Murasakino Sumile Mono Cartridge

[Mike Lavigne]

please let us know how the Dava works on the Glanz as well when you get a chance

DaVa, DaVa, DaVa.....

yada, yada, yada....

sure, i do have an extra set of DaVa wires that i could string on the Glanz at some point. on your next swing thru here for sure......

 

[Mike Lavigne]

DaVa, DaVa, DaVa.....

yada, yada, yada....

sure, i do have an extra set of DaVa wires that i could string on the Glanz at some point. on your next swing thru here for sure......

i did receive the Glanz tone arm. alas; the Esoteric T1 arm board is ordered, but won't arrive till likely January. i'll have the Sumile Mono in a couple weeks and it will go on the Telos for now.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

the Sumile Mono has landed. mounted it on the Durand Telos (removed the Koetsu Azule) and running into the dart pre. really a beautiful cartridge.

a little tight and closed in to begin with i'm settling in for an extended break in period. on my 5th side (Kenny Burrell) so far and it's a touch opening up. no hurry.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

MONO MANIA---10+ hours of Sumile Mono break-in so far, the last 4+ hours today. the musical experience of 4 hours with my somewhat neglected mono pressings has been so enjoyable really not much paid attention to any sort of objective changes. this has not been critical listening. are these pressings this good? or is this cartridge that good? who cares.

some real delights.

 

[Argonaut]

MONO MANIA---

Any further considerations Mike, now that you have a week on the clock.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Any further considerations Mike, now that you have a week on the clock.

after more Sumile mono listening, probably around 17 to 20 hours so far, i have come to a preliminary conclusion.

my agenda was that as much as i enjoyed my Miyajima Labs Infinity mono cartridges, that as my stereo cartridges improved they were musically equal or better on my mono pressings than my mono cartridges. the Infinity carts still had some micro-dynamic advantages/attributes, but in terms of refinement they were not quite at the same level. so trade-offs.

as a result i had i become ambivalent about listening to my mono cartridges, and needed to step them up. to be fair to the Infinity's, they cost 15%-25% of the cost of my stereo cartridges, so that has to be considered. and mostly the stereo carts had better arms and phono cables. can't ignore that. the Infinity's are great carts, amazing for the $$$'s.......but.......there is a higher level.

what i hear now is that the Sumile Mono has the refinement and nuance (on the wood arm wand Telos with the basic phono cable) that takes my mono pressings slightly beyond where my stereo carts could go, along with the mono energy and more alive presentation and now present a clear step forward for my mono pressings. i know i'm not at the optimal point yet, so we will see what develops.

so my hope seems to have become the reality. i wanted my mono pressing listening to be something special. can't say the Sumile mono is better than other higher level mono carts, as i have not played that field. but it does make most of my mono pressings better than even my top level stereo cartridges.

not sure everyone would agree with my conclusions, this is just my 2 cents.

 

[jazdoc]

Had a play date at Mike's yesterday. The mono is incredible with the Sumile. Congrats!

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

DaVa, DaVa, DaVa.....

yada, yada, yada....

sure, i do have an extra set of DaVa wires that i could string on the Glanz at some point. on your next swing thru here for sure......

I have a DaVa mono....surprise....very good

 

[Mike Lavigne]

I have a DaVa mono....surprise....very good

i seriously considered the DaVa mono too. it might be better....on pure performance i think. but the wait time, power supply, arm wiring and phono stage challenges tipped me to the Sumile. it's easier to integrate into my system with all my arms and phono's. which a mono has to do.

none of those things are really a big deal, but i need flexibility for my situation that the Sumile allows.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

I´ve made a switch on the fc psu and 2 outputs, so common psu for both stereo and mono

 

[Mike Lavigne]

I´ve made a switch on the fc psu and 2 outputs, so common psu for both stereo and mono

i knew about your switch, and that it was one option for that issue. like i said, none of those things are a big deal. my mono cart typically ends up getting moved from arm to arm over time, and i did not want to mess with re-wiring different arms, and dealing with running the wires different places. i wanted to have my mono plugged into the EMIA for the long term, and i only have one input on my MC Trio for the DaVa SUT gain, which i use for my stereo DaVa.

just easier the route i went.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

simply add a switch to the MC Trio input

 

[Mike Lavigne]

simply add a switch to the MC Trio input

i asked Jeffrey Jackson from EMIA if i could add another switch to the MC Trio and their perspective is that the 3 way powered mercury wetted relays as i have it already was transparent, but adding a fourth input would not be. certainly a switch can be added.

