Rbgcc13

Effective tonarm mass and the quality of the bearings will help drive your decision along with the end-product's ability to push enough voltage out to make the amps sing. If your lucky, meaning in my opinion only, to have a heavy mass arm with smooth bearings then a low compliance cartidge would be in order. And I do agree with the otheres, a low output is better, again IMHO, than higher output cartridges. I have been fortunate to have used a variety of cartridges, even a Stax CPX,, and I seem to be drawn to those that have a slight personality versus a clinical presentation. This is probably a result of most produced/studio records, espcially from the late 60s thru the 90s, the engineers rode their compressors hard, and peak leveled a lot of great music, and some of the more commercial records were recorded thru and mixed on less than desirable design boards - opamps with a zillion dB of feed back making the sound hard and brittle, at least that's my take. I haven't bought a new needle in quite a while so my price points could/will be off, I'm sure. At around $500, a couple to consider, first, ZU103 a MC, takes a well known product with known strengths and weaknesses and Zu mitagates most of the bad, very expressive, tons of snap/jump and a more forward presentation, a nice product w/o breaking the bank - solid product. Not sure if when you load down your phono/preamp for the cartridge if the dB gain in your setup is enough and if it swings big voltage, like max output 15+volts. BTW, loading is another one of those subjective things that I think is best done by the end-user employing trail and error, start at either 47K or at the reccomended load and keep changing it until it gives the sound you are hearing in your head, hopefully not voices telling you to do unthinkable things. Decca London, if it's even made anymore, similar attributues, very lively and engaging, draws you into the music, connects you, can be tempermental though and go away quickly as many have done in days of old. Its much higher output than most MC, its not a MM, the rather large cantiliver movers within a coil to generate a reasonable voltage output. Grado makes good stuff too, IMO they sound thicker/smoother and not as alive as the other two, but reliable as all mighty getout, basically, you probably can't go wrong with a Grado, it just doesn't jack me up. Out of the 3, I'd persoonally lean towrds ZU's version of the 103, assuming your arm mates well with it and you have ample voltage output to drive your amp, might have to twist the "V-knob" way up and hopefully it's noise floor is low - nothing worse than hiss riding on top of my tunes. On the cheaper side, Shure's V-15 replacement and Stanton's 681s were always good sounding - like a chain resturant - consistant quality, nothing fancy or outstanding but reliable, just not up to those previously mentioned. Also, I'd strongly suggest getting a record cleaning machine, it makes a big difference with the muck removed from the grooves.

Just a suggestion, go to Lowes or Homedepot and buy several different guages at the desired length - stranded and same thing in solid wire, and just plug and play, see if you hear anything, and/or what strikes your fancy sound-wise. Altec had installation instruction for their field guys that spelled out the appropreaate guage for length of run - check out Altec unofficial site it should be in their resource section I think. If you're interested in trying different materials, take a 2X6 say 6 feet long and put "hookup screw strips" on each end and string the exotic wire between each hookup screw, then use your existing cable (actually you need 2 because the board goes in-between the amp/speaker), with a alligator clips on the ends and see how each colors the sound - instant changes without hassling with the amp/speaker. Might try stranded copper, solid copper, silver either one strand or a couple, gold (rather pricy) and steel (Walt Bender - picture hanging wire). CAT cable is very well made stuff and can adjust the number of strandes used for varying guage size, can try it as is or strip the wire out and do your own twist pattern - have used it, nice. Cotton covered tinned copper wire as used by Ma Bell - like to try it. I found just using a nice outdoor extension cord cut and wires twisted and tinned with no plugs work pretty decently - made sure it would squeeze into the amp speaker screw down and on my speaker cross overs - and as noted above not stressing the crossover strength too much. Now use stuff that looks like HD lamp cord, 14 ga for runs no more than 6 feet. Anything Mogami is good - they make awesome mic cables, very low signal and super long runs in studios and live shows, and it's tough stuff to boot. Use their wire from my audio converter (AD/DA) to my amps that sit next to my speakers. Your software, meaning records and music files, and your choice of speakers/placement have more impact than wire. Think early mono Beatles records versus the remixes into stereo and then early CDs, talk about a real sound difference!!! Enjoy your tunes

