What currently available moving magnet cartridge is the best.??????....

[mlloyd1]

well, since i'm not a single man anymore, i decided to burn some amazon credits i had saved and just go with the Shure M97.

maybe next time ...

😉

thanks for the recs ....

mlloyd1

 

[mlloyd1]

i would be remiss if i didn't mention the fine work by carlosfm on cartridge loading.
this is very worthwhile reading, no matter what cartridge you settle on.

just fyi, my denon 37f cabling from arm (without headshell) through output rca jacks is 124pF per side.

mlloyd1

edit:
oops, forgot the link:
cartridge loading article

 

[makinson1]

124pF seems kinda high. Since you can't do much about the motor problems in a direct drive TT, you might want to consider replacing the tonearm wiring with better wire. TNT and other e-zines have good articles on DIY cabling. Look at what people do to the Rega RB-300 as a starting point.
http://www.hi-fi.com/diy/rega/steps.html

 

[mlloyd1]

thanks, i though 124pF sounded rather high also - that was part of my reason for mentioning.
i'll take a look at the link; hopefully i can find some good wire for not too much $$$

mlloyd1

124pF seems kinda high.

 

[makinson1]

I could send you some wire and clips etc if you would be willing to pay for the postage. Or maybe you would be interested in taking the whole cable out of your arm and sending it to me. I would make you a new one and return it to you. I frequently sell my cables on eBay under the user name makinson666

 

[mlloyd1]

wow, thanks for the generous offer!

before i take you up on that:
how much capacitance reduction should i expect to see?
is the bulk of the capacitance in the wires from the head shell to the junction point in the base of the arm or in the wires from the junction point in the base of the arm to the RCA plugs (i suspect here)?
also, i want to do some poking around to see how much trouble (if any) it is to get to the wires in both places.

mlloyd1

 

[makinson1]

Since the wires from the cartridge to the junction are usually twisted loosely inside the arm tube, the capacitance is probably quite low. The shielded cables running to the preamp on the other hand are pretty cheap wire inside a spun or braided ground which is trying to act as both the return for the signal path and AC ground. To make matters worse, these braided shields often are vibrating with eddy currents which smear the sound. That's where the devil lives. IMHO if you need that kind of ground, then you must have an AC 60hz hum problem that needs to be fixed elsewhere. So I like to copy the design of cables from Cardas and Kimber they weave the plus and minus wires like braided dreds, and run a separate ground wire from the turntable/tonearm to the ground lug on the preamp. Very low capacitance and series inductance. I have some 34 gauge silver plated 6 nines wire with PTFE teflon jacket for the tonearm. Great fun to try stripping that stuff! And 26 gauge stranded of similar construction for the interconnects. I had to buy 100 ft rolls of this stuff for a contract job. Strain gage accelerometers on the fly-by-wire stiff stick in the F-18. Sorry i can't go into more detail 🙂

 

[mlloyd1]

update:

surgery is complete.
i ended up leaving the cable from headshell to turntable base and changing the cable from turntable base to RCA output plugs.
capacitance has dropped from 124pF to 48pF. i'm a happy guy ...
so far ...

mlloyd1

 

[makinson1]

Looks like the right decision for an older direct drive TT, even though it's a Denon. Money wise that is. You may have noticed that no direct drive turntable is considered "High End" these days.There just is no way to get around the motor cogging problem. I guess I lost track of the original choice for a cartridge.