Music Maker "Classic" cartridge

[Big John]

Today I completed the 120 mile round trip to Len Gregory aka The Cartridgeman in Croydon to make use of his cartridge upgrade service for existing Music Maker owner/customers.
After 8 years of intermittent use and since I retired 2 years of heavy use my Music Maker 2 stylus was knackered. I came away with a Music Maker "Classic" with sapphire cantilever, fitted with the latest incarnation of Len's "Isolator"

Whilst I fitted the cartridge; Len's "it's a fragile cantilever no side swipes" warning resonating in my head, please bear in mind I have very large hands & I am told sausage fingers (adrenalin is brown):

Using a protractor & small laser for alignment on the pivot of my Hadcock 242 silver arm, I discovered the sapphire cantilever is either longer or in a different position/angle to my 2 previous Music Maker cartridges, I also lowered the Hadcock 242 silver arm by 3mm using digital callipers because the new Isolator is 3mm thinner than before, then I reset the arm length, shortening by about 2.7 mm by moving the headshell back(Even before lowering the arm height the stylus position was different). I set tracking weight at 1.55.

The Classic sounded good from the start, my previous 2 Music Makers had needed a bed in period, Initial impressions are more of everything, more natural sounding instruments & acoustic. After a few LP sides it was apparent there is even more to come! After a few more LP sides I also realised there was missing surface noise not totally absent favorite records used were well used, it's absence was not immediately apparent, because the space is filled with extra information from the recording, records I have had for years have low level instruments in places/spaces I have not heard before ...

 

[Wild_Bill]

John....thanks for the review.
Yes, the "biscuit/wafer" is unconventional and not to everyone's taste but the basic sound of the Classic and the MMIII is wonderful. So good in fact it could tempt many an MC user away from their tried & trusted choices.
HiFi is a funny old game.....

 

[raferx]

Thanks for that update John. I've always fancied the MM cartridges! Nice to hear some firsthand reports, especially from someone who is a previous owner and can compare.

 

[Big John]

​My wife & son went to my eldest daughter's for the weekend, so on my own.

Time to play, after a good few LP's I began serious listening using an original copy of War of the Worlds, Richard Burton's voice is very sibilant if setup is less than perfect.

Having an accurate measured base for arm height on my unipivot Hadcock 242 measured at the pivot point I tried raising the arm by a couple of mm & got an increase in sibilance despite checking and resetting tracing weight to 1.55 so I dropped the arm back to my base figure, then dropped the arm by 1mm the cartridge became more focused, sibilance all but gone another .4 mm almost perfect reset tracking weight to 1.58 now only natural sounding sibilance, great base & even more musical; However the "Classic" is much more exacting to set up than my Previous Music Makers not helped by constant thoughts of that sapphire cantilever.

Looking at the stylus, now it is nearer 90 deg may be less. When eyeballing the front of cartridge, with my vertical lines they indicate that the arm is slightly tail down; as others have found, tail down seems to work with Music Maker 3; this was not the case with my Music Maker 2 which prefered tail up. It may be the much stiffer sapphire cantilever or the line contact stylus, I do not know or care since it works very well.

Other records used.

Argo mono recording of William Byrd choral works at Kings Cambridge, cond. Wilcox. This does not sound mono, you can hear the layers of natural voices. (I have been to KC Cambridge & heard choral music there)

EMI/Melodiya 1969 Moscow recording of USSR Symphony Orchestra Scheherazade cond. Svetlanov. 1st movement the violin is wood with natural timbre, 2nd movement the plucked strings of Violins/violas & harp, the flow of cor anglais to bassoon to clarinet then french horns to Trombones not trumpets then trumpet with mute, cymbals crash accurately, cellos are not violas & vis versa, drums are different ie timpani, bass drum snare etc. ( my grandson is learning percussion I was listening to his drumming last weekend)

However it performs with other styles of music from Stones (Beggars Banquet) to Carol King (Tapestry) & Lou Reed (Transformer)

 

[paskinn]

Anyone compared a Gregory cartridge with a similar priced one from Grado? I like moving iron cartridges.

 

[Big John]

Yesterday I sent Len Gregory aka The Cartridgeman an email telling him how pleased I am with the Music Maker Classic cartridge with Sapphire cantilever he sold me under his new for old scheme, in the email I detailed the improvements over my previous Music Makers.

His reply was unexpected

Hello John;
I thought you’d like it – you are saying (and hearing) all the right things. Now I’ll let you into a secret; you have been one of my ‘guinea pigs’ if you will, it has cost me more than it did you, but it was worth it. The cartridge you are using is indeed a new model, not yet on general release, , and I would like you to carry on evaluating it for a month or so longer, this unit the "Musicmaster" is going to replace both the Classic and Classic LE.
Best wishes

Leonard

TCM Ltd.
Vat. Reg.no. 802-4944-42
co.reg.no. 4451444