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Another Shure M97xE forte- piano and violin.

catman

catman

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G'day all, an unexpectedly pleasant musical experience tonight when I was totally charmed by three Schubert violin sonatas as reproduced here on my Ham Radio shack system. The Shure M97xE loves this sort of music.

Although loaded at 62 k for maximum treble extension, glancing at the spectrum analyser display I was aware that the music was maintained between a tight 120 Hz and 8 kHz frequency range envelope and the 'sweetness', yet realism of the violin tone was quite breathtaking with the Shure M97xE.

I had noticed this before, as some years ago I had compared the sound of violin on a similar musical piece, between my Shure M97xE and an Ortofon Super OM10 (both loaded at 47 k). At that time I remember thinking that the violin sounded 'sweeter' on the Shure M97xE and slightly more 'etched' sounding on the Ortofon Super OM10. It's good to know that my opinions have remained the same! :music: Regards, Felix aka catman.
 
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Having had a fairly "set" system for about 20 years (an all-Linn system with Saras as my speakers), my cartridge preferences were always in the context of that system, and I tended to like "mellow" cartridges like the M97xE along with models from Grado and Stanton. Having tried a few other speakers and turntables of late, I'm more cognizant of finding complementary matches, especially with the cartridge and speakers. The same M97xE that sounds so sweet, natural, and extended on a particular pair of speakers with metal dome tweeters, could sound a bit closed in and lifeless on speakers with a different design; the cheap Audio Technica CN5625AL that can make strings sound a bit hard and grating on one pair of speakers, becomes sweet to the ears with a different set of speakers. I'm currently pairing the CN5625AL cartridge (mounted on an LP12/Ittok) with Bose 301 speakers (driven by an Audio by Van Alstine Insight 240 amplifier), and they're making beautiful music together, with an engaging quality that makes me want to just keep listening to record after record.
 
HI Felix - I have what is probably a dumb question - how do you change the loading on the cartridge ? Does this involved changing resistors in the input section of the amplifier ?

thanks - Jim
 
conaway said:
HI Felix - I have what is probably a dumb question - how do you change the loading on the cartridge ? Does this involved changing resistors in the input section of the amplifier ?

thanks - Jim
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing...
 
G'day all, yes the Jico SAS stylus for the M97xE is tops! Yes I've also got one. Some other's impressions are here. http://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=vinyl&m=906779 Incidentally with the Jico SAS stylus installed, 47 k input impedance is fine and works superbly!

On changing the (resistive) loading, (if using the standard supplied Shure elliptical stylus only) no there's no easy way out of this one, yes resistors have to be changed. If you have no electronics construction experience it is way too risky, sadly. However I've incorporated input loading controls on my various DIY phono stages for maximum operational flexibility.

There are some commercially made phono stages with provision to do this, but sadly they aren't too common. I wish they were, as optimised cartridge loading can make a massive difference (improvement) with many moving magnet (and likewise moving coil cartridges). Regards, Felix aka catman.
 

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Thanks for the links Felix. I see that others are discovering this magic combo.
I believe that I like it better than my $1200 grado statement/reference.:yes:
 
On reviewing the schematic for my fisher 800c, it appears that the resistive loadings for the phono lo and phono hi inputs are 220k and 68k ohms, respectively. I'm using the lo input for my shure M97xE (with std elliptical stylus), so probably have a higher resisitive loading for the cartridge than is optimum. I don;t want to modify the 800c, so perhaps the best approach would be to build an external preamp with close to unity gain for this purpose.
Felix - this appears to be what you;ve done - do you have a suggested circuit to try, or is that a kit that you're shown in your pic ?

thanks - Jim
 
Felix - after some google research, I've found your post from earlier this year about the ESP 06 phono preamp kit and am very intrigued by it - may order the PC board and give it a try.

regards - Jim
 
I just pulled my Yamaha CA-2010 out of storage due to problems with my Scott 299-D amp. I'd forgotten it has cartridge impedance choices!

Time to change-out turntables again! ;-)

p9231455.jpg
 
G'day all, interesting stuff. I don't think the exact value of loading resistance is 'that' critical up to a point anyway. I think 68 k will be fine. In this enlightening article, 75 k was used. http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/load_the_magnets_e.html

However I think 75 k is a little too high as it just starts to exaggerate the midrange dip. I think 62 k produces a slightly more 'linear' response overall, but 68 k will be very similar.

Remember too that any existing input shunt capacitance will modify the overall situation a little. So in the end the exact resistive value is not that critical, in the humble opinion. Try it and see. Regards, Felix aka catman.
 
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