What cartridge are you using?

BlazeES

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Interesting article. Many of my records were played with a conical stylus for years and not cleaned real well over the years. When I began playing them with the V15 SAS, even with wet brush cleaning, the first few plays the stylus would “dig” dirt out from the. Ottom of the grooves and clog to the point of distortion. Now that those records have been played and cleaned several times it’s become virtually not an issue.
Glad you found it useful Sailor. Can't remember when I started with non-conical carts but it was quite a while ago. Always been some form of a fine line or micro line type. That article has my curiosity piqued about the sonic benefits of a Shibata. Gonna have to seek one out ...
 

AngrySailor

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Thumbs up for the correct spelling of “piqued”

And thanks again for the read, I’ll have to read again as I focused mainly on my stuff. Have no idea still what a scriraccha cartridge is
 

BlazeES

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Three bottles, three brushes. Interesting. What's in the two smaller bottles ?
 

Bob Boyer

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Damn, you guys don't miss much. Looking at my current stash, it appears the largest bottle is tape head cleaner. The smallest (round) bottle would be some Tweak for my RCA plugs and jacks. Don't use it very often - usually only when I'm tearing things apart to move them around. Pretty sure it's gone and I'm just using Deoxit now. And the small square-ish bottle is some LP #9 stylus cleaner, which I don't use as much as I probably should.
 

Elite-ist

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I have a few spare cartridges on tap and replacement styli. One of my NOS cartridges is not shown. It's an older Yamaha MC-1 moving coil cartridge.

20200421_132635.jpg

Nando.
 

Elite-ist

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I have to go through this thread. I thought I had already revealed which cartridges I have been using on my turntables. That's why I posted the spares.

Nando.
 

BlazeES

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I remember contributing to a thread similar to this one ... but it's probably a good time for a recap ...

Before the 2000's I ran with these on my Denon ...

20200421_193840.jpg

If memory serves, I picked up two of these at a local audio shop going out-of-business in the mid-Nineties. Only elliptical but I hadn't much acquired the taste for what lies beyond and they performed well on my spinner. Predating the Signet, I remember goofing around with Ortofon and Denon MC carts but the whole low output coil thing with the transformer just didn't seem right. And I was kinda baked anyhow ... :cool:

Sometime around 2002 I think, I learned about micro line and these specifically ...

AT440mlba.jpg

Another great fit for the Denon but unbeknownst to me, I was still using the straight arm when I could have moved up. Great cart by just about all measures.
Good balanced output, easily damped with tone arm adjustments to eliminate harsh treble and a cart that doesn't elevate groove noise at the same time bringing out all the low end ... if the low end is there to begin with.

Then around 2011 or so, perhaps later, but I think it coincided with jumping from TH to here ... I scored two of these and I've never looked back ...

20141221_115112.jpg
20141221_133253.jpg

Switching to the "S" arm coupled with the 150MLX opened up a whole new world. These top-line AT MM's carts are fetching nearly 800 bucks now, retail.
Do I think they are worth that much? Probably. But they weren't that price back in 2010/2011. Not even close ...

I've been a one-trick-pony when it comes to turntables. I've had this Denon DP-62L since 1983-ish. Another scroe from a recycled audio joint in San Jose.
Some DJ bought two of them and decided against them for his club gigs. So he dumped them at this low-key joint that didn't get much foot traffic.
Right place, right time for me ... yet again. Damn near all my audio purchases and investments have been kinda like that. When I was able to pick between two brand new looking, with the tone arms still factory taped down to the plinth, spinners for about half the price ... I jumped !

Update:

1587519793974.png

I just remembered my first cart. It was paired with a Pioneer turntable I picked up in 1982 from a place called Pacific Stereo. It was a Precept ... a budget brand of Audio Technica. It was trash ... but it was all I could afford at the time. That was my very first personal turntable investment. Before that I was making ends meet with a Garrard hand-me-down from the old man.
 

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Bob Boyer

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Dealer here in Chattanooga (who is no longer here) had both Signet cartridges and speakers in his lineup along with Threshold and Counterpoint electronics and Green Mountain Audio speakers. I never got a Signet Cartridge but I did have a nice pair of SL-280 floorstanding Signet speakers that were quite good. Early to mid-90s was their heyday. Nice stuff.
 

Elite-ist

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I reviewed this thread and I covered only two of the cartridges and turntables - Pioneer PL-630 with Pickering XSV-4000 and Dual 1229Q with Shure V-15 III. I can add to that.

Nice to see those cartridges and history associated with them, Tony.

Now that I reviewed the thread, Nav's post sticks out:

hot-girl-working-out-55.jpg

Nando.
 

nakdoc

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Bob, Those Signet speakers also had an Audio Technica clone, and they are really great speakers. If any of you guys are tempted to upgrade, I have used AT440 ML and used Shure V-15III, used AT shibata p-mount, and a genuine new AT14 stylus and used body all for sale.
 

62vauxhall

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Bob, Those Signet speakers also had an Audio Technica clone, and they are really great speakers. If any of you guys are tempted to upgrade, I have used AT440 ML and used Shure V-15III, used AT shibata p-mount, and a genuine new AT14 stylus and used body all for sale.
What price for the V15 III?
 

Wheel-right

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Got one of these awhile ago and put it on my PX-3 Yamaha LTT enjoying the clarity with light tracking of one gram. Seems to brighten my system up a bit which is great, bass has never been a problem. It's the Micro Acoustics QDC-1 E. Good Stuff IMG_0438.JPG
 

Wheel-right

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While looking for something different to use on my pioneer PL-12D found this one with only a few hours on it so I'm still breaking it in but so far I'm pleased with the way it works on that table. Kind off fiddly to set-up but worth it. Some day when I have a bit of spare green I'll get the premium stylus for it, this one works good though seems to like a little more weight at one and three quarters grams setting. IMG_0456.JPG
 
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