 

[shakti]

I really liked the Sumile in the Glanz MH-124s tonearm, never tried the Sumile in the Glanz MH 1200s.
As MH-1200s is a little more damped than MH-124s, the arm is more flexible regarding hesdshells,
with my current experience I would try on MH-1200s the Phasemation CS-1200 headshell with DLC coating and triple C headshell leads.

I started a time ago a thread around the theme "My Sonic Lab" carts and derivatives.

My personal journey to MY SONIC LAB

Over the last decades I used a lot of different cartridges and it took me some time to understand, that many of my favorite carts, even beeing from different brands (Supex, Air Tight, Koetsu, Miyajima) were from the same man (co) developed and produced: Master Yoshiaki Matsudaira It seemed...

www.whatsbestforum.com

if someone is interested to read.

I never had the Sumile mono at home, but the cart is definitely on my wish list.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

i asked Jeffrey Jackson from EMIA if i could add another switch to the MC Trio and their perspective is that the 3 way powered mercury wetted relays as i have it already was transparent, but adding a fourth input would not be. certainly a switch can be added.

I´ll meet him in a week at ETF and ask him .....his answer might have been the short version

 

[JRW1971]

I’ve been following this and other threads discussing mono carts. As deep in the rabbit hole of this hobby as I often think I am, I never owned one. I can’t even recall hearing one. I believed the hype, but assumed it was exaggerated. Well, I’m on Day 3 of a new EMT mono, and it’s blowing my mind. Such a satisfying, engaging, fun presentation. Consider me converted, at least part-time.

 

[Argonaut]

Mike , For my part I would be most interested in your recent / current recordings discography that you have been running through with your Sumile mono , perhaps a few remarks referencing what the cartridge has brought to any particular recording that really wowed you

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Mike , For my part I would be most interested in your recent / current recordings discography that you have been running through with your Sumile mono , perhaps a few remarks referencing what the cartridge has brought to any particular recording that really wowed you

saw your request yesterday, and knew i would need some time to respond. this will be a work in process, as it's now been a couple weeks since i did the majority of my mono listening. but i will list some main mono pressings and then as i can i will try to come back and comment on them as i can recall or maybe re-listen. i will list some vintage mono pressings in this post, then reissues in another post when i can do that. these are not all of them, but these are one's i kept together in my room to spend more time with. i probably have 300-350 mono pressings, maybe up to 400. if i count all the mono pressings in my classical collection upstairs i don't even know i have yet i might have 600-700.

Early Mono Pressings---these all wowed me to one degree or another in my Sumile Mono listening, and the music here is consistently sublime!!!!

Gerry Mulligan meets Ben Webster, Verve MGV 8343

Rolling Stones, Aftermath, Decca Mono LK 4786

Benny Carter, Cosmopolite, Norgran Records, MGN 1070

Chet Atkins, HiFi In Focus, RCA LPM 1577

The Oscar Peterson Quartet, Clef MGC 688

The Beatles, Revolver, Parlophone Mono PMC 7009

Billie Holiday, Body and Soul, Verve 8197

Budapest Quartet, Beethoven Early Quartets, Columbia M3L 262 box set.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

here is the reissue list. these are not necessarily my fav reissues, more that for the last year or so i had not been listening much to mono as i had lost my mono mojo a bit as my stereo carts were different but equal to my mono carts. however, i did continue to buy mono pressings knowing i would get back on the horse. so i had a 'mono stash' ready to be enjoyed once the Sumile Mono arrived.

i do enjoy all these and will try and comment on them as i can. you can't go wrong with any of these.

Reissue mono pressings---

Donald Byrd Quintet Parisian Thoroughfare, Vol 2, Sam Records—Brunswick 87904

Chet Baker Quartet, Sam Records, Barclay Discs S4009

Chet Baker Sings and Plays, BN Tone Poet, PJ-1202

Curtis Fuller quintet, Blues-ette, Sam Records, Savoy 30SA 6022

Dexter Gordon, Montmartre 1964, Storyville 6018410

The Red Garland Trio, All Mornin’ Long, AP, Prestige 7130

Illinois Jacquet, Swings The Thing, AP, Clef—MGV 8023

Mobley’s 2nd Message, AP, Prestige LP 7082

Sonny Criss, go man, Classic, Imperial Lp 9020

Lee Konitz Plays with the Gerry Mulligan quartet, Tone Poet, PIM-406

Art Blakey, The New Jazz Men, Sam Records, INA SR21/2

Introducing Kenny Burrell, Tone Poet, BN 1523

Kenny Burrell, Tone Poet, BN 1543

 

[jazdoc]

I’ll play. Here’s a few A-B: