CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[RayN999]

Needle Doctor is a great (and local for me) retailer. I was in there last weekend to pick up headshell leads and a stylus force gauge for this Grado Signature Gold cartridge that I paid entirely way too much for from someone who will go unnamed...

The Grado sounds great on my Pioneer PL-560 turntable, none of the dreaded Grado Hum at all.

Ray

[stridsvognen]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Benz-Micro-Glider-SM-MC-pick-up-BRAND-NEW-/150990139548?pt=US_Record_Player_Turntable_Parts&hash=item2327b6b09c

if this stays inside your budget, its worth looking at. Its also a medium / low compliant pickup.

It has the X coils, and boron cantilever, and a line contact stylus.

It will need a tonearm with all possible adjustments possibilities, to perform its best.

[Nashou66]

Since we are talking Vinyl here, there is a unique TT for sale local to me for $125 bucks i might go get. Its a Nad 5120 I think. the one that had flat tone arm. But they did make other versions with out the flat flexible arm if it has a tubular arm then I dont want it. But it has a B & O MMC4 cart, i saw those on Ebay for a couple hundred. He also has a rega P1 for 175.

Nashou

[Gannon]

I always loved those B&O cartridges. I have an MMC3 here with one channel out. Argh.

I've got a Thorens TD-126 MkII with two spare tonearms that makes cartridge experimentation pretty easy. That table and arm are solid and relatively undemanding on the cartridge.

Just got a Rega Planar III with the Grace 707 tonearm and F9e cartridge, though, from a client. The Thorens might be going onto the market.

I'm eager to try SoundSmith's Ruby cantilever for the Grace...that is one of my goals towards eliminating any cash which might become a fire hazard in my pockets.

I am getting SO gonzo into this...remembering when hifi was fun for me, actually...that I might just open a used hifi store here in Detroit. Keepin' the old school stuff alive.


Cheers!
John

[Nashou66]

Sound Smith also repairs B & O's might want to look into it.

Nashou

[Gannon]

Oh yeah, thanks...I know...I've read every letter on every page of his website.

Going to have him retip a few cartridges I've kept for a while, too.

And eventually, I'm going to try a basic Denon DL103 versus his modded one with the Ruby cantilever...inquiring minds need to know, right?!

Like I said, I'm going gonzo into this. I had the flu a few weeks ago, and every waking moment was spent on-line learning.

There is a great used record store in the inner city, I'm going to start giving Saturday turntable clinics there first...but want to gauge the market ability to maintain a unique used hifi store with a service center...a brick-n-mortar hub for an on-line marketplace. I think there is a latent screaming need for something like this in Detroit...and I don't know anyone better nearby to do it than me.


Cheers!

[Gannon]

I went through a quick survey of the inexpensive cartridges I've laying around.

Shure V-15 IV, Ortofon OM-10, and an AudioTechnica old blue...we sold 'em at Tech Hifi as the 90e, but they had an infinite number of proprietary numbers if you bought a great enough quantity they'd name one after YOU.

There is a problem with the Shure...but between the Ortofon and AT, they both had great strengths. Since the 80s, I've been a fan of both...as well as the Denon and B&O. Was lucky enough to work at a dealer who stocked even the top-of-the-lines of each brand, too.

I think AT gets too little praise for what they do really well. There are a few places selling the 140LC for under $200. That'd be my first choice of a relatively inexpensive daily-driver cartridge that wouldn't freak me if the stylus wore or worse.

Cheers

[Gannon]

OH, but the F9e smokes everything else I've got in my cartridge corral.

Haven't dared switch it to the Thorens, so I'm not sure how much difference is the table, or the cartridge.

[Gannon]

Sorry, it was the 440ML...not the 140LC.

http://www.lptunes.com/Audio-Technica-AT-440MLa-AT440MLa-cartridge-p/atc05.htm

My bet is this would make anyone's best value top five list for under $200, if not $500. At that budget, I'd buy two and a spare stylus.

[Nashou66]

Just found another Gem.

mint condition thorens td 160 super turntable , circa early 80's , some swirl marks on cover.
sumiko premier mmt tonearm included (no cartridge) table is fully functional and ready to go.

I think the Sumiko is also an Audioquest PT9?

They want 450 for it. Kurt? Dennis?My european friends what do you think?

Nashou

[AVB]

I've used the Audio Technica AT OC9 for about a decade now, I'm on my third one. Best I've found for my set up but there are a number of good carts mentioned in the thread.

http://www.needledoctor.com/Audio-Technica-OC9-MKII-Cartridge

[stridsvognen]

[Gannon]

Best thing about the 160-series, though...they are raw manual machines. None of those pesky linkages and auto-lifts and silly lightbulbs to maintain (like my current daily spinner, the TD-126 MkII, which occasionally develops its own heartbeat thump, which increases in frequency until I can physically touch the tonearm and any other groundplane, the mute circuit might have a failing capacitor or something). Just you, the belt, some Mobil One in the main bearing, silver cleaner for the headshell contacts, Cramolin while mounting the cartridge, and you're in. Basically for another twenty years, give or take a stylus or two.

My first table was a TD-165. Still fond of 'em. You'll want a solid mount, though. Springy bastards, if I remember right.

[Curt Palme]

John, check out this site. I've posted it before:

http://www.iavscanada.com/

This guy started small, but has been around for 10+ years at least. He has ridiculous amounts of stuff in the door, it's the little guy that went big. Amazing how he finds 40-50 year old stuff still in factory boxes.

He has awesome Facebook posts with his latest offerings, go check him out. If you had the inclination, you could do the same in your area.

[Curt Palme]

John, check out this site. I've posted it before:

http://www.iavscanada.com/

This guy started small, but has been around for 10+ years at least. He has ridiculous amounts of stuff in the door, it's the little guy that went big. Amazing how he finds 40-50 year old stuff still in factory boxes.

He has awesome Facebook posts with his latest offerings, go check him out. If you had the inclination, you could do the same in your area.

[Gannon]

Thanks for that, Curt. He has a SME tonearm new in the box...

But yeah, seems things're headed that way. I'm going to do the turntable setup clinics first...dropped into another store in the nearest-northern suburb of Detroit today, and they were VERY eager to have me drop in for a few hour promotion every month or more.

So, I'm two-for-two, and the first one has space for me to setup a system and build a test bench.

He also has these killer old B&Ws that I never knew existed. Anyone else ever see their ELECTROSTATICS?! This one store owner got a pair of 701s AND a cool round pair of hanging JVC speakers from the estate of Eddie Kendricks of the Temptations. I cannot wait to make them play.

Sorry to derail the thread...I'm pretty excited about this whole vinyl thing now.

At that store today, I picked up a fine copy of Quadrophenia and Led Zepplin IV. The Who album sounds simply spectacular in Dolby Pro Logic II surround...first side almost made me late for a meeting tonight!! I just couldn't not let it play out...I think I'm becoming addicted to the sound of the lead-out groove thump through my old Audio Pro subwoofer.

Cheers!

[RayN999]

To paraphrase... Once you go electrostatic, you never go back.

I'd have a hard time giving them up, and thankfully my wife doesn't mind the imposing size of the Martin Logans in the family room.

Ray