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GE VRII Headshell question

jmfg

jmfg

Member
Happy Holidays everyone! I recently acquired a GE VRII nos cartridge (no headshell) and was wondering what my headshell mounting options are due to the protruding push to turn mechanism. I do not have a period appropriate arm, and was curious if I could retrofit a SME style headshell for use with a more conventional tonearm, or if there were other options available. I would love to hear this cartridge, and have multiple headshells I am willing to alter, but am hoping for a better/simpler solution. I am also worried about compliance issues as this would most likely be used on a Technics SL D3 or Marantz 6350 (don’t want to alter my AR headshells) ha! Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!
John
 
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To use it, you will need to drill a big ass hole in the top of a headshell. I've done that and used it with an SL-1200, but its performance just wasn't awesome on that arm.

To really see what a VRII is all about, you need to use it on a massive arm. Once I put it on a mono-wired Rek-O-Kut Model 160 arm from the '50s, it sounded fabulous.

My suggestion, FWIW, is to sell the GE and buy a modern mono cartridge that is better suited to your medium mass arms. I've been enjoying the heck out of my Grado MC+...

BTW, I'm in a similar bind right now. I have a Denon DL-103 that sounded beautiful on the Jelco SA-750D that I used to have, but none of the arms that I'm using currently are massive enough to bring out the magic. I'm hanging onto the DL-103, because someday I will be using it again.
 
Montycat said:
Paging @johnjhazel
Click to expand...

I did check VOM and came up empty. The VR II is heavy and very low compliance. I agree that the OP should get a different mono cartridge or find a higher mass tonearm to mount the GE onto. The effective mass should be calculated before making any major decisions. One of my two GE VR 1000's works fine on my AR 77-XB turntable because the cartridge is so heavy and the stylus that I am using has decent compliance. But, because of the weight of the VR 1000, the counterweight was switched to the heavier brass counterweight and at 3 grams VTF, the counterweight is having off the rear of the tonearm.
 
Thanks guys - I was afraid of that. I think I’m in beatcomber’s camp of “someday” right now - ha! I’ve read good things about that cart - now I just have to find the right table! Really appreciate the replies!
 
Yup my Rek-O-Kut head shell has a hole that allows for that cart. Also it came with a silver metal plug to use when not using that cart. The Ge VRII that I use has just the stylus for the mono 33's so I think you can remove the red push button if you don't care to have provisioins for 78 stylus.
 
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