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Cartridge Comparison - with Needledrops

pure sound

Trade: manufacturer/distributor
How different are cartridges? Following on from the tonearm comparison last week, I’ve been recording the output from various cartridges playing 4 different tracks of music. The cartridges cover a wide range of prices from a fairly rudimentary moving magnet design that was about £50 up to a cartridge costing in the region of £4000. Amongst these are well known ‘classic’ designs that people sometimes speak of with reverence (often rightly so). All were fitted to ADC LMG headshells and used in the Jelco 750L arm that the majority of people preferred in the comparison last week. The turntable is a Technics SP10 Mk2 in a substantial slate plinth. Where necessary the cartridges were loaded by the best & most appropriate step up transformers I had to hand. Output levels from the phono stage were matched as well as possible on the Tascam CD Recorder’s meters.

I will be adding further needledrops this evening/tomorrow morning as they upload and 3 or 4 more cartridge’s recordings next week but there’s plenty here to download & have a listen to. I’d perhaps suggest that you don’t try to compare all of them on one track at once. It will become confusing. It may be better to take 2 or 3 together & work out a preference if there is one before moving on to another group. Then compare the group ‘winners’ maybe? I’ll leave the strategy to you.

The cartridges (including the ones next week) in no particular order are

Denon 103 (MC)
AKG P4 (MM)
Technics EPS310MC
Shure M3D (MM)
Koetsu Black (newly refurbished) (MC)
Goldring 1042 (MM)
Audio Note (UK) Io Gold (MC)
Ortofon SPU-GT (MC)
Ortofon SL15 (MC)
Linn Troika (MC)
Ortofon Kontrapunkt B (MC) possibly

A few ‘characterful’ ones amongst those you would’ve thought.

Each cartridge is given a Letter from A-K

Anyway hopefully some amusement to while away the time. It also leaves me the option of adding further cartridges as & when the opportunity presents itself.

The music

You can’t please everyone but the 4 excerpts loosely cover classical, Jazz, electronic and rock/blues so something for most people.

They are…

The beautiful Sull’aria from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro (well known to fans of the Shawshank redemption) Listen for how easily the two singers can be told apart, where they are and of course the quality of their singing.

NEEDLEDROP LINKS REMOVED

As with the arm comparison, this isn’t about the absolute quality of the needledrops. It’s about listening to what each cartridge makes of what it’s asked to play on what I’d hope is a fairly neutral platform.

I don't want to put up a Poll. Not yet anyhow. I think they can be influenced by what appears to be popular or unpopular. Just comment if there are any that are good or that stink or that are just Meh!
 
What is your system configuration, specifically your phono ( at what loading ), ADC and your recording software?
 
The phono stage is a valve design I make called the P10. This is an MM stage with 47Kohm loading.

Of the MC cartridges recorded thus far the SPU has its own transformers built into the headshell, the Ortofon SL15 is loaded at 3 ohms by an Audio Note (Japan) ANS6 transformer as is the Audio Note cartridge. The Technics EPS310MC is loaded by one of my T10 transformers at 150 ohms. (I did try another type of transformer at 80 ohms but that was too low & a bit muted).

The recordings were made directly onto a Tascam CDRW700 CD recorder so the ADC is whatever is in there. (I haven't looked)
 
Just playing back a couple here, on some tracks the level does vary slightly from one cartridge to another so adjust it (with your volume control!) if necessary.
 
Just what you need, digitized cartridge comparisons. Good luck and I advise you not to spend money based on these comparisons.
 
Just what you need, digitized cartridge comparisons. Good luck and I advise you not to spend money based on these comparisons.

...and do what instead?
Trust the opinion of someone else?

Auditioning cartridges is very difficult today, and vintage ones virtually impossible.

Guy has a superb deck, arm and phono stage and he knows how to make the digital recordings correctly.

Short of actually trying the cartridge at home, this is the best method.
 
Barry I wouldn't even attempt swapping 11 carts with my duff eyesight & even duffer fingers
Hats off to Guy for doing this & I'm looking forward to finding out which I prefer. Hopefully I will like something nice & affordable.
 
Just don't expect it to sound like it sounds on the needledrop. I totally agree that it is nigh on impossible to audition lots of cartridges. Unfortunately doing this exercise is not going to give you that comparison either. Just my opinion. Carry on.
 
Gosh these things are exhausting! But interesting. I don't know Figaro, and making notes on this I mistakenly took it to be a soprano and a mezzo, though looking at Wikipedia says that both the Countess and Susanna are straightforward sopranos. I'm no opera expert.

I liked the first one - B, then probably D. Not too keen on the rest. I'll include my detailed notes, with mistaken attribution of the maid as a mezzo.

MOZART B – slightly distant first voice at first, but pure. A little too much air around the voice, but good articulation. Woodwind is really nice. The right channel soprano seems to comes out stronger and purer. The duets are well spaced, but I’d like less spacing and more presence. However, this strikes the best balance between delicacy and vivid presence for me. Nice dramatic rising of the mezzo just before 2 minutes. At the end they harmonise well

MOZART C – soprano no longer has the same vibrancy and both voices are a little recessed from the orchestra and detached from each other. I’m not getting much drama here.

MOZART D – Good initial articulation from the soprano, and the mezzo has more presence now. Soprano has too much space around the voice, but both voices are more at the centre of the soundstage, and the balance with the orchestra seems right. The mezzo is more centred (in others recordings more to the left) and the result is that the first soprano can seem overwhelmed in the duets. This one falls down when they are singing together.

MOZART E – soprano recessed and less vibrant from the outset. So is the mezzo. Thin and strawy. Don’t like this at all. I’m giving up after 1 and a half minutes. Poor.

MOZART F – Good articulation . Mezzo is back on the left, but where has the first soprano gone. About 2 metres backwards, it seems. And sounding more harsh. But the mezzo sounds better. Duets ok, but soprano recessed. Oo dear, nasty surface noise. Blow that dust off. Thankyou.

MOZART G – Quite like the orchestra at first. Soprano a bit too airy and again recessed. Not happy with surface noise. Don’t like this much, and I’m confused about the positioning of voices. The spacing isn’t coherent to me.
 
Right, I've had a listen to all the SRV tracks multiple times switching between them all with volume matched as best I can. Played back through a Tascam 24/96 USB interface with headphone monitoring. In order of preference;

SRV D - I felt it had a greater sense of clarity about it, sounded the least "analogue/vinyl" out of the group. Nice snap to the snare and the only one to give proper definition to the crunch from his strat during the rythm part.

SRV E - Exactly as above but just very slightly less clarity and definition, still very good though and this was my first choice until I heard D.

SRV F - Getting hard to distinguish this from E, I doubt I could tell it apart if I was doing this blind.

SRV B/C/G - All pretty much sounded the same to me, a bit muffled and vague. Bass far too warm and woolly for me.


Conclusion: To be perfectly honest I could live with any of them, none of them make a complete hash of it, likewise none of them stands out head and shoulders and says "I'm a four grand cart". Even switching quickly between tracks I was struggling to latch on to specific differences, if I were listening through speakers and switching carts in real time I doubt I could tell any of them apart.
 
oh dear, the A wasn't there when I tested. If you are doing more, would you happen to have an AT95e lying about?
 
No, but if someone wants to lend me one (or any other interesting cartridge) then pm me. It'd be nice to have a Shelter, an AT33PTG, a Transfiguration or a Dynavector.


As it is, there'll be 3 more added next week.
 


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