New here, but thought I'd throw my 2 cents into the pot. I have been a tube guy for over 45 years, although never owned a SET, used a buddy''s for a short while but never coughed up the cash. Ran pentiods on my amps that I owned in both single ended, OTLs and P/P. Last owned tube amp, I ran EL34's in "triode" configuiration, per Sid Smith's instructions for my former Marantz 5 monos. I love tubes, they give the sound a certain thickness, body that 99% of solid state doesn't/can't do. That being said, got sick of maintainance on my tube gear and always needing to bais the amps and having the tubes age at different speeds, and they do. I first was running the amps, marantz 5s, through a custom passive crossover to account for the two 15s showing a 8 ohm load while my mid/high driver was 16 ohms. With the Marantz 5s a very nice sonic picture, good spread and decent front to back with individual players/instruments shown. Bought a First Watt F5 to compare to my quasi triode marantzs and what a difference. First note was a bleaching effect, no more chocalote - warm glow a bass/lower register emphasis that was a signiture of the 5s. What I came to realize is that the marantzs were just colorful and the F5s were not, if they do have a sonic fault it is they're lean maybe, not thin, but not quite meaty enough perhaps. Now I had highs and lows with great attack and good decay, attack is similar to the effect of plucking hard a LP/Jr into a VoxAC30 and then compare that to hit the Jr hard thru a Fender Silver Deluxe Reverb, the Vox has REAL SNAP vs the DR. Same thing here, the quickness of the F5 is amazing when compared to the Marantzs, not even the same league - quick as greased lightening as they use to say. The next big thing I was not really aware of is the noise floor of an amp, that threshold where the amp at idle is generating hiss or noise and how low or soft it is in relation to the music. Horns might actually make this effect worse. This is a key component, in my opinion, for low level detailing and the ability to listen at lower, ear saving, volumes/late night too. The F5 was just a revalation, I heard stuff in my records and music files that I never knew existed, example would be the sound of a snare brush being slid across the drum head, a very soft "swish" that somehow appeared from nowhere on an Alison Kraus (sp??) album. Little stuff the artist or producer purposely put in there that none of us get to hear unless you're using high effieicncy speakers and amps with a very low noise floor, maybe quad57 will get it, not so sure though. I now use 2 stereo amps, both F5, 1 amp per speaker and use Channel D software for playback with includes a very nice digital domain EXO built-in. I also, like may of you, use CD mid/high horns (MR94-288Gs) and the software allows very fine level adjustments over the entire fequency range to EQ the CD horn flat power falling fequency response issue. I find the images of the players and instruments to be be much more developed and phsyical, like Reba - she stands in front separated from the band members, of course this is a built up song by a producer for layering and such, but very telling and on recorded live albums same thing voices from the audiance are shown as such while the musians are depicted and placed very nicely across and front to back - they have form as such. I highly reccomened the FW gear and for thoise who biamp/triamp might look at the F1J/F2J amps more current based and when driving the speaker/driver directly might prove better or maybe not, worth a try. BTW the whole article on corner horn imaging is incredible and really makes the case - clear and simple. I came from years of monitor speakers, like IMFs, went to Quad57 (stacked and singles) in 1971 then to Beveridge Model II around 1984/5, then about 10 years ago, I swapped a 57 Reissue Strat and a 71 Fender Silver Face DR for a pair of cloned Altec 820s to add to my collection, also have Atec 755As. Took about 2 years of screwing around having the speakers away from the walls like we are led to believe is correct and finally put them in-place as designed along the long wall in the corners, what a wake up call, wasted 2 years of tune time. What do they say "I'm a beleiver" now. The 820s are now bass only and I use a sled on top for the mid/high horn so I can align the centers of the voice coils. Thanks Bob