Removable headshells 101

Dear Raul,
Thank you for your responses and trust.
I also take with a large grain of salt the recommendations of most reviewers (except for perhaps Art Dudley & Arthur Salvatore) because their job effectively, is to promote new audio products.
Thus they mostly test and listen to, the latest (and greatest?) and probably don't have the time or opportunity to hear the great vintage analogue products which we, through forums such as these are able to?
You thus will never hear a current reviewer test a new audio cartridge against some of those vintage MM designs we have found to be so special?
You won't hear them test the new 'super' tonearms against the FR series or the Micro Seikis or the Audiocrafts or the SAECs etc for the same reasons.
The results of this myopia are constant articles and reviews which give the impression that the state of high-end audio is relentlessly moving forward?
This I have found in the last year or so, to be rather far from the truth.

On the issue of headshells though, I tend to agree with Dertonarm that if a well-designed headshell does not work well with a particular cartridge, there is more likely to be a fault or quirk with that particular cartridge body or design?
Of course it is easier to just say......poor match.....incompatibility......lack of synergy etc but I'd really like to know what are the reasons for these excuses?
And there must be definable reasons? The fact that we don't have the knowledge or patience to discover these is simply an admission of the depth of our lack of knowledge when it comes to audio? :-)
Cheers
Henry

Dear Dertonarm,
Thank you for your recommendations.
Interestingly, Audio Technica headshells I have experienced, frustrate me enormously.
Firstly, their fixed mounting holes in lieu of slots, makes aligning the geometry of the cartridge a hit and miss affair. I find you can be a millimetre or 2 away from achieving the correct stylus position and the only way to correct this is to unscrew the small side screw holding the headshell to the socket tube and slide it back or forth. This side screw is in fact then, the prime point of transferring the structural rigidity of the headshell to the socket tube.
As such it is totally inadequate.
Additionally, these fixed mounting holes do not allow one to adjust the overhang angle of the cartridge so that the stylus is tangential at the 2 null points.
If one is interested in accuracy and rigidity, I find the AT headshells ones to be avoided :-)
Cheers
Henry

Ecir38,
I have used other headshells in the MA-505s arm with great success.
At the moment the Yamamoto HS-1As is sounding particularly fine with the FR-5 MM cartridge mounted therein.
The only problems I can see with the Micro tonearm is for heavy cartridges and headshells whereby the counterweight ends up precariously close to the end of the arm-tube?
I've just purchased some additional weights from Holland to avoid this problem.

Interesting discussion. One thing for sure, do anything in an audio system and it will sound different - headshells are just another variable.

I have 3 types of Ortofon from their mid range, top of the range and wooden one as well as two cheap headshells from Belldream and Sumiko.

You put all 5 headshells onto one cartridge and the sound is different on every one. You can identify the ranking, however when you change cartridges the ranking may be completely different - why? the musical word is synergy.

I do listen to folks opinions here to see what their views are on combinations as we cannot listen to everything. If I have the same combo, it is always interesting to see if you hear the same things as they do.

An interesting comparison is between fixed and removable headshell tonearm with the same cartridge.

I own the Exclusive P3. This table comes with a straight arm wand with fixed headshell and a S arm wand with removable headshell. Without any doubt my Ortofon A90 sounds best with the straight arm,fixed headshell. Read into that as you like.

I am sure that folks ranking of cartridges and overall MM or MC preference may change if they changed amplification components in their system from SS to tubes or visa versa.

Anyway, sounds like I may need to look at an Orsonic hgeadshell again. Question - it looks as thou the only wiggle rooim on these headshells is at the front of the cartridge - Is their adjustability limited?

Dear Henry,
sure - the fixed mounting holes of the AT-LH18 aren't the smartest of ideas.
The firm circular grip of the actual headshell around the throat tube is however very good and extremely solid. And gives extremely versatile adaption to overhang.
Same solution I. Ikeda uses for his headshell and same I would use if I would fancy about designing a headshell.
It may not please you, but it does please the engineer even better than the solutions favored by Orsonic or Clearaudio - i.e. one screw tip.
So the only real drawback here is the fixed mounting hole indeed.
But the AT-LH18 is relatively inexpensive (around $55,-), comes with very good wires and tag clips and - dare I !! - one can widen the mounting holes of the cartridges body to adjust offset a bit.... ;-) .... just kidding ...
No - in fact, take the headshell - go to the next fine tooling workshop and have the fixed holes drilled open and modified to long slots - é voila !
The serious audiophile finds space for modifications in every component....;-) ....
Cheers,
D.