Dopogue: I have both a Stanton and the latest Shure V15. The Shure is slower, less revealing and lacks coherence during complex dynamic passages. It is a good "universal" cartridge in that it is competent and works reasonably well in most any arm that you throw it in, but it doesn't work optimally as compared to a more specialized cartridge in any of the given arms that you might use it in.
Having said that, the Shure is much more stable in terms of sonics from system to system. The Stanton is measurably more finicky in terms of cartridge loading and sonics WILL vary for this reason. Much of this has to do with capacitance, as quite a few TT's have interconnects that are too high in capacitance to obtain optimum results with the 881S. Couple this with the capacitive loading that is built into most phono stages and the Stanton suffers quite noticeably in anything but a system that is designed to let it sing.
On top of all of that, i'm basing my comments on the 881 using the "S" / Stereohedron stylus, not the current model that comes with an Elliptical stylus. That's why i mentioned picking up the NOS Stereohedron stylus from Kevin at KAB while he still has some in stock and keeping the Elliptical as a spare.
Steelhead & John: I agree that the Ortofon OM 20 & 30 would also be a good candidate for this arm. If i can remember correctly, Ortofon designed these cartridges while working with Dual. For those that aren't familiar with Dual TT's, they also used straight arms of low mass design. Some of the later Dual's even came stock with a special version of these Ortofon cartridges. The cartridge body & headshell were built as one integral unit, offering increased rigidity and no need to adjust the overhang. You simply installed the cartridge and began playing as the cartridge / headshell combo was already optimized for that specific arm. I seem to remember something about these cartridges being called "Concorde" or something like that, as they somewhat resembled the fancy French aeroplane of the same name. Sean
>
Having said that, the Shure is much more stable in terms of sonics from system to system. The Stanton is measurably more finicky in terms of cartridge loading and sonics WILL vary for this reason. Much of this has to do with capacitance, as quite a few TT's have interconnects that are too high in capacitance to obtain optimum results with the 881S. Couple this with the capacitive loading that is built into most phono stages and the Stanton suffers quite noticeably in anything but a system that is designed to let it sing.
On top of all of that, i'm basing my comments on the 881 using the "S" / Stereohedron stylus, not the current model that comes with an Elliptical stylus. That's why i mentioned picking up the NOS Stereohedron stylus from Kevin at KAB while he still has some in stock and keeping the Elliptical as a spare.
Steelhead & John: I agree that the Ortofon OM 20 & 30 would also be a good candidate for this arm. If i can remember correctly, Ortofon designed these cartridges while working with Dual. For those that aren't familiar with Dual TT's, they also used straight arms of low mass design. Some of the later Dual's even came stock with a special version of these Ortofon cartridges. The cartridge body & headshell were built as one integral unit, offering increased rigidity and no need to adjust the overhang. You simply installed the cartridge and began playing as the cartridge / headshell combo was already optimized for that specific arm. I seem to remember something about these cartridges being called "Concorde" or something like that, as they somewhat resembled the fancy French aeroplane of the same name. Sean
>