Whats your take on the Ortofon SPUs?

I use a Royal GM II on an SME M2-12R and had a Mono GM until I busted the cantilever. I'm a big fan of the Royal--it sounds rich like traditional SPUs and also, because it employs the Replicant 100 styus like the A90, detailed like modern MC carts.

Alignment is an issue, though, and inconsistent between SPUs, in my experience. The SME arm, fortunately, has a slide mount for altering P2S distance, which I find to be crucial. I have a Mint LP for the M2-12R; I'm able to adjust the arm so the stylus stays on arc. When switching to the Mono GM, though, I do to redo, which was a bit irksome. You'd think they'd be consistent.

I'm not sure I'd use SPUs if I couldn't make the adjustments afforded by the SME arm. But with that ability, I really enjoy them, and I'm planning to buy the new 95th Anniversary edition when it becomes available.

I should qualify my statement about getting the SPU stylus to stay on arc on the MintLP. (Too bad there's no edit feature....) I can get it to nail the null points pretty much exactly in the center of the (rather wide) Mint line, and it remains within the line for the entire arc, but it strays toward the edges at some points, which is inevitable without being able to rotate the SPU as one would a regular cartridge. Still, good alignment is achievable with the slide mount. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the detailed replies! Glad one of you, Wrm, is actually using the same arm I have too.

I think I might just hold off until I have a dedicated arm for one before I get one. The idea of changing my setup around at this stage wouldn't be too fun and I do have a back up phono stage thats not getting any use...

How do you guys like that Mint Protractor? I have been using a Dr. Feickert for some time and it has been good but I cant help but thinking that there are others out there that are better.

The Ortofon SPU cartridges are very unique, in an old school way, in both design and sound. These cartridges are best used with tonearms of specific geometry and mass (compliance). If you are using an SPU-friendly tonearm you don't need a setup protractor because the overhang is fixed, and is slightly different for different SPU cartridges. All you need to adjust for is VTA (20° for most models) and azimuth.

If you are using a tonearm that isn't the right length for an SPU cartridge you can always use a "nude" SPU with standard 1/2" mounting. There are three models, corresponding to the SPU GM MkII, the GM E MkII and the Royal GM MkII. The nuded cartridges are very good but to my ears have a little less of the SPU sound than the models with integrated headshell.

Much of my personal record collection is late 50s to mid 60s jazz, classical and other recordings, in both mono and stereo. I think that the SPUs are the perfect match for these recordings, especially so for original mono LPs and late (~ post 1936) 78 recordings. But I have to add that most of my 70s rock collection sounds great on the SPU Meister Silver GM MkII.

*Disclaimer* I am an Ortofon dealer.

Ohnofiasco,

A dedicated arm for SPUs is the way to go, IMO.

I like MintLPs. I have a few of them for various arms. In general, I prefer Wallytractors because the inscribed lines on the mirrored surface seem a bit more precise, and the mirroring is better, for reduced parallax, but you can't really get them anymore.

Ken Willis' Accutraks are also good. What I like about them is the lines are on the surface whereas the Mint's are beneath a layer of glass. But the Accutrak lines are even fatter than the Mint, which isn't much of an issue if you take the time to make sure the stylus comes down in the center, and they're not mirrored.