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Hear my Cartridges....🎶

Many Forums have a 'Show your Turntables' Thread or 'Show your Cartridges' Thread but that's just 'eye-candy'.... These days, it's possible to see and HEAR your turntables/arms and cartridges via YouTube videos.
Peter Breuninger does it on his AV Showrooms Site and Michael Fremer does it with high-res digital files made from his analogue front ends.
Now Fremer claims that the 'sound' on his high-res digital files captures the complex, ephemeral nuances and differences that he hears directly from the analogue equipment in his room.
That may well be....when he plays it through the rest of his high-end setup 😎
But when I play his files through my humble iMac speakers or even worse.....my iPad speakers.....they sound no more convincing than the YouTube videos produced by Breuninger.
Of course YouTube videos struggle to capture 'soundstage' (side to side and front to back) and obviously can't reproduce the effects of the lowest octaves out of subwoofers.....but.....they can sometimes give a reasonably accurate IMPRESSION of the overall sound of a system.

With that in mind.....see if any of you can distinguish the differences between some of my vintage (and modern) cartridges.
VICTOR X1
This cartridge is the pinnacle of the Victor MM designs and has a Shibata stylus on a beryllium cantilever. Almost impossible to find these days with its original Victor stylus assembly but if you are lucky enough to do so.....be prepared to pay over US$1000.....🤪
VICTOR 4MD-X1
This cartridge is down the ladder from the X1 but still has a Shibata stylus (don't know if the cantilever is beryllium?)
This cartridge was designed for 4-Channel reproduction and so has a wide frequency response 10Hz-60KHz.
Easier to find than the X1 but a lot cheaper (I got this one for US$130).
AUDIO TECHNICA AT ML180 OCC
Top of the line MM cartridge from Audio Technica with Microline Stylus on Gold-Plated Boron Tube cantilever.
Expensive if you can find one....think US$1000.

I will be interested if people can hear any differences in these three vintage MM cartridges....
Then I might post some vintage MMs against vintage and MODERN LOMC cartridges.....🤗
128x128halcro
frogman
4,637 posts
 
**** To me....they sound almost identical !! ****

Ah, but you said “almost”; not, identical to. You did also say that to you the 180 “had the magic”. You clearly are hearing differences. So, how to describe what keeps them from sounding identical and one less magical? It always helps to somehow try and relate what one hears in audiophillic terms to the music. “Correct” terminology is secondary. I may have gotten more detailed in my descriptions, but all those details go under two general categories of types of details that noromance pointed out in his description: “clearer and with more insight”. We agree about the two cartridges and said essentially the same thing.





noromance's avatar
noromance
1,780 posts
 
SPU Silver sounds thin and spluttery on much of the pipe blowing, especially in the higher frequencies.
halcro's avatar
halcro OP
2,289 posts
 
I was loading both cartridges at approx. 33K Ohms with zero added Capacitance.....
harold-not-the-barrel
799 posts
 
Excellent, those are appropriate values. Actually I knew you are aware of correct (lower) values... We discussed this many years ago in the infamous MM thread and that caused some stir for some people as it just recently had become a hype using very high impedance values : )
Hypes come and hypes go... Great times. Thanks again for confirmation. 
jeff1225
147 posts
 
Halcro,
Well done my friend and keep up the good work! I've purchased a Ortofon SPU A95, if you have a chance to try one I'd suggest it. 

Signet 7TK-SU is still my current favorite on my Acoustic Signature Ascona and SME 3012R. 
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