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AT95e why does everyone love this?

needlestein said:
....

As someone who owns many Grado carts, I can rather see the comment of "Stop making it into something that it is not," apply more to Grado than the AT95E, or any AT, really. I mean, Grados are so fiddly. You have to have them at exactly 1.6g VTF. They need to be set with negative SRA. They work best with an arm that has fluid damping. They need 0 antiskate. They need a big long stick fastidiously and laboriously perfectly aligned, weighted and glued to the front of them in order to keep them from dancing because of some strange problem with their suspension and horizontal resonant frequency anomalies or something. They need the 8MZ stylus. But if you really want it to sing get the MCZ stylus and load it at 10 ohms. They need glass slippers and their butts wiped all day long.
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Is negative SRA tail up or down? Never tried it.

I think any kind of damping helps, not limited to fluid.

I think the MCZ loading is cartridge dependent, either 10K, 23K or 47k depending on the body ... not 10 ohms.

I don't need the stick on mine.

I love the characteristic sound of Grado, even if they are fiddly at times.
 
I never claimed to be an expert. Rather, just a person on a budget who is satisfied with music.

You conveniently ignored what I said just to bash this cartridge. I made clear it had its shortcomings, BUT it has its place in the audio world. Especially for those of us with little to spend.
 
As to having a cart for listening while not critical listening I can understand that, but truthfully I use my digital format at those times. But I can see that as a good reason. My experience has been, in most cases, the more expensive carts have turned out to be ones I think sound better. Now I am not one to own mega buck carts but ones that run about 500 dollars. And for me that is quite a bit of money for a record player needle, as I am not rich. But since this is a place where a lot of serious hobbyist hang out, I just am surprised that such a budget range cart would be able to keep hobbyist of this level satisfied. I have never owned one before but I thought based on the opinions of some of the more veteran members here that carts were quite important in the chain and finding good quality ones meant spending a chunk of change.

As to the Empire turntables I have a couple of those in my older vintage systems, and I was under the impression that because they are a sprung type of tonearm they are not defined as a high mass arm, maybe I misunderstood what I was told.
 
WaynerN said:
I do think that there are plenty of pricks here at AK that are spoiling it for many folks, because they think "they are the experts".
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And one of them in particular would say something like this:
WaynerN said:
Time to get real. Its a $50 dollar cartridge that tracks at 2.5 grams. If this is all you have, get out of vinyl.
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And by no means is that your first steamy pile.
 
Shhhh, your audio-nonsnobbery has no place on AudioKarma!

On a side note, can we get those darned Technics direct drives out of here! They're always hunting for the right speed, after all.
 
The problem is that people buy a $50 cartridge and expect it to be something that it is not. They are lying to themselves. I'm trying to point out that the performance of a $50 cartridge (even if it is an over-achiever) is that of a $50 dollar cartridge. Then, those same folks get bent out of shape when reality is pointed out to them. I have the lesser (to me) AT120e/b. I don't proclaim its abilities. It is what it is and what I expected it to be. Is it twice the cartridge of the 95? Probably not. But it is better.

I don't practice audio snobbery, I practice audio reality. BTW, I have other tables here other then Technics. Any belt driven synchronous motor hunts for the right speed as well.
 
There's the problem, Wayne: you must allow for the fact people have different opinions and abilities.

To me the AT120 is one of the weakest cartridges in their range, and loses rather than gains over the AT95e, which is not only better value for money but a better cartridge. I could say that is because the arms I was using (Akito, Unify) were considerably better than those on the SL1200, but that I don't know. What I can't say is that you wouldn't know because you were using inferior equipment and were lying to yourself. That's just being needlessly aggressive.
 
wayne, as we both know, the ice cream tastes better with some well chosen toppings, especially if the ice cream is Hagen Dasz. but the $3/half gallon ice cream can taste more than ok if its the right one.

i have been shocked at how good the lowest grado sounded when they were $15! the at95e IS a pretty good cartridge for the $50 price and i would take it over the shure m95xe as i haven't met a shure yet that sounded truly alluring.
 
I tried one a few years back. Not really to my liking at all.

My current favourites are the Denon DL103 (mahogany body, spherical retip) and the Grado wood bodied carts.

