Removable headshells 101

Regards, Halcro: On the Orsonic, prices seem to have leveled out, perhaps becoming even more affordable. Hmmm. As to the Yamamoto ebony HS, it is a wonderful match for the Signet TK7lca, as you suggested. I also find the Orto. LS-8000 Japaneese oak HS does an excellent job on cleaning up the somewhat enthusiastic bass evidenced by my TK7SU. This model has a sturdy/nonresoant brass fingerlift and is of good quality construction.

Dlaoulm: Hi, David. I'm working on a NOS Acutex LPM 415 at this time, have gone through an ADC mag. 6.5 gm headshell, Jeweltone 9.5gm, Sumiko 12gm & Yamamoto 8.5gm boxwood. This cart is extremly detailed, almost excessively so. The boxwood HS encourages a neutrality in playback that MAY have a foundation in the elimination of headshell ringing. Boundary resonance is perhaps another factor. The debate is ongoing as to wether the TA should be enabled to serve as a "sink" for draining resonance away from the cart or if these should be isolated or controled before leaving the pickup. No empirical data to support either camp here, would this be something you'd be interested in exploring? One (or several) of the wooded HS's might be a welcome addition to anyone's resources. Henry, thanks again for your encouragement.

Peace,

I'm looking to upgrade my headshell leads to silver wire. Anyone have recommendations? Are the Van den Hul leads that use MCS 150m good? What about MCS 300?

Nandric, what is your source that the Orsonics now being sold are made in China? I recently purchased a "NOS" AV-101 and if it is a gray market copy, someone did a pretty good job. The fit and finish are high quality. Also, the standard box is marked MADE IN JAPAN. If I can find a friend locally who owns one old enough to be confident it is an original, it would be interesting to compare mine to see if we can find any differences.

I bought the Orsonic because I needed a headshell with a little more mass and I thought it had a long-standing reputation for quality. Henry's observations seem to be contrary to other users over the years. Unfortunately the arm I will use is not mounted yet so I've not had the chance to try my Orsonic.

Timeltel ... TA?

Also the use of wood as a damping/vibration modification material is interesting.
I have some mpingo wood shims I had made up for the Revox (where cartridge mounting requires shims for adjustment)

They are usually sold/advertised as "cartridge dampers"...

I have to admit to not having experimented with these other than using them as shims on the Revox (where they do an excellent job)

Wood has a couple of interesting properties:
Different speed of sound along grain vs across grain
This results in quite complex reflection/refraction patterns of vibration movement - with the potential for frequencies being altered/spread (refraction) resulting in damping...
Add to that the shear influences at the material boundaries.

The potential may indeed be there - but like any of these vibration related issues, the environment is so complex as to make it intractable other than as a black art. (frustrating that!)

bye for now

David

Pryso - yes interesting isn't it, Henry's comments amount to "this emperor has no clothes" :)