Finally got one ... in the Stanton club now (edit: Stereohedron retip)

Someone just got a really good deal on this Stanton display piece, including the 881S with the original white brush stylus! :eek:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/183364607004?nordt=true

stantondisplay.jpg


I was watching that. There are no styli in the cartridges, but I guess it's a decent deal for the bodies.
 
@sturgus , I played with my 681ee and gave it a slight adjustment to align to Baerwald. It was darn close, now it’s on as good as my 60 year old eyes can see. The azimuth looks fine as is and if I change it I change all my other cartridge settings, so no adjustment needed. Set vtf back to 1.4.

The sound is no longer skewed to the left channel. That only happened when you were here and playing your records. Basically you jinxed it and I hold you fully responsible for whatever happened. :rflmao:

Playing great now. Big, big bass.

I will order the Jico styli direct from Japan right before I leave for Iceland.
 
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Someone just got a really good deal on this Stanton display piece, including the 881S with the original white brush stylus! :eek:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/183364607004?nordt=true

stantondisplay.jpg

Just clicked the link to check on this completed auction, and ebay would not take me there. Ebay diverted me to an active auction that it considered similar. AAAArrrrrrhhh! I noticed ebay doing this recently. It won't allow viewing a completed auction. It will divert to an active auction that you have absolutely no interest in. Is there a way around this feature that is so "not"helpful to the user?
 
Just clicked the link to check on this completed auction, and ebay would not take me there. Ebay diverted me to an active auction that it considered similar. AAAArrrrrrhhh! I noticed ebay doing this recently. It won't allow viewing a completed auction. It will divert to an active auction that you have absolutely no interest in. Is there a way around this feature that is so "not"helpful to the user?
Well, I clicked on one of the other links and it took me to the completed auction. I don't know what ebay is doing. Maybe I don't know what I'm doing.:)
 
For all the low-bass lovers out there, there is also the Stanton/Pickering 500/V15 series.

I really believe that in terms of authority and impact in the lower registers, they are difficult to challenge.
It is worth having in ones collection.
They are probably my favorite cartridge family, from Stanton/Pickering.
Here is the same recording I posted previously, but with a Pickering NP/AC, one of the bass-heavier examples :rockon::

Pickering NP/AC (Stanton 500 gold body with original PC07C)

Hope it helps others in their "Stantonian" quest.
 
For all the low-bass lovers out there, there is also the Stanton/Pickering 500/V15 series.

I really believe that in terms of authority and impact in the lower registers, they are difficult to challenge.
It is worth having in ones collection.
They are probably my favorite cartridge family, from Stanton/Pickering.
Here is the same recording I posted previously, but with a Pickering NP/AC, one of the bass-heavier examples :rockon::

Pickering NP/AC (Stanton 500 gold body with original PC07C)

Hope it helps others in their "Stantonian" quest.
I also really like the V15. It is one of my favorite cartridges.

They don't seem to get a lot of love, do they? A handful of people really like them, and everyone else seems to disregard them.:dunno: Their loss.
 
I can't explain it either except that they're ubiquitous and generally low priced, which are not qualities to have in order to generate interest in this hobby, generally speaking.
Very true.

That and they usually came attached to a low end record changer. The fact that a lot of them had heavier tracking "DJ" style styli probably didn't help either. Anything associated with a changer or DJ use automatically has to be crap, right?:rolleyes:
 
@sturgus , I played with my 681ee and gave it a slight adjustment to align to Baerwald. It was darn close, now it’s on as good as my 60 year old eyes can see. The azimuth looks fine as is and if I change it I change all my other cartridge settings, so no adjustment needed. Set vtf back to 1.4.

The sound is no longer skewed to the left channel. That only happened when you were here and playing your records. Basically you jinxed it and I hold you fully responsible for whatever happened. :rflmao:

Yes, that happens.

