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B & O carts

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I myself have a SMMC20EN on it's way to use in my Beogram 8000. When it arrives, I'll compare it with my existing B&O MMC20E to see how it stacks up. Another option would be to have your existing MMC 4000 retipped, which can be done by Axel or Amina Audio. However, this would require that the internal parts of the cartridge be intact, and depending on where you're located, shipping costs may be prohibitive. Hope this helps.
-Adam
 
Please keep us posted on your listening comparison between your carts when it arrives. My OEM MMC20EN doesn't sound that great on my 1700, and I'm trying to decide if I bite the bullet on a new Soundsmith cart. Thanks.
 
I replaced the MMC2 in my Beogram TX-2 with a Soundsmith SMMC2. It is an excellent cartridge on par with the original.
 
Hokieman said:
Please keep us posted on your listening comparison between your carts when it arrives. My OEM MMC20EN doesn't sound that great on my 1700, and I'm trying to decide if I bite the bullet on a new Soundsmith cart. Thanks.
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What do you dislike about your MMC20EN? Is the stylus and suspension still OK?
 
JonL said:
What do you dislike about your MMC20EN? Is the stylus and suspension still OK?
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To be honest with you, I can't tell you if it's a cart issue or a cap problem with the turntable. The sound is tinny with little bass. I can't get that stuck platter off, even though the caps are on the bottom. I need to take the cart down to my local high schooll to look at the stylus under a microscope to see if its worn out.

As to the suspension, it appears okay, but what would a bad one look like?
 
I think with a bad suspension you'll see the cantilever come out of the cartridge off to one side a bit or way down towards the bottom edge of the hole. The cantilever I believe is supposed to come out of the cartridge about a third of the way up from the bottom edge of the hole. At least that's what I recall about the MMC-X series. The MMC20 series might be a bit different. Poke around on Sound-smith.com, there may be more info.
 
I have a Soundsmith SMMC-2 on my TX-2. My TX-2 with the MMC-5 I had on it sounded much brighter and "livelier" than my old 3404 with an MMC-20EN. The Soundsmith cart now has about 60 or 70 hours on it. It definitely picks up even more high frequency detail than the MMC-5 did. On some recordings I feel like there is a distinct lack of upper bass/lower midrange. The frequencies that give pianos, acoustic guitars, and some vocals their body sometimes seem to be rather attenuated. On other recordings it's all there in spades. The bass/mids are stronger than when the cart was new, I believe (and I taped some tracks as soon as I got the cart to have an objective reference).

I think I'd still like the cartridge to have more midrange "beef" than it has, but I'm not sure if it is the cart, the table (I have another table - an RX - to try the cartridge on), or the overall system synergy. I'll have new (to me) speakers tomorrow, so that's another change to check out.

Overall I'm very pleased with the cartridge but not yet ecstatic. Some things it does extremely well, and on some LPs it does everything extremely well.
 
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