Recently back into vinyl and trying to improve my kit on a very tight budget so asking for a little input here. I'm using a "vintage" Manticore Mantra tt that is working very well and have upgraded the original Rega RB250 with VTA adjuster, Michell Technoweight, and new silver plated one-piece wiring from cartridge clips to phono plugs. The cartridge that came with it was a Roksan which I assume was quite an expensive one but the stylus was broken off and a replacement is way beyond my means. Now to my specific question.
I quite like the AT95E and it doesn't really have any faults I am aware of but I am looking to the future when I can afford an upgrade. I play mostly rock, R&B, and recently developing an interest in jazz when I can find some in the second hand shops. Because of my advanced years impressive high frequency specs are lost on me so I would look for a cartridge that is particularly good with bass and midrange performance. Maximum spend at this point would be £100 (UK) or just over (in Euros). Any suggestions?
I quite like the AT95E and it doesn't really have any faults I am aware of but I am looking to the future when I can afford an upgrade. I play mostly rock, R&B, and recently developing an interest in jazz when I can find some in the second hand shops. Because of my advanced years impressive high frequency specs are lost on me so I would look for a cartridge that is particularly good with bass and midrange performance. Maximum spend at this point would be £100 (UK) or just over (in Euros). Any suggestions?
The usual compensation to lacking bass, or treble for that matter, is to use the tone controls - that's what they were put there for.
And of course stylii do wear out, even made of diamond, so a replacement may be due anyway - 1000 hours is the normally quoted maximum life for diamond stylus, but the degradation is gradual, and too much wear will lead to groove damage, so its best to check with a good magnifier /stylus microscope.
Indeed, those fancy styli wear faster and cost more.
I stick to elliptical and and am fine with them.
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I use AT95EX and like it very much. As for the stylus life, AudioTechnica declares:
The difference between the life of Elliptical and Microlinear is 3.3 times, which, aside from the quality benefits, make Microlinear a good life-per-money solution. But, as gigigirl mentions, ML requires more precise cartridge setup than El.
AT-VM95ML - VM95 series Microlinear stereo cartridge | Audio-Technica (See in "Features")
The difference between the life of Elliptical and Microlinear is 3.3 times, which, aside from the quality benefits, make Microlinear a good life-per-money solution. But, as gigigirl mentions, ML requires more precise cartridge setup than El.
AT-VM95ML - VM95 series Microlinear stereo cartridge | Audio-Technica (See in "Features")
Speaking with various users of those "fancy styli", they ALL conclude that those styli wear with more speed than ellipticals.
The "sharp" edges are the culprit, wearing sooner because of the thinner profile.
And these conclusions are not mine, but from "fussy audiophiles" with fussy turntables.
Gigigirl, do you honestly believe that a manufacturer, any manufacturer, of any product, would come forth with "tell the truth" about their products?
Because if they did, their products would not be prone to sell, obviously.
All sorts of dazzling "techno-speak" are used to sell something, and the manufacturer knows that the consumer has no way to really compare or justify the claims.
If I wanted to sell something expensive, high-end, I'd certainly rave about it in order for others to gain interest in it.
Sure, perhaps those shibata styli grab more nuances from the groove at first - and that's all I'd speak of, and spread "the word" about it.
It's pure marketing sense.
While we're on the subject of these AT cartridges...
AT recommends a very low load capacitance on these cartridges, only 100 to 200 pF. That will often be added just from the interconnect cable between turntable and phono preamp. Whatever input capacitance the preamp input adds will be unwanted excess.
I also noticed that the output impedance of these cartridges is not too huge, about 3k3 ohms. Has anyone tried using a lower than standard value of input load resistance with these cartridges, like possibly 33k, or even 22k? The idea would be to lower the Q of the resonance caused by the cartridge's series L and R interacting with the parallel C of the interconnect cable and preamp input, hopefully smoothing out the high frequency response. Too low a load R and the high frequency response will droop too much, causing too 'dark' a sound. Too high a load R and the high frequency response will show a pronounced peak, causing 'zippy' sounding response (which is what I often hear from AT MM carts in real life systems).
Anybody have an opinion on this?
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AT recommends a very low load capacitance on these cartridges, only 100 to 200 pF. That will often be added just from the interconnect cable between turntable and phono preamp. Whatever input capacitance the preamp input adds will be unwanted excess.
I also noticed that the output impedance of these cartridges is not too huge, about 3k3 ohms. Has anyone tried using a lower than standard value of input load resistance with these cartridges, like possibly 33k, or even 22k? The idea would be to lower the Q of the resonance caused by the cartridge's series L and R interacting with the parallel C of the interconnect cable and preamp input, hopefully smoothing out the high frequency response. Too low a load R and the high frequency response will droop too much, causing too 'dark' a sound. Too high a load R and the high frequency response will show a pronounced peak, causing 'zippy' sounding response (which is what I often hear from AT MM carts in real life systems).
Anybody have an opinion on this?
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Could one upgrade ones E to EX? If me Id like to try upgrade also with siabata. Never heard a siabata, but heard so much good. They dont wear themselves or records particularly do they? Edit: Seems no, but devided opinions.
By the way - Could anyone advise Oldbones a way to dirt-cheaply revive his Roksan cartridge to use that while modding the AT?
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If that cartridge is as good as LP Gear praises it to be, I will start saving
???
400mH is 2.5k at 1KHz (plus DCR, approximating 2.8k total @ 1KHz) but 25k @ 10KHz and 50k @ 20KHz.
So with zero C, a 47k load is already loading the inductance and starting a roll-off.
100pFd with 400mH resonates at 25kHz; 200p at 18kHz. So there will be some bump-up around 20kHz.
I would assume AT "correctly" designed this motor for usual systems.
You *can* instead load with about 4.7kOhms and remove the 2kHz pole in your preamp. This was commonly done in the 1950s. But if you change to another cartridge you need to re-figure and re-load. And cart inductance is not a tight spec like the 1% parts we commonly put in preamps these days.
You "can" load with very-low C (<30pFd) and a very high resistance (>470k). This will be electrically flat. However is the mechanism flat? Never. The loading is usually selected to complement the unflatness of the mechanism.
Yes, the upgrade stylus is the ATN 95 EX.
Audio Technica ATN 95 EX Stylus for AT 95 EX - Genuine stylus
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