I had a Feickert here for a short time and a friend with a TD-125 II hauled over his armboard/arm/cartridge which the leads as they don't unplug. I put this on my TD-125 and we reset the stylus position after a quick listen. less than 1 mm made a difference and since Mike is not using his table these days, life is in the way, the armboard remains on my table. Sounds great, too. Getting some recording done with that combo. I think that is how it supposed to work.
 
Yes, that happens.

I had a Feickert here for a short time and a friend with a TD-125 II hauled over his armboard/arm/cartridge which the leads as they don't unplug. I put this on my TD-125 and we reset the stylus position after a quick listen. less than 1 mm made a difference and since Mike is not using his table these days, life is in the way, the armboard remains on my table. Sounds great, too. Getting some recording done with that combo. I think that is how it supposed to work.

I hope it was the slight adjustment. I moved it forward maybe 0.5mm and then a super slight twist toward the spindle. The bias to the left channel is gone. It was not there before Saturday so was afraid it was intermittent and internal to the cartridge.
 
Just clicked the link to check on this completed auction, and ebay would not take me there. Ebay diverted me to an active auction that it considered similar. AAAArrrrrrhhh! I noticed ebay doing this recently. It won't allow viewing a completed auction. It will divert to an active auction that you have absolutely no interest in. Is there a way around this feature that is so "not"helpful to the user?
Yes. Add ?nordt=true to the end of the URL. And then click on the tiny "See original listing" link.
 
Yes. Add ?nordt=true to the end of the URL. And then click on the tiny "See original listing" link.

I PM'd needlestein and he clued me in to another easy work around. Here it is.

"So if you look at the light blue band where it says "The listing you're looking for is no longer available. Check out this similar item we found for you," you will see that the word "listing" is dark blue while all the other words in that sentence are black. The dark blue indicates a hyperlink and if you click on just the word "listing" in that sentence, you will get to the closed auction you wanted in the first place."
 
Do you know why the VoM site lists the 4822-DEE as an EVG? I assume that you recommend Pfanstiehl for a reason and the EVG is different.

On VofM, Gary lists EVG/Japan(JICO) EVG/Swiss, and Pfanstiehl/Swiss. Gary bought the last of the EVG/JICO. EVG products are now Swiss sourced and identical to Pfanstiehl as they both buy from the same Swiss manufacturer.
 
Hindsight is 20-20. A few years ago when J&R Music World was going out of business they were blowing out the Stanton 680 V3 cartridges for $29. I bought a few but now wish I'd bought several. I finally put one into use last March when a genuine Stanton D6800SL stylus came my way. Amazing!!! Then a few weeks ago an AK'er sent me a link to another amazingly cheap D6800SL on Ebay. I took a chance and it turned out to be in great condition. I mentioned it to somebody and they told me where a stash of new and used D6800SL's were. I bought all of the used and one new in the box.

I haven't opened the NIB up yet but to my ears a 68x series cartridge body with a real Stanton Stereohedron stylus is unbeatable. Considering the one I have in use at the moment cost me $60 for the cartridge and stylus I have to say other than free things I've acquired it's the best deal in my 50+ years of audio addiction. I'm still looking for a Stanton D80S or D81S to make my life complete.
 
I had a chance to compare my Pickering XV-15/625E (OEM .3x.7 bonded stylus) with my Stanton 681EEE (OEM .2x.7 nude stylus) using the lateral pink noise track on the Ultimate Analogue Test LP.

The XV-15's output level is almost exactly 3 dB higher (2.98 dB) at 1 kHz than the 681EEE, so I compensated for that in the graph below. Keep in mind this is a pink noise test, so the frequency response graph is supposed to be a steady downhill slope, not a flat line.

The XV-15 is the pink line and the 681EEE is the light blue line.

