material that can vibrate to their own rhythm, will make a difference.

If I were to design an LP playing mechanism, I would it do very differently: the cartridge would be part of a comparatively massive transverse moving head assembly on a lathe type guide rail system, tremendously rigid. What about following the groove? Have an extremely precise record centering mechanism, and gung-ho vaccuum flattening setup. It would be equivalent to a piece of metal running true under a lathe: just like how the master was created!

Then all this nonsense of having to worry about vibrations all over the place could be safely ignored ...

Frank
 
NorthStar said:
Yes, but how is it that some people say that it sounds better without?

Can someone splain that to me please? ...Vibrations into the fingerlift???
Click to expand...

Not only vibrations but out of phase vibrations being reflected back into the cartridge. This can have a large effect on dynamics.
 
I've definitely heard an improvement in the Triplanar arm after removing the fingerlift.

Also improved the sound by removing the trough and inner plastic ring from counterweights.
 
Well, I'm learning some' new from you folks here.

I'm going to remove the fingerlift of my favorite cartridge shells, and hear for myself. :b

Stick into the groove, for some more comin' ...
 
Dynavector 10x5
 
MylesBAstor said:
I've always wondered about that cartridge. It's made in So. Africa if I'm correct? Never seen one in the US or at a show.

Tell us more about the cartridge and what you think it's strengths and weaknesses are!
Click to expand...

I realize that this is a very old post, but I have used the cartridge. My first one was in 2007, and I liked it a lot, but because it had a very nice tone. It isn't flashy sounding, but as M. Fremer so aptly put it, the cartridge is tonally correct.

The suspension on that cartridge finally collapsed, but Andre Hanekom, the maker, replaced it. My 2011 replacement showed up recently, but I haven't mounted it, yet. It appears to be improved in many ways, but I don't know how many. The first cartridge had some quirks. It had an unusual SRA for one thing, and the mounting pins were kind of a hassle. Still, I really liked it.

The Blue Angel isn't an ultra-high detail cartridge, like the Lyra Olympos, but it does have its attraction. I suppose, it one of those love them or hate them cartridges. It is safe to say that the cartridge is somewhat controversial.

Me? I like a lot of different flavors. I'm playing a strain gauge with a new sort of drive while I write this. It's a bit quirky, too. ;)

Win
Saskia Turntables
 
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