Dowser
Learning to bodge again..
I got my last Linn Asaka, 2nd hand and covered in crud, for £40 - sounds very nice after some concerted cleaning
MC cart recommendation - up to £300
- Thread starter TheAuthor
- Start date
I got my last Linn Asaka, 2nd hand and covered in crud, for £40 - sounds very nice after some concerted cleaning
Arkless Electronics
Trade: Amp design and repairs.
From the OP's description of the sound he wants I'm thinking medium rather than high fidelity... A Grado Prestige series MM should do the "nice warm, smooth, chocolatey rounded sound, nothing bright" thing and won't scare the horses...
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
You can't get them new (and fairy impossible to find them used). I've heard Ortofon's quintet red and blue and I think you're better off spending the same money on one of their MM models. The 2M bronze is the one to go for in my opinion.
murray johnson
pfm Member
Hana EL if you can stretch to it, Ortofon Quintet Red if you can't.
carruthersesq
pfm Member
I can’t think of anything better than an AT33ptg (£369 new from Scott Nangle), for me in my system beats carts I’ve tried upto £800.
I'm so terrible sorry for making such an unhelpful and misleading suggestion. To the op: please ignore Vivo Blue!
chris@panteg
pfm Member
£315 from Scot Nangle at the moment, best price I've seen.
linnfomaniac83
I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
I didn't intend to cause offence or to disregard your advice, in fact all you said was "I love my Vivo Blue" or words to that effect and I pointed out that they haven't been made for some time. They also had a relatively short production run so there aren't loads of them out there. Ortofon have made a few poor decisions over recent years and discontinuing that was one of them. I loved the Rondo range too but they pulled those and now they're also hard to find. The lower end of Quintet range just doesn't measure up in my opinion.
chris@panteg
pfm Member
Add some mass to the headshell ,should help.
Seanm
pfm Member
^^^Yes, helped with mine, although there were always some recordings where it sounded a bit edgy up top.
How are you managing with balancing it out? I have mine on an RB300 at the moment as it happens and I've had to add some mass to the counterweight, even without adding anything at the other end.
How are you managing with balancing it out? I have mine on an RB300 at the moment as it happens and I've had to add some mass to the counterweight, even without adding anything at the other end.
torstoi
pfm Member
The older Rega arms, the RB250 were seriously held back by the inner tonearm wire.
I don't know when this changed, but would be worth investigating if your RB300 already has the new, better Rega wire
or still the old one...then either way which system, this is the 1st thing I would change.
The difference is quite remarkable & the invest is rather small, next to none if you do it yourself.
For the describtion if the sound you gave, like Jez I would have thought you are surely looking for a nice MM.
Nagaoka, Goldring, and the 2M range would have kept your problems low for the moment + offer imo exactly the sound you described..
If the RB300's inner wire is not the upgraded one, then you now have the Denon with a really small signal,
I think it's a low MC...so a tiny signal going through a rather mediocre TA cable.
And if that is not yet enough, I think the Denon is not expensive, but it is asking for a bit of a serious MC phono pre if you wannna hear it
anywhere near it's potential.
With a good MM system you'd still realize the difference between old Rega wire and new rewire,
but it's not a ko criterium..
With a low MC...basicly I think it's a no-go, with the old style Rega wire makes no real sense..
Count in you'll need once or twice the money of the Denon for a phonestage to run it acceptably
if you don't run into some real s/h bargain by coincidence.
Summed up, my guess is even now, the shortcut would be to sell the Denon s/h
& get one of the MM systems mentioned above.
edit: yes,,it definitely seems to have the old wire, half the users over at vinyl engine
mention re-wire or needs rewire:
https://www.vinylengine.com/tonearm_reviews.php?make=Rega&model=RB300
I don't know when this changed, but would be worth investigating if your RB300 already has the new, better Rega wire
or still the old one...then either way which system, this is the 1st thing I would change.
