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Most MC like MM/MI cartridges

Wow, the thread ran its course! I didn't check until know. Very interesting
Thanks for sharing to everybody
 
A glowing review by HP in TAS back in the day. Harry loved the MC by then. It's also an excellent MM with a phenomenally extended frequency response.

FWIW, I'd probably like MC better if they sounded more like MI and MM.
 
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Any thoughts on the Grace F-8L, I see one up for sale. As I have a Grace 707 arm I'm inclined to believe it would be a better match than my current Grado Blue/8MZ.

Not a bad setup but really not the same as with the Platinum. Considering a retip on the wood body but the thought of pairing the Grace arm and cartridge has me intrigued.
 
I have to agree that a Grace F9 is an outstanding cartridge. But if you want the sound of a MC cartridge without the hassles of the pre-pre-amp, why not audition HO moving coils from ortofon and Dynavector. 10X5 and 10X4 are sweet cartridges. Just don't be carefree with any of them because they stylus is not owner replaceable.
 
needlestein said:
So a review, not the actual cartridge? I can see that.

I have my recent Expert Stylus sapphire cantilever/Paratrace retipped Stanton D81 mounted onto an Pickering XSP/3003 P-Mount cartridge as the retip is too compliant to use on my SL1200 with stock arm without further measures to reduce arm mass. I have to say that this combination from the "lowly" P Mount genre of vinyl technology is outrageously good sounding. Better than anything else I've got going now. Old cliches like "musicians in the room" are appropriate here.
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Joseph what headshell do you have the Pickering mounted in. You might want to try a lower mass headshell.
 
I got an Pickering XLZ-7500-S body from Vickers Hi-Fi, with a Vivid Line needle for the XLZ-750MKllS bought recently from LP-Gear at $79.95, and I must say that this is the best cartridge needle combination that I ever had or have. It tracks beautifully at 1.5g so no need for an ultralight tonearm.
 
needlestein said:
Yes, I agree that the usual styli will work well. But this Expert Stylus retip is extremely compliant. I can use a regular D81 no problem. The cantilever on this retip is twice as long by eye as factory cantilevers and it must then follow the laws of physics and really lever on the suspension.

I was wondering about that LPGear stylus. Looks like a good one. Now that you've tried it, that settles it for me.
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I have a Jico shibata on my 980LZ and it sounds pretty good. I think you'll like the vivid line. Hunting through listings on LpGear, they say it has the same tip dimensions as the shibata.

You should get in touch with Expert Stylus IMO. They botched the stylus with the extra long cantilever. Cantilever length is part of the design. The fact that you can't use it in the "normal" manner is proof that it isn't right. I'm sure you paid good money to have them mess up your stylus. Send it back.
neo
 
The Grace seems to be really good because they got all the optimization between components and the cantilever is just long enough to keep tracking to superb levels while not overloading the coils. My original Grace F9e tracked well at 1.5 -1.7 gms on my SME type 2 with fluid damper. Since switching to a Soundsmith CL stylus It tracks better at 1.3 - 1.5 gms. The quality is still there. Its still smooth and tracks very well. The CL stylus has brought more detail, especially in the mids and low mids.
 
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