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  1. M

    Miyajima Labs 1.0 mil Infinity Mono

    Maybe I read it wrong. The answer to the question you pose is yes. That switch happend pretty early. In a mono cartridge with vertical compliance, the coil orientation (of both coils if there are two of them) is at a different angle to stereo, it only picks up horizontal groove modulation. It's...
  2. M

    Miyajima Labs 1.0 mil Infinity Mono

    I'm really not sure this is solid advice. The fact remains there is no vertical compliance in the 0.7mil Miyajimas (any of them), while vertical compliance is how stereo records work - all require some degree of vertical complaince to play what's on the grooves. People may be lucky that damage...
  3. M

    The Noob Linearity factor

    I've only ever been banned once from any forum. And that was for supporting, in the wake of a whole bunch of anti-Semitic bile following the loss by a hard Left-controlled British Labour Party of the 2019 UK General Election, a long-time hifi acquaintance, who happened to be Jewish, who said he...
  4. M

    The Noob Linearity factor

    Curiosity. Fence. Greener. Grass. I had the money so why not? I was, in the early days of hifi forums, a box-swapper, just curious about this and that component that somebody was rabbiting on about. I probably wrote as much opinionated BS as anyone else in those heady days of the mid 00s, and...
  5. M

    The Noob Linearity factor

    Not sure about steak. That takes a whole 10 minutes. Scrambled egg maybe. That's about as much as you can make with 30 second snippets. More seriously, I think this whole 'debate' is rather pointless - the premise is completely off. Some people increment towards a goal. Some people chop and...
  6. M

    Two pairs: My Sonic Lab Eminent Solo mono and Hyper Eminent cartridges, plus Glanz MH-104S and MH-124S tonearms

    Very nice indeed! I didn’t have good results with the Glanz headshell. I got much better results with the Mysoniclab headshells, or the Oswald Mills graphite one. I suspect the rigid Koetsu head hell would also work well. I don’t think the Glanz headshell is rigid enough.
  7. M

    Two pairs: My Sonic Lab Eminent Solo mono and Hyper Eminent cartridges, plus Glanz MH-104S and MH-124S tonearms

    Seems to be quite a strong following - 'belief system' might be too strong a phrase - around the positive effects of unshelded cables, especially among those who roll their own. Having given various commercially available unshielded options a try - silver in cotton wool etc - I can't say I've...
  8. M

    Two pairs: My Sonic Lab Eminent Solo mono and Hyper Eminent cartridges, plus Glanz MH-104S and MH-124S tonearms

    I would assume that however pleasant a sound the old Denon made, the simple conical stylus and basic coils of the Denon would fall some way short of these rather more exalted cartridges under discussion. Fairly obvious, no?
  9. M

    Two pairs: My Sonic Lab Eminent Solo mono and Hyper Eminent cartridges, plus Glanz MH-104S and MH-124S tonearms

    The 0.1mm tip, if measured correctly, must be a peculiarity of the measurement of the Line Contact stylus design in use - the figure is found all over the internet but unlike MSL presumably the original source info was in English so you'd expect it to be correct. None of the reviewers seem to...
  10. M

    Two pairs: My Sonic Lab Eminent Solo mono and Hyper Eminent cartridges, plus Glanz MH-104S and MH-124S tonearms

    There’s a lot of confusion about MSL specs and the info released and used on English language web sites is not always accurate or current. This was all checked directly with Japan at the time before I put it up. It’s 2ohm btw not 4ohm - x2 means the same impedance in both ‘channels’ as there...
  11. M

    Visit to Marc C.'s (SpiritOfMusic's) House in England

    Thanks for the kind words Marc. It's nice to get a visit and give the system a work out with music and genres that don't get much of an airing here. Much as I used to listen to it a lot back in the day, full on Jazz Fusion is not something I play all that often these days and there was some...
  12. M

    Jay's CDT-3 Mk III.

    Yes it's really useful for that. Then you can go and buy the LP or CD with confidence knowing you'll like what's on it.
  13. M

    More Consensus That Streaming Is An Inferior Format & Not High End?

    Statement of the obvious. Of course it's not an 'either or'. Very little of the Early Music I like to buy these days is available on vinyl. So I have to buy on CD. (I wouldn't buy the file - the ergonomics of streaming just irritate me and I'm not a believer in hi-res anyway).
  14. M

    Turntable platters, mats, stabilisers comparison plus Headquarters Audio QVMatPro review

    Marc, I think you nailed really well in your post what I also heard, a sense of naturalness and musical freedom. Pianos as you say are one of the big tests. The improvement over the previous top dog in my system, the graphite mat and stabiliser, was both subtle and not-subtle, pretty much as you...
  15. M

    Turntable platters, mats, stabilisers comparison plus Headquarters Audio QVMatPro review

