What cartridge are you using?

[pennysdad]

Got some new cartridges to try out.
With enough [firing pin assisted] tracking force, they can play both sides of the record at the same time!

 

[VintageShadow]

I currently use an older Nagaoka JT-311 hooked to my L-A10 JVC TT. I find these older cartridges sounding more natural and more close to the analogue feeling! I also got new cartridges from Goldring and Audio Technica but they sound not that great and not according to my tastes.

 

[Elite-ist]

Sep: I picked up a JVC JL-A20 last year at the local thrift store for $20. It has the original JVC cartridge on it.

Nando.

 

[VintageShadow]

Nando, these JVC's are just good, very well made and very well designed. I do have the original L-A10 cartridge but it has a bad needle! Good to see you have and enjoy a JVC too!

 

[Elite-ist]

Good little vid and LP selection, Sep. Like me, you're still stuck in the 80's.

Nando.

 

[VintageShadow]

Because we are looking for the good sound, Nando. So we obviously are stuck in the 80's for about forever and nothing can change that! BTW, this record infact maxi single is new composition by a Russian artist, they try to bring back the 80's even nowadays and it succedeed quite nicely!

 

[Elite-ist]

Wow - I mistook that record for an old release from the 80's, but it's a fairly new release.

Nando.

 

[VintageShadow]

Yes Nando, it's a completely new release, and there are many others like this one. So younger people that didn't see the 80's are still stuck in there, so the 80's are universally magic!

 

[vince666]

Sep: I picked up a JVC JL-A20 last year at the local thrift store for $20. It has the original JVC cartridge on it.

Nando.

Nice kitchen system there, Nando!

Just, be careful in not putting, i.e., a pizza on the turntable and a vinyl there in the oven!

 

[Elite-ist]

That's a good one, Vince. Too much Sambuca at dinner and it could happen one day.



Nando.

 

[vince666]

LOOL!

and, yes, I do agree about Sambuca... it's one of the nastiest things ever you might choose to get drunk! It can literally change a person's behaviour like nothing else.
(another similarly nasty stuff to get badly drunk is the Strega liquor, typical of a town in the southern Italy named Benevento, but it might be known also abroad, i guess).

Cheers

Vince.

 

[pennysdad]

That's a good one, Vince. Too much Sambuca at dinner and it could happen one day.

View attachment 52922

Nando.

About the tracking force, 1/2 a kilo oughta do it.

 

[vince666]

back to topic...

about cartridges, I am using a Shure M97xE here on a lightweight tonearm.
the lightweight tonearm nicely matches the high compliance of this cart so that I can happily use it without its inbuilt damper/brush (which still comes handy with warped records, though).

in the past, i had often read around it to be a dark sounding cart... while, here, it didn't sound dark at all but maybe a bit too bright!
matter of fact, i've recently discovered that the specs of my own integrated amplifier did cheat!
they say the phono input has 50Kohm loading impedance (which would make this cart slightly too dark) while, really, it has 100Kohm loading impedance, which is a bit too much on the bright side!
This also explains why I never liked other carts which are brighter than the Shure M97xE with such 100Kohm impedance input...
So, after discovering this, i simply changed the input impedance load to 62Kohm and everything sounds just how it should.

 

[VintageShadow]

Vince, what to say now about my preamp having 100k and 1000pf capacitance! As you know the subsonics produced stopped my to be able to put records on tapes as long my decks were in big trouble because of this. So with correct loading and capacitance everything must sound good smooth and natural way!

Sep.

 

[vince666]

I wonder the guys who designed the phono part into my integrated amplifier and that phono preamp of yours what they were smoking!

1000pF peaking capacitance at input is just plain crazy!
it would be way too much also for a sendust magnetic tape head.

 

[VintageShadow]

Vince, as you just said they were cheating! So how nice'n bright can sound their 47k standard loading phono imput!
And for sure, it's hard to judge a cartridge or another testing it on the same phono imput, even if they are advertised as standard 47k loading we know very well now that this isn't true!

Sep.

 

[vince666]

of course, different cartridges will need different loadings... but 100Kohm is too much for any cartridges and those 1000pF you had there are just plain crazy!

 

[VintageShadow]

Vince, analogue playback is a crazy thing in itself! The more we learn the more we know nothing! It's a big mistery all the way!

Sep.

 

[vince666]

ditto... definitely so!

 

[pioneercollector]

I always try and hunt down the Ortofon VMS 30 MK2 units as they are so nice sounding and very forgiving. My main Pioneer TT ( PL-7L ) has the super Roksan Shiraz cartridge attached, This is one of those exotic units that i would never have had the chance to own if it wasn't for a kindness of a friend who upgraded his unit and offered it to me for 10% of the new price! I of course grabbed it!

Everything else runs on the Ortofon VMS 30's.... apart from my weird B&O TT..... But that is ...well ....