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Any suggestions for a bright, treble enhancing cartridge?

kowalski99

kowalski99

pfm Member
Hi,
I listen to mostly new vinyl pressings and find them to be quite dull/flat compared even to streaming 'free' Spotify. I understand that most new pressing are not that great, but I love collecting vinyl and playing it, so want a cartridge that may liven & brighten things up a bit.

Because of that I also need a cartridge that will also be sympathetic with poor pressings.

My system is Rega P9, Rega Eos phono amp, Rega Hal & Eon pre/power amps & Rega RS10 speakers.

I was thinking of the Ortofon Quintet Black S MC or the new Goldring Ethos, although could spend upto £1500 to find something that would really achieve what I need.
Thanks for any advice.

I'm running a 12 month old Rega Exact at the moment, which admittedly sounds good with some records from the 1980's and earlier.
 
You don't say what your current cartridge is. If you've already got a cart which would be regarded as 'not dull and flat' then you might have a problem elsewhere.

I'd look at Lyra and Dynavector offerings within your budget, too.
 
Maybe a rega cart? I wouldn’t describe rega stuff in general to be dull or flat sounding. Quite the opposite in fact.
Some of the Rega tt’s can be sensitive to placement. Is your one sitting on a dedicated shelf or a heavy large cabinet with other items on it?
Best cart I’ve heard at the approx £1k Mark is the Lyra Delos.
 
manicatel said:
Maybe a rega cart? I wouldn’t describe rega stuff in general to be dull or flat sounding. Quite the opposite in fact.
Some of the Rega tt’s can be sensitive to placement. Is your one sitting on a dedicated shelf or a heavy large cabinet with other items on it?
Best cart I’ve heard at the approx £1k Mark is the Lyra Delos.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestion. It's on a Rega shelf suspended into a stud wall.
 
stevec67 said:
As BL says. AT 95 or 110 will take the enamel off your teeth. Enjoy. Just please don't invite me round.
Click to expand...
Really? I found the AT95 to be pretty dull. My AT440ML is another story though and does benefit from a loading and capacitance tweak to blunt its top octave. I didn't compare the two carts on the same table though so maybe that's the reason (the AT440ML is on a Denon DP45F and the AT95 was tested on a Pioneer PL-550).
 
We don't all hear the same. In addition I think that cartridge loading counts for a lot of so called differences between carts, as you imply.
 
kowalski99 said:
Because of that I also need a cartridge that will also be sympathetic with poor pressings.
Click to expand...

Well, yes, some LPs I've bought in recent years haven't been great (at best!) but some, maybe not reissues, have been astounding (Leonard Cohen's albums being exemplars). Maybe it's not the cart? If something else is out in the chain, it'll negatively affect everything else (.....thinking maybe cart. set-up?).
 
kowalski99 said:
Hi,
I listen to mostly new vinyl pressings and find them to be quite dull/flat compared even to streaming 'free' Spotify. I understand that most new pressing are not that great, but I love collecting vinyl and playing it, so want a cartridge that may liven & brighten things up a bit.

Because of that I also need a cartridge that will also be sympathetic with poor pressings.

My system is Rega P9, Rega Eos phono amp, Rega Hal & Eon pre/power amps & Rega RS10 speakers.

I was thinking of the Ortofon Quintet Black S MC or the new Goldring Ethos, although could spend upto £1500 to find something that would really achieve what I need.
Thanks for any advice.

I'm running a 12 month old Rega Exact at the moment, which admittedly sounds good with some records from the 1980's and earlier.
Click to expand...

I'd not go with the Quintet Black S, it may be a great cart but the Shibata tip leans more on the wrong side of what you're after.

I'd look towards AT and one of their ML carts, maybe start with the new variant of OC9 XSL etc.
 
That's a very generous budget. I agree with posts above that hearing damage would be best compensated by tone control elsewhere. AT do have a nice extended top end, and my experience suggests that Dynavector's DV-20X2 is certainly one made to 'sparkle'. I own one and like it, but you might be better looking for a preamp with some form of tone shaping built in, and 1500 would find you such, used maybe but worth investigating I think.
 
The tonal balance of MM ATs depends on the phono stage loading. To a point, the lower the capacitance the better. I have an AT100e into 47k ohms and about 200pF. It closely matches my reference digital source.
 
I’d not spend £1500 on a cartridge for a Rega when surely an upgraded record player would be the better plan.
If hearing issues require a non standard response then why not introduce a dsp unit and tailor it to suit?
 
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