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Cartridge Selection

L

Lohengrin03

AK Member
I need help selecting a cartridge for a Denon DP-52F that I hope to purchase in the near future. Here is the situation:

Amp/phono section: Denon AVR-5700
Speakers: JBL S38ii

I need a cartridge that does full orchestra well.

Cartridges I have had experience with: Shure M97xe, New production Shure M44g, NOS Shure V15 type III, Grado Prestige Gold 1, Audio Technica AT-440mla, Audio Technica AT-150mlx.

My impressions on these cartridges: I did not care for any of the Shure's. They all sounded dull and lifeless to me. The Grado sounded GREAT for the first half of an LP. Then it began to track poorly. I assure you it was aligned correctly. I went round and round and could never get it to track well. The AT-440mla tracked great and sounded great, but was a tad bright for the classical music I like to listen to. The AT-150mlx was my favorite as it tracked amazing and had a more balanced and open sound than the AT-440mla.

All of these experiences were on a Technics SL-1300mk2. How will these cartridges mesh with the DP-52F and given what information I have provided, I am open to other suggestions.

Thanks!
 
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The Grado's don't do well on the Technics arms without fluid dampening. Then Denon is a different story. If you still have the Grado, buy an 8MZ stylus and you will be happy.
 
Lohengrin03 said:
I need help selecting a cartridge for a Denon DP-52F that I hope to purchase in the near future. Here is the situation:

Amp/phono section: Denon AVR-5700
Speakers: JBL S38ii

I need a cartridge that does full orchestra well.

Cartridges I have had experience with: Shure M97xe, New production Shure M44g, NOS Shure V15 type III, Grado Prestige Gold 1, Audio Technica AT-440mla, Audio Technica AT-150mlx.

My impressions on these cartridges: I did not care for any of the Shure's. They all sounded dull and lifeless to me. The Grado sounded GREAT for the first half of an LP. Then it began to track poorly. I assure you it was aligned correctly. I went round and round and could never get it to track well. The AT-440mla tracked great and sounded great, but was a tad bright for the classical music I like to listen to. The AT-150mlx was my favorite as it tracked amazing and had a more balanced and open sound than the AT-440mla.

All of these experiences were on a Technics SL-1300mk2. How will these cartridges mesh with the DP-52F and given what information I have provided, I am open to other suggestions.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

It´s reasonble, I think, that all cartridges will sound better on the Denon.
It ought to be a much better TT generally, and it has a servo damped arm, nice.
 
The Shures will sound dull if incorrectly loaded.

Similarly with the AT's sounding bright.


The AT440 sounds best at 150pf capacitance and loading a touch below 47k (35 to 42k) - that will bring it back to neutrality.
The AT150 should be fine at 150pf and 47k I would have thought (don't have one) - but it may require a slightly lower resistive load... adjust to taste - but I would think that 42k or 47k would be fine.


A Shure V15III correctly loaded is a marvelous tracker and very neutral at 400pf and 47k.
If you are using a stylus that is not an original Shure you may have to adjust the loading to get it sounding right...

The Grado will track MUCH better in the Denon TT - the onboard electro damping does wonders for the Grado's.

Also you can upgrade the stylus to 8MZ (better), MCZ (even better), TLZ (the best) styli - all of which track better than the Gold1 stylus

The Grado's are much less sensitive to loading than the Shures and AT's - but Marcmorin can help you with the best setup for those.

Hope this helps

bye for now

David
 
Did some quick calc's of the arm geometry. Factory setting gives 230mm effective length and 22deg offset at stylus. That puts the inner null at 58.8mm. Max tracking error is .904 and average .530. Moving the cart to 16mm overhang and twisting it some to 22.4 deg offset at stylus gives a max error of .877, an average of .440, and an inner null at 63.3mm
 
dlaloum said:
Also you can upgrade the stylus to 8MZ (better), MCZ (even better), TLZ (the best) styli - all of which track better than the Gold1 stylus


David
Click to expand...

For further reference on styli David....XTZ is best. Usually not offered as "inventory" from the bigger sellers, but still can be bought through a Grado dealer upon request.
 
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