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Cartridge for Black Widow tonearm

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Pnort

New Member
New member, but old guy. I've been reading the forum looking for some advice to get a new cartridge for my Kenwood turntable that has a Black Widow tonearm. From what I've read it's suggested I should have a high-compliance cartridge. A lot of the suggestions are for ancient models such as a Shure V15 -- I had one of those in the 1970s or early 80s I think. For current production, some promising leads suggested a model AT-440 or -540. Exploring a bit I find the latest in that line seems to be the -740 or -750. Those are all moving magnet types that list static compliance of 40 x 10-6 cm/dyne and dynamic compliance of 10 x 10-6 cm/dyne. The advice to get a high compliance cartridge never noted static vs. dynamic specifications. Some posters have reported good results with the AT-X40 or -50 series.

I also looked at an AT moving coil cartridge AT-OC9XSL that had static compliance of 22 x 10-6 cm/dyne, and dynamic compliance of 18 x 10-6 cm/dyne at 100 Hz. or about twice the dynamic compliance of the MM cartridges. My preamp, a Vincent Pho 701 can handle either type

Suggestions would be most welcome.
 
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I’d go with the higher compliance moving coil option if the tonearm will work with the weight of those. I like the sound of moving coil cartridges and use some on my low mass unipivot tonearm. I have not ventured away from the ADC that came with my Black Widow, yet. I will soon.

Many like the new AT MMs, 540/740, less high frequency peak on these bot the MCs seem to sound even better.

Not much out there for such a low mass tonearm today but accommodations can be made. The Dynavector 17 has some models that are approaching high compliance. I’m wanting to but one of mine on the BW.
 
A 2 g downforce cart like these modern Audio-Technicas will most probably be both too stiff and release too much energy into a poor Black Widow. Maybe an Ortofon Super OM30 or 40 will work ok in it?
 
Pnort said:
New member, but old guy. I've been reading the forum looking for some advice to get a new cartridge for my Kenwood turntable that has a Black Widow tonearm. From what I've read it's suggested I should have a high-compliance cartridge. A lot of the suggestions are for ancient models such as a Shure V15 -- I had one of those in the 1970s or early 80s I think. For current production, some promising leads suggested a model AT-440 or -540. Exploring a bit I find the latest in that line seems to be the -740 or -750. Those are all moving magnet types that list static compliance of 40 x 10-6 cm/dyne and dynamic compliance of 10 x 10-6 cm/dyne. The advice to get a high compliance cartridge never noted static vs. dynamic specifications. Some posters have reported good results with the AT-X40 or -50 series.

I also looked at an AT moving coil cartridge AT-OC9XSL that had static compliance of 22 x 10-6 cm/dyne, and dynamic compliance of 18 x 10-6 cm/dyne at 100 Hz. or about twice the dynamic compliance of the MM cartridges. My preamp, a Vincent Pho 701 can handle either type

Suggestions would be most welcome.
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The black widow was quite the arm when it came out. Super light weight. Was intended to be used with carts that track with a very low tracking force such as the Audio-Technica AT20SLA and a few others. Your best bet may be to look for an AT 20SLA cart body and use a JICO SAS stylus tip on it. Most Moving coils want a much heavier arm than the Black Widow. The compliance of the arm may not be a good match for most Moving coils made today.
 
Probably the only current MC cartridge which will be high enough in compliance is the Denon DL-301 II, with its 1.4g tracking force. Apart from that, it's probably only high compliance MM or MI cartridges which will suit the arm.
 
Upper end Stanton’s and Pickerings of that era had compliance in the upper 20’s, such as 28, 29, etc. I don’t even know if anyone makes carts like that anymore.
 
I've only tried the AT 150mlx? and it tracked wonderfully.

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I use a Shure M91ED on an ADC LMF II tonearm. They are relatively cheap carts and may not provide the quality level you are seeking. However, they will work.
 
Westy56 said:
I've only tried the AT 150mlx? and it tracked wonderfully.

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Even the current Audio Technica models like the VM540ML seem to be higher compliance than the current models of the Orotofon OM line, at least if my resonance tests are accurate (they are).
 
nailer said:
IIRC ADC and Sonus cartridges were even higher.
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The original 1972 ADC XLM listed a compliance of 65 x 10-6 cm/dyne and trached the HFNRR test record at 0.4g VTR. IIRC, the Black Widow was the only arm available that could consistently perform well with it. The 1975 XLM MkII reduced compliance to 30 x 10-6 cm/dyne with the low end of its tracking range at 0.75g and worked with more arms. The Shibata-tipped 1972 Super XLM was 50 x 10-6 cm/dyne, and the 1975 Super XLM MkII was 40 x 10-6 cm/dyne.

Other comparable models of the same period were the Sonus Blue, Blue-Gold and Super Blue at 50 x 10-6 cm/dyne and Stanton 881s at 30 x 10-6 cm/dyne. Shure didn't specify compliance of its cartridges, but the V15 II and III both reportedly worked well with the Black Widow.
 
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