Price up, availability down for replacement styli in the near future?
- Thread starter 62vauxhall
- Start date
We're coming to the break in point with this cart as its really starting to make music. It performs well on the inner grooves, runs pretty quiet on noisy/crackly records, punchy, dynamic, and detailed without being in your face. I spun a brand new 180g reissue of The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour, fantastic all the way through, also spun my well worn original issue of The Doors LA Woman (side B) no inner groove distortion heard, just sounded great.
TL;DR can't beat it with a stick for $50 Freedom bux ($75 Maple syrups?)
And the LP Gear 78 stylus for the AT3600 is great too for you guys who like to hear shellac. Sounds awesome in the Rega tonearm with a dime on the headshell tracking at 4-ish grams.
Equipment used in test: Rek-O-Kut Rondine B-12H, Rega RB-300 tonearm (bog stock), Wyn Palmer Proto-Pyxi Phono Preamp @36dB, MiniDSP 4x10HD, WOPL 400 Series 1, WOPL 700B, Altec 807-8A (GPA Diaphragms)/811 horns, Altec 422-8Zs/in Altec 1202 cabs, JBL Northridge 12" Sub
TL;DR can't beat it with a stick for $50 Freedom bux ($75 Maple syrups?)
And the LP Gear 78 stylus for the AT3600 is great too for you guys who like to hear shellac. Sounds awesome in the Rega tonearm with a dime on the headshell tracking at 4-ish grams.
Equipment used in test: Rek-O-Kut Rondine B-12H, Rega RB-300 tonearm (bog stock), Wyn Palmer Proto-Pyxi Phono Preamp @36dB, MiniDSP 4x10HD, WOPL 400 Series 1, WOPL 700B, Altec 807-8A (GPA Diaphragms)/811 horns, Altec 422-8Zs/in Altec 1202 cabs, JBL Northridge 12" Sub
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Yep, its a Sleeper,
LP Gear Carbon Fidelity CF3600LE
Mounted it on the Thorens TD 165 at 2.5 grams, I am blown away by its sound. Cant stop listening to it. Not at break in point yet. Can recommend, there are also stylus upgrade options available.
It may not be a microline stylus, but I am truly surprised at the performance of this Cartridge. For $50 US its a steal.
Edit: If you want to go All out, here is the vivid line stylus upgrade for this cart, currently at $130 US. Something I may consider in the future
LP Gear ATN-3600DLXVL stylus | LP GEAR
LP Gear Carbon Fidelity CF3600LE
Mounted it on the Thorens TD 165 at 2.5 grams, I am blown away by its sound. Cant stop listening to it. Not at break in point yet. Can recommend, there are also stylus upgrade options available.
It may not be a microline stylus, but I am truly surprised at the performance of this Cartridge. For $50 US its a steal.
Edit: If you want to go All out, here is the vivid line stylus upgrade for this cart, currently at $130 US. Something I may consider in the future
LP Gear ATN-3600DLXVL stylus | LP GEAR
Last edited:
Well, no wonder the damn thing was blowing up phono cards right and left 15 years ago or whenever I switched to the Exposure integrated.
SS was supposed to have replaced the stylus tip on this Sumiko Alchemist HOMC. When I got it back, it blew out the left channel of the MC card in the first Exposure. Cartridge back to SS, nothing wrong. New MC card, blew that one. At that point, I got the Phonemena II preamp and Denon DL-304 and said done, stashing the Alchemist back in the cabinet. Statdoc showed me Steven Leung's (VAS) work on his VPI tonearm so I sent the cart to him just to see. $350 to clean this up and reconnect the wires. Hopefully a new and different MC cartridge comes back to me in a week or two, it's been that long and I have no idea what it sounds like. The tip must be good - Steve said nothing about it.
Looking forward to trying it out after all threse years. It was a good cartridge back in the day - mid 90s.
SS was supposed to have replaced the stylus tip on this Sumiko Alchemist HOMC. When I got it back, it blew out the left channel of the MC card in the first Exposure. Cartridge back to SS, nothing wrong. New MC card, blew that one. At that point, I got the Phonemena II preamp and Denon DL-304 and said done, stashing the Alchemist back in the cabinet. Statdoc showed me Steven Leung's (VAS) work on his VPI tonearm so I sent the cart to him just to see. $350 to clean this up and reconnect the wires. Hopefully a new and different MC cartridge comes back to me in a week or two, it's been that long and I have no idea what it sounds like. The tip must be good - Steve said nothing about it.
Looking forward to trying it out after all threse years. It was a good cartridge back in the day - mid 90s.
Don't let me anywhere near that ruby cantilever......especially after a few beers.
Since I can't leave well enough alone I mounted the other AT3600 body on the Micro-Trak 306 tonearm (that 16" wooden thing) and put the CF stylus on that of course, tracking at 2.5 grams. Great so far, but I got run it a week or two to make my mind up.....
Since I can't leave well enough alone I mounted the other AT3600 body on the Micro-Trak 306 tonearm (that 16" wooden thing) and put the CF stylus on that of course, tracking at 2.5 grams. Great so far, but I got run it a week or two to make my mind up.....