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From: sjc@angband.UUCP (Steve Correll)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: Cartridge advice
Message-ID: <21@angband.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 30-Sep-84 22:01:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: angband.21
Posted: Sun Sep 30 22:01:42 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 2-Oct-84 07:35:33 EDT
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Organization: S-1 Project, LLNL
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Re the query, "Is a $250 cartridge 10 times as good as a $25 cartridge?",
I'll offer one experience. Some years ago, after I traded studenthood for
a real grownup job, I traded my Shure M91ED for a Shure V15 Type III. The
difference was pretty striking. I heard all kinds of new details on old
records, loud passages were less harsh, I deciphered certain song
lyrics that had always puzzled me, and (unfortunately) I realized that
the old cartridge had scarred some of my records in passages where it
didn't track properly.

Later, when I traded the V15 Type III for a V15 Type IV, the sound
improved further, but more striking was the new cartridge's ability to
play some warped records which I had given up for lost.

I paid not $250, but roughly $125 for each of the V15 cartridges, which
were widely discounted. I gather that the gap in quality between cheap
and expensive cartridges has diminished, but I'd be inclined to invest
the extra $100. Even more important, though, I'd advocate choosing a
cartridge/tonearm combination that minimizes the effect of record warps
(e.g., high compliance cartridges require low-mass arms). You can pore
over compliance and arm-mass specifications (High Fidelity Magazine
periodically prints a little nomograph for this purpose). Or you can
just buy one of the Shure cartridges with the resonance-damping brush
which, despite its gimmicky appearance, has worked well for me.--Steve
-- 
                                                           --Steve Correll
sjc@s1-c.ARPA, ...!decvax!decwrl!mordor!sjc, or ...!ucbvax!dual!mordor!sjc