Got my AT15Sa back...Woo Hoo!

[cjkpkg]

So I seem to suffer from a bent cantilever about every 5 years...ugh!

My AT15Sa was running flawlessly until one day I was out of town and came back to a misbehaving turntable...Ended up replacing the old AT cart with a used Denon DL160. I am not an extremely regular vinyl listener...if I only had half of the vinyl I had from the 70s and 80s...but I am slowly rebuilding the collection.

Enter a month ago...I received a new LP (to me) The Verve - A Storm In Heaven and go to put it on...I get a total miscue which sends up the red flags...

Noone fessed up to it but one of the 3 kids must have messed around and my nice Denon fell victim...

I then start going back to what to do now? The Denon is probably not worth fixing to me...I still have the AT cartridge...do I get a cheapy stylus for the AT? Do I try to find an NOS one? Do I go the ~$150 cartridge new?

It ultimately came down to:
1. New stylus for the AT15Sa (NOS)
2. New AT120E
3. New AT440MLA
4. Grado Gold or Silver
5. Ortofon 2M Red or maybe Blue

Well after much fussing with it I ended up pulling the trigger on an NOS AT15Sa stylus. The main reason is due to the magic of the "vintage" AT nostalgia and the quality of it and the fact that someday soon you will simply not be able to find any more NOS stylii for it.

As soon as I have the $$$ I think I will pick up the Ortofon 2M Red or maybe Blue if I find a good deal...I have seen new ones for less than I paid for the AT stylus...Followed maybe by the Grado Gold or Silver

I spent tonight setting the AT cartridge back into the headshell and getting the mounting all set. Got the tracking set to 1.5g along with anti skid and the first drop was no nonsense. I love the AT15Sa and I forgot how much...even with a green stylus it sounds pretty dog gone nice...Current setup is using my old Yamaha CA810 as the phono pre going to an Aikido preamp which feeds a KT90 SimpleSE or the Moskido for the most part.

I cant wait to get 100 hours on it and get back to some serious listening.

[midfi]

I have the 15Sa on my DUAL 721 and I like it a lot. I got a Shibata replacement from I think LPGear. Had a 2M red about a year ago, (on a 1246) swapped for a blue which sounds better in the upper octaves. The blue IMO isn't even in the same zip code as the 15Sa. Grado's tend to HUMMMMM on Dual's. I don't know what TT you are spinning but another good cart that I keep going back to is the Signet 5.0e if you can find one!

[cjkpkg]

My TT is a Technics SL1300 MK1. Thanks for the heads up on the Signet! I will check it out...