Other worthy mentions are the Denon DL303 (shibata retip) and Shure SC35C (universal pulse guard body and V15xMR He stylus)
 
The AT95E has a rather low mass, and the compliance is also rather low. When I had the 95 I thought it benefited greatly from adding mass to the sides of the cartridge body. I used as low res as 6Hz. I also used a fluid damping which of course is really beneficial getting more out of the cartridge.
What I mean is; there is no absolute sound to the AT95, it will benefit greatly from a really good arm. A stock Technics arm doesn´t really tell us much of how it can sound.
Also as with several ATs the capacitance is important, in my case I use 100pF in total.
 
Wow, just wow. My opinion is that the AT95e is a pretty fair cart on the right arm that is easily upgradeable to make it, in my opinion, an above average affordable cartridge. Is it a cart that I would recommend for critical listening? In my opinion, no.

If any AK member finds my opinion inconsistent with their own then I've got zero problem with that and, quite frankly, is one of the reasons I'm here - to converse and get varying perspectives. I would suggest, however, that simply because someone's opinion differs from someone else's opinion it doesn't make either the personification of defecation.
 
The "get out of vinyl" comment also assumes that the sole purpose for listening to vinyl is ultimate fidelity. Sometimes I just want to listen to music!

The price is (partially) irrelevant in comparison to other cartridges when you consider how popular it is and how long it has been in production.

And BTW, the comment about Technics always searching for speed was a joke about audio snobs who look down on Technics (and direct drives in general). I thought you would at least appreciate that.
 
Why do people keep saying the AT95E is $50? It's been under $40 (currently $35!) on Amazon for years.

4212-DE .4 x .7 elliptical on my low budget Technics P Mount turntable. Sounds frickin' great!
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This is next on my list. I have an AT p-mount that is awaiting a stylus and every Pfan-made AT I've got has been awesome. (Still can't get over how great the 629-DE is.) Did AT only ever make two basic p-mount bodies?
 
Bottom line:

1) The AT95E sounds great for the price

2) There is absolutely no shame in owning one

Would I like to be able to afford a $10,000 cartridge? Of course. Who wouldn't?

Can I afford a $10,000 cartridge? Nope.

Do I feel like I'm missing anything by using a cartridge that is much less expensive? NO

Do I own an AT95E? Yes...proudly.
 
hifitommy said:
wayne, as we both know, the ice cream tastes better with some well chosen toppings, especially if the ice cream is Hagen Dasz. but the $3/half gallon ice cream can taste more than ok if its the right one.

i have been shocked at how good the lowest grado sounded when they were $15! the at95e IS a pretty good cartridge for the $50 price and i would take it over the shure m95xe as i haven't met a shure yet that sounded truly alluring.
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I had the Shure and thought it was the most boring cartridge I had ever heard. Others claim its a "godsend"....
 
WaynerN said:
I don't practice audio snobbery, I practice audio reality.
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.... for the love of all that is holy, Wayne, just admit the reality that your "get out of vinyl" comment was a knee-jerk reaction and overstated so we can move on!

"all audio, no attitude," my ass! :rflmao:
 
slate1 said:
.... for the love of all that is holy, Wayne, just admit the reality that your "get out of vinyl" comment was a knee-jerk reaction and overstated so we can move on!

"all audio, no attitude," my ass! :rflmao:
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My comment was a bit tongue in cheek, but if you are that far down on your luck (and money) and can only afford $50 for a cartridge, you might want to be buying food for yourself or your family rather then wasting it on foolish audio stuff.

BTW, I did get into a debate with Jeff Dorgay (owner/publisher of Tone Audio) over his comments regarding the $10,000 Lyra (then price, now $13,000). My only comment was why the world needed a $10K cartridge, and why stop there? How about $20, 50K..... Talking about ends of the spectrum, I would say that the AT95e and the Lyra Atlas are bookends. There is your audio snobbery. Or should I say hifi robbery. But if you want one, your family hasn't been kicked to the curb and are not all starving, go for it.

I would also like to say that in none of my posts did I use the word "shame" in it. That is an assumed word that never happened, nor was ever implied. I do not buy into the concept that $40-50 was all anyone could afford that ended up with an AT95e.

'ner
 
And finally.....I looked in my piggy bank and there I found just enough money to order an AT95eB, which is the black (special edition) of the the usual AT95e for the price of $40.99 from Lpgear. How's that....?

It will be mounted to one of my spare Technics headshells and be set to track at 2.0 grams on the Technics SL1210MK5. That will be my 4th AT type (AT95eB, AT120E/b, AT440MLa, AT440MLa/ATN150MLX).
 
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