    I should have mentioned I tried the SPEC mat and found it sounded pretty good, but I felt it ergonomically lacking - no label recess, but more annoyingly it's a full 300mm wide (exactly the same as an LP), and about as thin as a record too, making it tricky to lift the record off without taking...
  16. M

    Ikeda 407 alignment

    Never managed to track that with any copy or any cartridge. It was mastered by an idiot I reckon. DG mastering was always poor compared to Decca, Phillips, EMI anyway but they surpassed themselves here.
  17. M

    Turntable platters, mats, stabilisers comparison plus Headquarters Audio QVMatPro review

    You'd have to ask him, or at least look at his web site - there's a whole raft of his youtube videos on the topic. My conclusions about most of this are either explicity stated above, or could be inferred - heavy clamps - depends on the mat/platter (seem to work ok with metal, a total no-no on...
  18. M

    Turntable platters, mats, stabilisers comparison plus Headquarters Audio QVMatPro review

    I haven't weighed it but the QVMat is not a substantial weight and I think could easily be used on a bouncy deck just as much as on a high-mass platter. The 'ResoPoints' seems to be the approach I tried, translating the Resomat cones to the bare metal platter. On the rumble-buster, as with...
  19. M

    Question on using a digital oscilloscope for cartridge alignment

    Awesome - just what I need.
  20. M

    Turntable platters, mats, stabilisers comparison plus Headquarters Audio QVMatPro review

    I just checked, according to my calipers, 2.3mm and yes the dimples go in rather than out. The back side is flat/solid.
  21. M

    Question on using a digital oscilloscope for cartridge alignment

    Impressed at the glowing reports from a friend on how he optimised his cartridge alignment using an oscilloscope, in a fit of enthusiasm, I went and bought one - a two-channel digital model off Amazon. It's arrived, however it all looks rather complicated. My friend - who unfortunately lives a...
  22. M

    Ikeda 407 alignment

    It It's all a guide, not holy writ. The fact that there are multiple 'official' geometries (and quite a few others that haven't caught on so much like the Unitractor approach) suggests there's far more flexibility in stylus alignment than people really anal about following their protractor...
  23. M

    Ikeda 407 alignment

    That's what I did with my 407 - vary the mounting point. There is no matching curve for it, it's a weird one and you just have to live with the fact that it's not a standard geometry. Get it roughly right-ish within the parameters a mix of standard geometries, and it'll sound fine.
  24. M

    Turntable platters, mats, stabilisers comparison plus Headquarters Audio QVMatPro review

    And finally … Headquarters Audio QVMatPro and QVStab - prototype When the prototype HQ Audio QVMatPro and QVStab arrived, I kind of knew what to expect in terms of look and feel – they were made of the same bone-like material as the QStab I have on the Jays Audio CD transport. There is a...
  25. M

    Turntable platters, mats, stabilisers comparison plus Headquarters Audio QVMatPro review

    So here are a few of my specific observations: TD124 hard rubber mat and Shun Mook clone African Blackwood clamp - I know of someone who won’t play a record without his Shun Mook clamp. Sadly the £5k entry ticket is a bit too rich for me but this clone - very faithfully done, out of North...
  26. M

    Turntable platters, mats, stabilisers comparison plus Headquarters Audio QVMatPro review

    Let me return to the overall testing exercise for a bit. I used my TD124 MkII, a 13-year work in progress which has progressed from a fairly typical lightweight implementation with a hollow plywood ‘Ortofon’ plinth with reasonably conventional Ortofon tonearm, to a fully Schoppered affair (heavy...
  27. M

    Turntable platters, mats, stabilisers comparison plus Headquarters Audio QVMatPro review

    Ever had your intentions overtaken by events? Going back almost three years now, I thought an interesting lockdown project would be to do a fairly extensive comparison of turntable mats and stabilisers. So, over a couple of years, I picked up quite a few additional mats and stabilisers (I had...
  28. M

    Shindo Lab preamplifier

    Never heard an Air Tight preamp or phono stage that didn't sound broken - awful stuff, great cartridges though. As for Kondo, they play the game very well, and indeed it can be argued that they created it - a visit from an M77 preamp remains a highlight, and I would probably have one if could...
  29. M

    More Consensus That Streaming Is An Inferior Format & Not High End?

    Amen to this. 'There is absolutely ZERO correlation between bit depth and recording quality in my 35+ years experience.' Likewise I'm delighted to have Qobuz available, it helps screen music before purchase on vinyl or CD, vastly reducing the risk of disappointment and yet another album...
  30. M

    More Consensus That Streaming Is An Inferior Format & Not High End?

    Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and all you ever tell me to do is 'play pink floyd dark side of the moon, Marvin (or Alexa)'. Seriously, if I want to hear lift music, I'll get in a lift ...

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