Different Cartridges for Different Music?

dminches

Well-Known Member
Oct 22, 2011
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For those of you who have multiples arms/cartridges do you find yourself using one cartridge for one type of music, say rock/prog, and a different one for jazz?

I guess what I am wondering is if people feel the characteristics of certain cartridges are a better match for particular music.

My main cartridge is a Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement v2 and it love it but sometimes I find it a tad too hot for some rock albums. Frankly, I don’t think it is the fault of the cartridge. I think the average rock album is not recorded as well as the average jazz album. I don’t feel this way about any of the Dire Straits albums, for example, which are so well recorded.

Just curious how others see this.
 

advanced101

VIP/Donor
May 3, 2017
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I'm looking at doing the same thing. My Koetsu + FR64S is great for rock and jazz but I feel like I could be missing something with Classical. Looking at the Ortofon Anna Diamond.
 

dminches

Well-Known Member
Oct 22, 2011
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I'm looking at doing the same thing. My Koetsu + FR64S is great for rock and jazz but I feel like I could be missing something with Classical. Looking at the Ortofon Anna Diamond.

Interesting. I don’t listen to a lot of classical but I do find a difference between rock and jazz. It sounds like you do not.

I think one of the Ortofons would work for me as well since when I did own one I found it to be slightly on the warm side.
 

jackelsson

Well-Known Member
Dec 1, 2013
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Interesting topic. I specifically and on purpose voiced all of my four cartridge--arm--combinations differently to cater for different kinds of music and/or different levels of recording quality.

The Ortofon Anna in the Origin Live Enterprise 12" has a beautiful midrange and an inherent tranquility and grace without ever being boring, and all that combined with a hell of a lot of resolution. It is my go-to combination for classical music.

The vdH Colibri Master Signature in the SME 312s is the racehorse, giving me incredible detail, slam and speed, but unfortunately also being simply too hot on some records.

The Lyra Atlas in the TW 10.5 gives me a lot of PRAT and detail without being all too hot. It is very natural in its presentation and is my kind of everyday allrounder. If I had to live with only one combination it would be this one.

Lastly, the Benz LP-S (MR) in the second TW 10.5 tonearm is a very lush and colourful combination with an ever so slight focus on the bottem end of the frequency spectrum. It's really good e.g. on Jazz of the 70's or some of the thin recordings of the 80's.

Phono stages for all four of them are two Pass XP-25, so no variance there. After a while I got quite a good gut feeling for when to use which combination.
 

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