The difference is quite remarkable & the invest is rather small, next to none if you do it yourself.
For the describtion if the sound you gave, like Jez I would have thought you are surely looking for a nice MM.
Nagaoka, Goldring, and the 2M range would have kept your problems low for the moment + offer imo exactly the sound you described..
If the RB300's inner wire is not the upgraded one, then you now have the Denon with a really small signal,
I think it's a low MC...so a tiny signal going through a rather mediocre TA cable.
And if that is not yet enough, I think the Denon is not expensive, but it is asking for a bit of a serious MC phono pre if you wannna hear it
anywhere near it's potential.
With a good MM system you'd still realize the difference between old Rega wire and new rewire,
but it's not a ko criterium..
With a low MC...basicly I think it's a no-go, with the old style Rega wire makes no real sense..
Count in you'll need once or twice the money of the Denon for a phonestage to run it acceptably
if you don't run into some real s/h bargain by coincidence.
Summed up, my guess is even now, the shortcut would be to sell the Denon s/h
& get one of the MM systems mentioned above.
edit: yes,,it definitely seems to have the old wire, half the users over at vinyl engine
mention re-wire or needs rewire:
https://www.vinylengine.com/tonearm_reviews.php?make=Rega&model=RB300
torstoi
pfm Member
http://prntscr.com/j8fhid
Link shows a screenshot of a calculation of your Denon DL103 in a Rega RB300
the compliance match doesn't look too good,
you could add weigth up to 15 grams from 8,5 & still see no green.
No idea how to get anywhere near 9Hz resonance frequency with that combi..
You could add serious weigth, like Chris suggested...about 24 gr to the headshell,
you'll need to counter that on the other end with some big counterweigth extension
But you should be prepared the cops will start asking if you got a crane license for that thing..
Link shows a screenshot of a calculation of your Denon DL103 in a Rega RB300
the compliance match doesn't look too good,
you could add weigth up to 15 grams from 8,5 & still see no green.
No idea how to get anywhere near 9Hz resonance frequency with that combi..
You could add serious weigth, like Chris suggested...about 24 gr to the headshell,
you'll need to counter that on the other end with some big counterweigth extension
But you should be prepared the cops will start asking if you got a crane license for that thing..
torstoi
pfm Member
Hi Jamie..
hmm,,,I took the compliance for the 103 from vinyl engine's database,
and honestly particularly the DL103 is not such a rare cartridge that nobody would have complained by now if it was wrong ?
Or do you see any indication the base of my data for the comparison in my link is wrong ?
I mean it does have a huge following...and rightly so, for sure,
but combined with the right arm..
My guess would be, they translated the Denon way of expressing things ?
Long story short...is the compliance 5 or not..?
edit: I have seen the fineprint in the 103 vinyl database now, thank you.
That's a bit of a strange policy from Denon, like a blind cow game for free instead of reliable data,
but maybe I'm just lacking a japanese sense of humor..
hmm,,,I took the compliance for the 103 from vinyl engine's database,
and honestly particularly the DL103 is not such a rare cartridge that nobody would have complained by now if it was wrong ?
Or do you see any indication the base of my data for the comparison in my link is wrong ?
I mean it does have a huge following...and rightly so, for sure,
but combined with the right arm..
My guess would be, they translated the Denon way of expressing things ?
Long story short...is the compliance 5 or not..?
edit: I have seen the fineprint in the 103 vinyl database now, thank you.
That's a bit of a strange policy from Denon, like a blind cow game for free instead of reliable data,
but maybe I'm just lacking a japanese sense of humor..
Put the DL103R in an after market aluminium body, this will add enough mass to make it work on any arm and gets rid of the resonant plastic body.
When in the right arm the Denon is far from bright and light sounding.
PS - Make sure you get the phonostage loading down to around 100 r
When in the right arm the Denon is far from bright and light sounding.
PS - Make sure you get the phonostage loading down to around 100 r