Pickering_XV-15_625_E_pink_vs._Stanton_681_EEE_blue.png


Both are nearly identical (within 0.5 dB) up to 3 kHz. Above that, the XV-15 shows an increasing rise: 0.7 dB higher than the 681EEE at 5 kHz, 1.4 dB higher at 10 kHz, and 3.2 dB higher at 15 kHz -- except for a dip at around 17.7 kHz where both are equal in level. They both drop off sharply just below 20 kHz, but that may be a limitation of the LP and/or of my recording equipment.

And just for further comparison, I put the 681EEE's stylus into the XV-15 body and compared it with the XV-15 with its own 625E stylus. The 625E stylus was 2.59 dB louder at 1 kHz than the 681EEE stylus, which I again compensated.

The results were virtually identical. This time, the XV-15 with its own 625E stylus is the pink line, while the XV-15 with the 681EEE stylus is the light blue line.

XV-15_625_E_pink_vs._XV-15_with_681_EEE_stylus_blue.png


So the 681EEE stylus's frequency response is more flat (compared to what a pink noise graph should look like), but my ears definitely prefer the high-end boost of the XV-15/625E stylus.
 
I posted upstream about buying a Pickering XV-15/625E from @JFRACE and a 4606-DEX from TVOM, and the cartridge arrived and I mounted it in a head shell today, swapping in the genuine Pickering Dustamatic brush from the D200 stylus that came with the cartridge. Thanks to JFRACE for passing this cartridge along to another AKer!

I'm listening now, at 2.25 total VTF, which (with brush) should drive the stylus at 1.25 VTF. It's too early to anoint this cartridge of course, all of one LP side in, but I may really, really like it. Nice deep bass, smooth mids, nice crisp highs that work well to my ear so far. I've been honking my horn for months now about my love for the paradox pulse Shure sc35c and how much I don't love the shimmer and air that more advanced cartridges provide. I've also had some very nice times of late with a longhorned Grado blue with @needlestein .2X.7 retip.

I'll need some time to evaluate, but so far this XV-15 is maybe delicious, providing the Grado-esque sweet mids but with better and tighter bass perhaps. The placement of instruments, voices and percussion seem pretty spot-on so far. Wow is all I have to say for now. Why the heck are these not being made anymore, and why does this vintage cart sound so good?
 
Why the heck are these not being made anymore, and why does this vintage cart sound so good?
I think the thread about the AT-3600L answers that question. If Audio-Technica can make a cartridge that's good enough to please audiophiles and sell it for $11 (albeit through "unofficial" eBay channels), then it's no wonder that so many cartridge manufacturers have either started selling rebranded Audio-Technicas (like Stanton and Goldring) or stopped selling cartridges entirely (like Shure).
 
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I posted upstream about buying a Pickering XV-15/625E from @JFRACE and a 4606-DEX from TVOM, and the cartridge arrived and I mounted it in a head shell today, swapping in the genuine Pickering Dustamatic brush from the D200 stylus that came with the cartridge. Thanks to JFRACE for passing this cartridge along to another AKer!

I'm listening now, at 2.25 total VTF, which (with brush) should drive the stylus at 1.25 VTF. It's too early to anoint this cartridge of course, all of one LP side in, but I may really, really like it. Nice deep bass, smooth mids, nice crisp highs that work well to my ear so far. I've been honking my horn for months now about my love for the paradox pulse Shure sc35c and how much I don't love the shimmer and air that more advanced cartridges provide. I've also had some very nice times of late with a longhorned Grado blue with @needlestein .2X.7 retip.

I'll need some time to evaluate, but so far this XV-15 is maybe delicious, providing the Grado-esque sweet mids but with better and tighter bass perhaps. The placement of instruments, voices and percussion seem pretty spot-on so far. Wow is all I have to say for now. Why the heck are these not being made anymore, and why does this vintage cart sound so good?

Glad to hear you got the XV-15. Yes, the better vintage cartridges are fun, especially with vintage recordings. Playing Aretha tonight with my Stanton and it sounds right.
 
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