I'm afraid my next one will be a ridiculous (for me) expenditure. If I were going Hana that would put me in Red or the Blue sort of range, but
I have been looking at ZYX (or maybe I have it out of order XZY?), and also Sound Smith. then I start looking at arms.....eventually a deal I cant pass will appear for one or the other, and that will put the wheels in motion for the other. At least that logic is keeping me where I am, and I rather like this cartridge.
Russellc
I have been looking at ZYX (or maybe I have it out of order XZY?), and also Sound Smith. then I start looking at arms.....eventually a deal I cant pass will appear for one or the other, and that will put the wheels in motion for the other. At least that logic is keeping me where I am, and I rather like this cartridge.
Russellc
I cant help myself! You think that number of arms is silly, as him about his phono preamp addiction!
6 tables, actually. In various stages of restoration. SP-10mk3 is the daily driver. SL-1200, DD-40, SP-10mk2A can all be used today.
No comment.
No comment.
What's that old phrase?
"The man who dies with the most phono preamps wins..."
"The man who dies with the most phono preamps wins..."
Hmm... by my last count, including some vintage, I got 33 amps.
To each his own....
@Craigl59 It's not the most phono preamps.... those are teeny weeny little things. It's AMP. He who does with the most AMPS wins.
I asked my son to bury me with the turntable and amps... He said he'd take a picture.
Can´t remember, if it was me, but yes..... The Audiomods Series-6 tonearm, I have mentioned earlier.
This currently runs with the AT33-PTG/II
Then, there´s this one:
With a Jelco SA-750L and a mint Sumiko Talisman-B
Have other TT´s in "storage", diff. Thorens, ERA, Rega´s to name a few.
On the shelf for swapping from time to time are among others ZYX Ultimate 100, Well Tempered Lab "Kauri", mod. Denon with
boron cantilever/MR meedle, MM´s are AT-VM95E/ML, NOS Shure V-IV/MR, Goldring 920 IGC with new Shibata, just to name a few. 😉
As you can see, I´m a fan of belt driven TT´s.
I had a bunch of DD´s over the years, most heavy was Pioneer´s PLL-1000 (I had 2 of them).
Always sold them, cause no matter the cartridge, they always (to me) sounded like a boring, unengaging CD-player.
But....... I´ve decided to try out DD one more time. Got an offer, I couldn´t refuse for a JVC Victor TT-101, combined with the
original plinth, a Lustre GST-801 arm and THIS ONE
Review
Maybe, if I´m lucky, I´ll manage to do a second setup with decent Vintage gear. Have a Sansui AU-G90X waiting for a complete restoration.
I had a bunch of DD´s over the years, most heavy was Pioneer´s PLL-1000 (I had 2 of them).
Always sold them, cause no matter the cartridge, they always (to me) sounded like a boring, unengaging CD-player.
But....... I´ve decided to try out DD one more time. Got an offer, I couldn´t refuse for a JVC Victor TT-101, combined with the
original plinth, a Lustre GST-801 arm and THIS ONE
Review
Maybe, if I´m lucky, I´ll manage to do a second setup with decent Vintage gear. Have a Sansui AU-G90X waiting for a complete restoration.
I still have 2 mint MM from the day, the final version of the V15 "xmr" version and replacement stylus, and Ortophon Super OM 30. I use them on another table in bedroom, mounted to a vintage Infinity Black Widow, which is only useful for cartridges like these two. Oddly the owners manual shows and old Denon MC, hardly a good match I would think!
I like it a lot. On the same level as the best MM´s I´ve ever owned. Never heard a 900, but this sould be even better.
If not new or worn stylus, I urge you to spend the extra cash for a Jico/SAS needle. Then you´ll have a MM cartridge,
which is/will be "as good as they get" 👍
Those were the days, when no one was too concerned about "resonance freq."
A common picture from "the days" was a SME-3009/3012 with heavy counterweight and an Ortofon SPU.
Bigger mismatch is hard to find 🤣
People loved it though.
