Removable headshells 101

Dear Nandric: the reference to Plato and Aristotle was intended to mark a contrast with those in a pluralistic democracy who deny that there’s a legitimate perspective from which to condemn an individual’s personal ends. That’s not to say there are no illegitimate ends, but we can draw the distinction (see: harm principle) without getting into the nitty gritty of an individual’s conception of her own good.

In that light, recall that the epigram is ‘pushpins, poetry: whatever’ and not ‘benevolence, pleonexia, murder: whatever’. Unless you’re comparing owning 100 MM carts and testing 2 carts a day to murder and thievery, there’s no issue here.

Even if my wallet were willing, my personality would never permit me to buy a $3k cartridge. Admittedly that’s one reason I love the MM thread: it comforts the bargain hunter in me, nurturing the idea that I can have 10 quality MM carts for the price of one MC cart. You may charge me with the vice of acquisitiveness, but I would say I love pluralism ;-).

Dear Raul: thanks for the advice. Unfortunately for me, my AT headshell is one of those tiny, short and stubby ones that make little allowance for adjustment. I just tried mounting the Empire on it and I don’t have the required, very, very short, screws. Worse: I have no idea where to get them. My Azden is also out of commission until I figure out how to deal with the universal mount adapter it came with. The adapter covers all but a tiny bit of the cart’s pins and there’s no way for me to get my lead wires onto them. I’ve already destroyed a set of lead wires trying. Is the adapter supposed to have its own pins or are the cart’s pins supposed to stick out through the adapter? I’ve never even seen a p mount cart before this one so I don’t know what’s going on.

On a brighter note, I swapped my Signet freak cart from its AT headshell onto a Sony headshell I had lying about, and it’s clearly better for it. In my ignorance, I had believed that the AT headshell to be just better simpliciter and didn’t even think to try the Sony on it. Hume wins again: pretense to causal knowledge be damned; try everything and see what happens.

Dear Banquo363: Well not easy to get those very short screws for the Empire, I'm lucky because I have hundred of screws and I found it a pair for it but you can mount the Empire in a non-AT headshell and then you can use a " normal " length screws with nuts.

Yes, the headshell wires goes connected to the Azden's adaptor pins and not to the cartridge ones.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.

Dear Raul, well - over the past 3 decades it were for me only those 4 headshells I mentioned which I used. After 20 years of Orsonic AVs and Clearaudio Stability (which is after all a copycat of the Orsonic) the Technihard 18 was the first headshell coming along in quite some time with a straight and mechanical excellent executed design and a very fair price.
However - I too would like to see rather long slots instead of threaded holes.
When I used MMs and MIs, they were mounted in my Air Tangent, ET 2, STAX-UA90 and Graham - sans headshell.
Cheers,
D.

Hey Folks,

Haven't seen anybody reply to my SME 309 question.

Anybody know if the 309 is a non standard pin/collar headshell?

BTW, is there a name for the standard headshell connection?

Thanks,
Robert

Dear Robob: The 309 has a SME " dedicated/non-standard " removable headshell but that's not the Universal removable headshell like the one SME used in the 3012 and the ones we are named in this thread.

Regards and enjoy the music,
Raul.