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Boring tales of moving magnets

MUTTY1 said:
I got a new AT-VM95SH which I had on for about 30hours. I never really had a wow moment with it.
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I think that the Shibata cut stylus is arguably probably the weak point and most over priced of the new VM95 range. Microline is much better.
 
Simon s said:
I think that the Shibata cut stylus is arguably probably the weak point and most over priced of the new VM95 range. Microline is much better.
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Possible. Have you have tried both? Odd it was designed for quadrophonic which is dead now yet the profile is still sold and is the most expensive. Hopefully someone knows more about it. It is a bit odd state of affairs.
 
MUTTY1 said:
Possible. Have you have tried both?
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Well in truth the comparison wasn't the 95 series but i did do a back to back A/B with the same AT cart and the 540ML vs the 750SH stylus. And in this dem I found the Microline superior, more detailed and with better separation, plus its less picky about set up. Not sure why companies always place the Shibata at the top and most expensive in their lineup ?
 
I think it’s simply more difficult to cut. I got mine at a discount that made it cheaper than the ML. I don’t know much about carts but slotting in tips in the same body looks a great way to make money from the value bottom feeders whilst making great sounds available at peanuts price. Unless you stream of course….
 
Simon s said:
Well in truth the comparison wasn't the 95 series but i did do a back to back A/B with the same AT cart and the 540ML vs the 750SH stylus. And in this dem I found the Microline superior, more detailed and with better separation, plus its less picky about set up. Not sure why companies always place the Shibata at the top and most expensive in their lineup ?
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Shibata has its supporters. It can provide a very detailed sound with unaggressive top end an unfussy alignment.

It's expensive because I believe there is still a royalty paid for its' use.
 
I hadn't realised the DL-110 was now £250. Ouch!

I have an ancient one sitting on the subs bench. Any idea how much it would cost to get re-tipped? And is that a sensible thing to do?
 
I've done the 2M red to blue stylus switch -was well satisfied with the upgrade. Own and have listened to a few of the new VM series Audio technica cartridges (VM95C ,VM95e,540ML,750 body with 540ML stylus in it , 750 body with shibatta stylus ,several older AT's with fresh OEM/NOS styli) - I really BELIEVE based on a fair number of hours listening to these carts-that the manufacturer is not kidding when they spec 100-200 pF capacitance. These new VM AT's are much better to my old ears than previous AT's in terms of high frequency accuracy -but run the input capacitance up to 300-400 pF and they definitely start to sound hard n bright (the historic criticism of the AT "house sound" ). properly set up the new AT's track like they were on rails -for some reason I am particularly enamored of the BOTL VM95C -there is now no reason to wonder if a cartridge that has reached old age is good or bad -if the the few bucks/pounds spent on a 95c demonstrate that whatever your old faithful is left in a BOTL carts dust ? But if you are going to match the vast majority of MM carts to your existing phono stage -find out what it's input capacitance is -this can be changed to suit most modern carts (47pF to 100 pF are handy values). Your arm cabling is probably around 100 pF to begin with.
 
Funnily enough I have changed back to MM from Troika and things , my ancient A&RP77 in fact, which I first got retipped with a Jico HE on a whim a couple of years or so ago just before the "correct" input capacitance input thing finally clicked in my befuddled brain (Thanks Craig B) after reading about it several times. Correct me if I am wrong but my P77 would seem to be one of the few cartridges that actually need extra capacitance TO BE ADDED as opposed to REDUCED as it needs to see 450pF total (arm cable + cartridge itself + phono input) so I figured I was missing about 100 -150pF on mine so I knocked up a Y-splitter cable so as to be able to try different values using slugged RCA plugs of different values, settling on an extra 120pF. Value which I will fit permanently on my Puresound P10 input. thereby changing it from 52pF to 172pF, when I can be bothered. Meanwhile I have the Y splitter in place. It does make a difference if anyone´s interested - if only to stop your system from expectorating on cymbal splashes - and also, in my case, even the bass seems to be more agile but that could be down to my lousy hearing. I now have 3 newly retipped with Jico HE, P77 stylus assemblies which should see me out. (anyone want to buy a pre pre ?
Is it me or is an HE stylus the best shape tip ever ? taking me back to the slight forgiving warmth we all used to hear on our Dansettes but with a "live" feel to it, startling rim shots, , sweet mids etc. No mistracking that I´m made aware of, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I like it.
 
My -ah-haaa moment came with a NOS Ortofon M20e Super I lucked into - at my "normal" set up (roughly 170 pF all in) -I was thinkin about moving it on. Then a friend of mine who sold them at Pacific Stereo mentioned the slide on cap pack that they all shipped with (my "new" cart didn't have this accessory)-so-used the DB Systems cap adding kit (basically what Chris describes above) to add 200 pF and suddenly the reputation of this series was understandable. Nice thing is Y-plugs allow you to raise the capacitance easily or drop input resistance (handy for Grados and Deccas) -the DB systems kits have been made for somewhere around 40+ years and are cheap n easy if you don't want to solder up your own.
 
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