Both boards have finally seen power to them. No magic smoke thus far. Need to finish up the wiring and find a test subject. Wiring is planned as a nice quiet Thanksgiving Day activity.
-tom
-tom
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Hello All,
I am not as hard core as you all.
I have come to believe that the Pearl 3 has too much gain for the MM cartridge installed on my turntable. As in limited headroom.
I am tempted to spring for a MC cartridge that will use the available gain of the Pearl 3.
If you look at the reviews of MC's and higher gain pre-pre-amps, MC's are more noisy as in noise dominated SINAD.
It seems that most people speak of a MC as an upgrade to a MM. Is that true, and how is it true?
MC's cost more money, what is the improvement?
How much money do I need to spend? I do not want to spend my entire toy budget.
Thanks DT
I am not as hard core as you all.
I have come to believe that the Pearl 3 has too much gain for the MM cartridge installed on my turntable. As in limited headroom.
I am tempted to spring for a MC cartridge that will use the available gain of the Pearl 3.
If you look at the reviews of MC's and higher gain pre-pre-amps, MC's are more noisy as in noise dominated SINAD.
It seems that most people speak of a MC as an upgrade to a MM. Is that true, and how is it true?
MC's cost more money, what is the improvement?
How much money do I need to spend? I do not want to spend my entire toy budget.
Thanks DT
Try eBay for something like a used Audio Technica AT-OC7, or 5. No need to spend much - I think I paid a couple of hundred $ for a used OC7 a few years ago which I recently replaced with a Mystic. It'll need a little capacitance to tame the treble but very lucid and dynamic. Hana's are also good, but I don't know about their prices. I haven't yet worn out an MC cartridge - usually they break first ('the cat must have done it') or very rarely I move on, whereas I've got through cheaper MMs a lot quicker. Maybe something to do with the tip, but it means that a good cartridge isn't as expensive as it looks.
The better your deck and arm are, the more benefit you'll get from the cartridge, assuming the phono stage is up to it. That's where a lot of the noise comes from and one reason why high-end MM cartridges have a following. The other source of noise is your turntable, arm, leads, isolation etc. Once your phono stage is good enough, and the front end, you'll appreciate the transparency and dynamics of a good MC.
The better your deck and arm are, the more benefit you'll get from the cartridge, assuming the phono stage is up to it. That's where a lot of the noise comes from and one reason why high-end MM cartridges have a following. The other source of noise is your turntable, arm, leads, isolation etc. Once your phono stage is good enough, and the front end, you'll appreciate the transparency and dynamics of a good MC.
Not very smart, since you have no idea of, what you´ll receive, and if it´s to discover diff. between MM & MC.
Also, the price for an Audio Technica AT-33EV or better..... AT-33PTG/II are way lower than an expensive MM.
AT-33EV can be found new as low as US$ 399, and the PTG/II for a little more.
Both are not the 8.th wonder of the world, but they outperform everything/anything at that pricepoint.
You can listen to 3 different songs from the PTG/II through the Pearl-3 in post #4.469.
Google is your friend to find the best price.
I´m assuming, that we´re talking about the Pearl-3 in this particular thread 😉
What cartridge are you using, and are you on low gain?
Limited headroom? Unlikely.
Example-
The Ortofon 2M series is about the highest output MM on the market currently at 5.5mV (0.0055V) output.
Pearl 3 in low gain has 46db of gain. 46db of gain is 200x. (Well, 199.526x to be exact, which rounds up to 200…)
0.0055V * 200 = 1.1V
Pearl 3 has 15V rails, so 30V pk-pk across the output devices. Even taking into account that the opamp can’t output more than 13.5V of that 15V (this is a spec sheet thing, and I’m looking at the stock NJM2068) and assuming that the output transistors and their emitter resistors are going to steal at least 3V of swing per rail, the output stage will still be able to hit 24V peak-peak before clipping… and 1.1v to 24v is a difference (overload margin) of 26db