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Re: Phonophile Stocking Stuffer*

December 12th, 2020, 3:23 pm

Over the past two months there have been separate presentations by Peter Ledermann of Soundsmith about the technology, design, production, and sound characteristics of different cartridges at virtual meetings of the Boston Audio Society and the DC HiFi Group. Both were great. Here are two links but I don't know if you can get to the meeting recordings unless you are a member.

https://www.bostonaudiosociety.org/meet ... eeting.htm


https://dchifigroup.proboards.com/threa ... soundsmith

Re: Phonophile Stocking Stuffer*

December 12th, 2020, 6:51 pm

I only have a few MM cartridges (Empire 888, GoldRing 1042, some Grados from Black up to the Reference) but wanted to try the newer generation of AT and Goldring MM cartridges. I have a few arms (Jelco 950, SME M2-9, SME 3009 Series II Unimproved, Well Tempered Reference) to try them with.

Re: Phonophile Stocking Stuffer*

December 12th, 2020, 8:34 pm

You could just build the Hiraga Le Pacifica. Sounds way better than it should, and it's really simple to build....

Roscoe

Re: Phonophile Stocking Stuffer*

December 12th, 2020, 8:54 pm

This one?

https://www.bonavolta.ch/hobby/en/audio/hiraga.htm


Roscoe Primrose wrote:You could just build the Hiraga Le Pacifica. Sounds way better than it should, and it's really simple to build....

Roscoe

Re: Phonophile Stocking Stuffer*

December 12th, 2020, 10:01 pm

Well, I have the Goldring 1042 on the arm, set the gain to 36dbB, loading at 100pF, and this is definitely the best sound I have ever had out of this cartridge. Presentation not as big as the Benz Ruby 3, and not detailed, but it is nicely liquid and musical sounding. Now it IS a different arm than I used before (a earlier Jelco with damping). Maybe a knife bearing arm is that much better. Cartridge seems well behaved given the higher mass. I did use the subsonic filter on the RIAA to help protect against woofer pumping with the less than optimum resonance. I like!

David

Re: Phonophile Stocking Stuffer*

December 13th, 2020, 4:03 am

Thanks for the heads up on this, David. It gets some really remarkable reviews. I've been looking for something simple, mainly just for LP ripping purposes, since I don't so much LP misteneing these days. This looks like a very good candidate.

Re: Phonophile Stocking Stuffer*

December 13th, 2020, 8:47 am

TubeDriver wrote:This one?

https://www.bonavolta.ch/hobby/en/audio/hiraga.htm


No, this one https://diyaudioprojects.com/Solid/JFET ... reamp.html

Roscoe

Re: Phonophile Stocking Stuffer*

December 13th, 2020, 10:48 am

David McGown wrote:Well, I have the Goldring 1042 on the arm, set the gain to 36dbB, loading at 100pF, and this is definitely the best sound I have ever had out of this cartridge. Presentation not as big as the Benz Ruby 3, and not detailed, but it is nicely liquid and musical sounding. Now it IS a different arm than I used before (a earlier Jelco with damping). Maybe a knife bearing arm is that much better. Cartridge seems well behaved given the higher mass. I did use the subsonic filter on the RIAA to help protect against woofer pumping with the less than optimum resonance. I like!

David

I dusted off a 40-year-old cartridge that I modified maybe 25 years ago and am re-discovering it. It is an ADC 26 induced-magnet cartridge from the grand old days of vinyl prominence. It is loaded with 31-Kohm and 400-pf.

What caught me off guard with this cartridge was that in the past I found it to be only OK. My system has changed dramatically over these many years and really enables the ADC 26 to strut its stuff. It is competitive with just about any moving-coil cartridge out there as I have some serious pieces to compare against -- and that is saying a major mouthful!
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Re: Phonophile Stocking Stuffer*

December 13th, 2020, 11:01 am

Did you build it with battery PS or an active PS?



Roscoe Primrose wrote:


No, this one https://diyaudioprojects.com/Solid/JFET ... reamp.html

Roscoe

Re: Phonophile Stocking Stuffer*

December 13th, 2020, 11:22 am

Active....
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