Since the mid 1990's I have had a Marantz TT275 direct drive turntable. It hasn't really had a lot of use despite my large collection of vinyls. Recently I've been going through all of the vinyls to see what is worth keeping and what isn't....simply because I don't have room to keep them all. Most are in excellent condition but I noticed that many had a degree of sibilance....I put it down to the cartridge since I've experienced this before. Most of the records sounded very good. However I thought about how long I had had the deck and decided to order a new stylus. It arrived today so I fitted it and tried a few of the problem records. They are no longer a problem! The quality has been transformed and sibilance is a thing of the past. Oddly though the records that sounded OK with the old stylus don't really sound any different. I get the impression that the records that had a sibilance problem are slightly louder than the ones that didn't. Maybe the new stylus 'sits' in the groove better. Whatever the cause, it now sounds great.
Stylus was bought from The Stylus Store via eBay.
Further to the above I have now upgraded the cartridge to an Audio Technica AT85EP. The reason I did this was because I have a passion for organ (cathedral organ) music and one of my vinyls is Widor with (what I consider) one of the best pieces of organ music ever composed....Symphony for Organ no.5 in F minor.....the finale is a real floor shaker!
The original cartridge was a no-name Japanese type but was probably a Marantz . It was OK-ish but it had trouble tracking the really low bass notes with obvious crackles audible. Similar problem with Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. So after some on-line research I decided the AT was probably a good bet for the price. It also has an eliptical stylus which I prefer. I would have liked a Shure but apparently they no longer manufacture cartridges. Anyway the AT arrived today and having set the recommended weight (1.25gm) tried it out on my Hi-Fi Sound test record HFS75. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it tracked the heaviest modulated tone 300Hz +18db....the original cartridge couldn't cope at all and barely sat in the groove. It didn't really like the lower level 14db either, only coping with the 11db modulation which is considered the minimum for Hi Fi and even then was very critical of the sidethrust.
Both of the pieces of organ music mentioned now play with no audible tracking errors and are clean with no crackles. Tracking weight set to 1.25gm and sidethrust adjusted to give no errors on the 18db test track.
At the other end of the music genres, Pink Floyds 'The Wall' has taken on a new life with 'Comfortably Numb' particularly good.
The piano in Dave Brubeck's 'Take Five' is crystal clear and I'm about to play some Moody Blues. I suspect the next week or so will see me going through the entire collection again......
All in all I think the AT85EP is a good investment at £35.
I shall now invest in a spare stylus.
Shure only recently pulled out of cartridges but in my opinion they had long hung on to an ageing range.
My first "hi-fi" cartridge was an A-T - a model AT11E, back in about 1979. At the budget end of the range A-T are hard to beat yet they sell cartridges up to £4,500! It's also good to note that for those of us still so inclined, A-T and Ortofon cater for the 78rpm market too. A-T also make a really high-quality 3-speed turntable with a USB option too - the AT-LP120XUSB.
At some point I have two Garrard 86SBs to renovate and pass on to friends: they are going to get fitted with the Rega 'Carbon', their version of the basic A-T cartridge (the VM95C).
Well I'm a bit restricted to 'P' mount cartridges now. At least I know the AT's are pretty good. I seem to recall that I tried an AT66 back in the early 70's with my SME arm but eventually ended up with a Shure V15 MkIII which I still think is probably one of the best ever made. Incidentally The Moody Blues 'Days Of Future Past' vinyl sounds crisp and clear with the new AT. Can't wait to play that Widor organ symphony at 'elevated' volume when convenient! I hope the Delta 70 will cope. The headphones are good but you really need the speakers when the organist hits those bass pedals!
Oh, I dunno about that - a mate of mine has/had a particular pair of Sennheiser headphones that not only had a high output, but had a very extended bass response - so much so that when he lent them to me to listen to a track on my laptop (Rocket Scientist by The Teddybears) it became weirdly uncomfortable to listen to as my earlobes were flapping around in the breeze and it was quite ticklish!
Oh, I dunno about that - a mate of mine has/had a particular pair of Sennheiser headphones that not only had a high output, but had a very extended bass response - so much so that when he lent them to me to listen to a track on my laptop (Rocket Scientist by The Teddybears) it became weirdly uncomfortable to listen to as my earlobes were flapping around in the breeze and it was quite ticklish!
I love that description! - It's got to be like sticking your head out of a classic railway carriage window at 90 mph anywhere between Doncaster and Peterborough! ??
