Hmm, guess I have to be more careful when handling my AT150MLX from now on. I'm on my second stylus after an early morning accident where I lowered the stylus onto the rim of my sl1210.
If it weren't for the price, I would buy another replacement stylus before they become unobtanium.
If it weren't for the price, I would buy another replacement stylus before they become unobtanium.
A winfield would be nice as well. If buying with my heart I would lean towards another ortofon. But as I get older I want a cerebral choice as well. Sadly missed out first time on all the technically superb MMs (serves me right for reading hifinews in the 80s).
Still options, just more compromises.
Still options, just more compromises.
Dumb question - could the boron cantilever be re-tipped?
And would that be an expensive option compared to the value of the cartridge?
Having installed one on my DIY turntable I guess I'll take good care of it.
And would that be an expensive option compared to the value of the cartridge?
Having installed one on my DIY turntable I guess I'll take good care of it.
Unlikely. And even if it could the supply of diamonds appears to have dried up 🙁. Clearly not great money in them any more. That or someone has retired and no one else can make them
It's just totally ridiculous. It's 2016 for f*cks sake. We can make transistors on nanoscale, have the most advanced composite materials known to mankind. Yet manufacturers are unable to polish a diamond to a shibata/microline or to create a boron cantilever (They've been making them since the 70's!) What the heck..
/rant over.
/rant over.
Who said the supply of diamonds is drying up. With the number of current cartridge manufacturers & re-tippers, I seriously doubt there is a supply problem. Or did I miss something?
jeff
the microline stylus that AT use is no longer available according to some rumours. The company that make them in Japan are stopping. Plenty of other profiles still available, just not the one AT were using.
Reading around it does seem that that AT150MLx didn't like ham fisted oafs upgrading from a DJ grade ortofon concorde and I do wonder if that also had some weight with them.
Suddenly retipping my Benz seems a good plan...
Reading around it does seem that that AT150MLx didn't like ham fisted oafs upgrading from a DJ grade ortofon concorde and I do wonder if that also had some weight with them.
Suddenly retipping my Benz seems a good plan...
For those interested, LPgear still has AT150MLX in stock and are selling at a 'sale' price. One showed up on my doorstep yesterday.
well I'll get into trouble as picked up a lightly used example on ebay for a good price. Ah well you only live once.
I just came back after a looong time to DIYAudio - and what do I have to read?! - production of the outstanding AT150MLX is stopped!
I always thought the AT150MLX is a hidden treasure as one needs to provide it with a correctly loaded phono pre - but when loading was properly set, the performance was just amazing!
And yes, I do have also even better and more expensive cartridges here (MM and MC), but the difference is not that large...
At least there's a successor - let's see how that performs first. Also the AT150MLX frequency is not that flat, there is a measurement in the AT150ANV datasheet. But I already don't like the higher tracking force of that SA...
I always thought the AT150MLX is a hidden treasure as one needs to provide it with a correctly loaded phono pre - but when loading was properly set, the performance was just amazing!
And yes, I do have also even better and more expensive cartridges here (MM and MC), but the difference is not that large...
At least there's a successor - let's see how that performs first. Also the AT150MLX frequency is not that flat, there is a measurement in the AT150ANV datasheet. But I already don't like the higher tracking force of that SA...
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I think this was a good move, the opportunity may not come again.
Boron cantilevers and certain stylus geometries are going to be rarer in the future particularly in relatively affordable cartridge lines.
I keep hearing about loading. Can someone elaborate on this? What should be the correct loading. Typically a MM cartridge is connected to a phono stage with a 47KΩ or 50KΩ load. Is this too high or too load. Should it parallel with some capacitors? How do you determine what is "proper"? Based on its frequency response or the sound?
I used all discontinued Signet cartridges which were made by Audio-Technica and they sound great connecting to preamp with 47KΩ load. If there are ways to improve them, I would like to learn. Thanks!
The Nagaoka MP-500 uses the same cantilever and tip technology I believe. Expensive vs the MLX nonetheless. But not discontinued (yet). If it is 810R/640mH as the MP-300 that this magazine has found it could be tolerating more pF I would guess because of its many times reported intrinsically sweet tonal balance. Check the math for HF LCR bump though because I did not. 😀
http://www.nagaoka-deutschland.de/pdf/TESTBERICHT AUDIO.pdf
For this cartridge, 47K with about 150pF in parallel. The latter is the hard part because that must include the cable capacitance and input capacitance of the preamp. Go higher and the treble starts getting exaggerated.
P.S. Here's a Nagaoka MP11 article where its graphed for different pF on test (nice visual example to understand the capacitive loading thing)
Nagaoka MP11 phono cartridge - [English]
Nagaoka MP11 phono cartridge - [English]
The Nagaoka's are all moving iron cartridges (like the AKG, Grado etc.) and are completely different to loading than a real MM cartridge. A moving iron is very insensitive in sound to capacitive loading.
The AT150MLX is a low inductance moving magnet cartridge and needs very low capacitance as load. As the phono leads typically have already 100pF/m it is practically pretty difficult to achieve 150pF in total, which it needs for great sound.
In my high octane phono pre article I also show plots of the frequency response for different capacitive loadings for a Shure MM cartridge.
The AT150MLX is a low inductance moving magnet cartridge and needs very low capacitance as load. As the phono leads typically have already 100pF/m it is practically pretty difficult to achieve 150pF in total, which it needs for great sound.
In my high octane phono pre article I also show plots of the frequency response for different capacitive loadings for a Shure MM cartridge.
It's very sensitive to the capacitance. After reading that the SL1200 rca cables had very high capacitance, I bought some Mogami low capacitance cable to replace it.
After replacing the cable, it sounded terrible.
A quick check with the LCR meter showed that the new cable was 150pF, while the stock cable was 100pF so I had increased the capacitance instead of reducing it.
I reduced the length of the stock cable to 40-50cm and got the capacitance down to ~40pF, now it sounds great. 🙂
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