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Technics SL-1200MKII and AT-440MLa, very good

This may have been posted before but I just wanted to let others know my experiance and setup that has worked out great. Now after 50 hours of playing time the soundstage has really started to open up and I'm starting to hear some very good depth to sound. AT really have done a good job with the AT440MLa cartridge and I thought I would never hear a cart in this price range sound this good, not only match well with my Technics SL-1200MKII but also with my Electrocompaniet ECP-1 phono preamp that I upgraded a few years back and is just finally breaking in also. The recordings I have done to CD on my computer have come out really nice and sound better than the store bought ones, more real. This is my secondary system in the room but I would like to try the Technics and AT440MLa on my main system or even better with the Teres 255 I have with the ET2 arm, I have a ceond tonearm for the ET2 and I may just do this. I used to own a Technics 1600MKII back in the ealy 80's and right up to 95 then I bought the Linn LP12 then Teres255, but I never thought the Technics SL-1200 could sound so good but I do remember on some material back when I had the 1600MKII that the sound was really nice. I going to do a side by side comparision with the 1200MKII and Teres 255 both with the AT440MLa cart just to see how close they come or don't to each other. This could be very interesting.

It was really a great buy and I will be getting more of the AT440MLa's
coouugar
johnnyb53
3,490 posts
 
Perfectionist sez: " I prolly really need to do a phono pre. I may try to pick up a used Gram amp 2 here on Agon. I just don't want to sink too much money into this rig."
My SL1210 is up against stiffer competition from the CD player. I have a recent Sony ES SACD/CD carousel which totally smoked the 1998 CEC single-play CD player that it replaced. Yet the TT rig bests the new Sony CD player in musicality, rhythm, bass, fleshing out the timbres, and subjective emotional involvement. So if an older Kenwood changer isn't beating your SL1200, it may be the phono section.

For $249, you could get a Bellari VP 129, which is a tubed MM phono stage. It also has Michael Fremer's enthusiastic recommendation and has a Stereophile Class B rating--right in there with the $1500 phono stages. For $150 the Parasound ZPhono and NAD stages come well recommended, but not as highly as the Bellari.

Has anybody else noticed that 3 carts recommended for the SL 1200, especially for opening up the soundstage--the AT-440 and the Denon 110 or 160--all have nude square stylii?
viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
I believe that would be nude, square shank, stylii. The Denons have elliptical cuts and the AT is a Microline. Pretty much all of the better cartridges use a nude square shank at the mounting end, the exceptions being some of the Grados and the Ortofon Super OM-10 which both use bonded stylii. Once you get up to the Super OM-20 and the Grado Sonata, everything in these lines are nude, square shank as well.
hdm
971 posts
 
Perfectionist: If you don't want to break the bank, the DB Systems phono pre is a really outstanding phono pre available for $165 direct from the manufacturer, David Hadaway of DB Systems. I have owned both the MM and MC version of this preamp and frankly believe you would probably have to spend at least $500 to significantly better it (I've also owned the basic Project Phono box and the DB is way, way better and do own an Aqvox 2CI which is a very well reviewed phono pre selling for around $1200).

Here is a link to a review of the DB MC stage (the MM is essentially the same with lower gain-37 db as opposed to 52 for the MC):

http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/weaver10.htm

If you do order the DB, I would advise that you request David Hadaway to install a basic subsonic filter, which would add an additional $5 to the price tag.

I have the DB MM stage in a system I put together for my son which includes a tweaked Pioneer PL-12D with an AT 120E and the combination is surprisingly good in light of its very low cost.
johnnyb53
3,490 posts
 
> I believe that would be nude, square shank, stylii.

Thanks for clearing that up. I'm just getting back into vinyl after a 25-year hiatus and I have some catching up to do.

Another question--what's with the round stylus on the Denon 103 and 103R?
viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
Being nude refers to not being bonded to a piece of metal. In a bonded cartridge a very small diamond is bonded to a piece of metal, a holder of sorts, and this piece of metal is then affixed to the cantilever. A nude cartridge uses a larger diamond, of higher quality, which is either pressure fit or attached by adhesive, or both, directly to the cantilever. The square shank is the end of the diamond that fits into a hole that has been cut into the cantilever and is square to align the cut of the diamond, on the opposite side, correctly. The cut, conical, elliptical, fine line, etc. refers to the other side of the diamond, the side that contacts the record. The Denon uses a nude, grain oriented, conical stylus in the 103 and 103R, this is also referred to as a spherical stylus. The two descriptions are used interchangably.
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