ignoramustot
Active Member
So I managed to put off some other pressing tasks yesterday to indulge in some quick comparisons of some of my cartridges and styli on my Technics SL-7. (The rest of the listening chain is a restored Sansui AU-555A amp (with the "Leestereo" mods) into Yamaha NS-670 speakers, with the amp's tone controls set to flat and Loudness off.)
I used as a test disc my copy of Carly Simon's "Torch" from 1981 or thereabouts. It's a secondhand disc in G-VG (not mint) and with a few crackles even after repeated cleaning. I thought the first two tracks on side 2 ("Hurt" and "From the Heart") would be a reasonable test, containing some quite sharp sibilants from Ms Simon on some of her "ss"' and "ts" as well as her lovely range from deep and warm to soaring high, and with the instrumentation ranging from quiet spare piano to bluesy sax over some heavily syrupy strings in parts.
The AT81CP that I've used for the past few months with the ATN3472SE elliptical stylus, which has <50 hours on it, gives these tracks a good lively rendition but the sibilance is downright painful to me on a few points in those songs and has me fearing for the Yammies' tweeters.
I wanted to start my listening with the Pickerings but could not get their output pins on any of them to engage with the inlets on the end of the SL-7's stubby little tonearm. Hmm. Frustration. Suggestions anyone?
So I thought I'd try what would likely be the most modest of the carts, the Shure Realistic RXT6, and "work upwards" from there. The RXT6 cart slid straight on with no problems. To my surprise, with a bit of careful use of the left-right free play in the tonearm, I was able to fit the standard RXT6 stylus, although its outer edge when "parked" was very close to the inner edge of the SL-7's lid.
After a few tests runs with that, I tried the RXT6 cart with the N97LT hyperelliptical stylus which is supposedly NOS NIB but unverified, and I don't have suitable magnification to check its stylus. I then had a little bit of remaining time to try low-miles Ortofon OMP10 combo, which also fitted reasonably easily albeit not quite as smoothly as the AT and Shure carts.
My listening notes, with the AT81/AN3472SE combo as my baseline:
RXT6 cart/stylus (bonded elliptical, unknown hours, run with the brush up): nice warm rendition of the test songs with little to no sizzling sibilance on the "hot spots" but also notably less detail, separation and space than the AT81/AN3472SE. The strings were more distant and somewhat muddy and with much less bite on the opening edge of notes from both the sax and Ms Simon. Might be rather worn diamond, perhaps? The SL-7 arm tracked and returned to park OK, despite the extra width of the Shure stylus brush carrier. Good to know I may not be limited to brushless Shure styli...
RXT6 cart/N97LT stylus (bonded hyperelliptical, no brush, unknown hours but appears NIB or near new): some warmth and richness, much clearer definition and space than the RXT6 stylus and nicely warmer than the AT combo but hello sibilance, my old friend, you've come to distract me once again (with apologies to another notable Simon), albeit not as piercing as from the AT and possibly I could live with it - need to try some other records with this combo to hear how it renders an LP with fewer sizzles.
Ortofon OMP10 cart with original Stylus 10 (bonded elliptical, low miles): Clean, neutral, very "straight down the line" but not overly engaging, either. Gave more detail and clarity than the Shures. Seems to have most (but maybe not all?) of the clarity and depth/width of the AT81/AN3472SE combo with just a bit more warmth. It zinged on the sibilants more noticeably than either of the Shure styli but not as harshly as the AT. I need to give this one a lot more time and some different records to get a more memorable sense of what it does. I suspect it will be good to listen to in longer sessions, even if it's a bit underwhelming in a short rushed trial on just a couple of tracks from one LP. The N97LT may have been a little better in parts than the OMP10 but that may be my bias from the knowledge that the Shure's hyperelliptical diamond should perform a little better than the Ortofon's elliptical.
I haven't got to try the ADC or the A-T LS580/LT yet, nor tried the Goldring replacement elliptical stylus for the original Technics P202. I need to try again to fit the frustrating Pickerings but I am being careful not to break a pin on them. The Sumiko Blue Point #1 HOMC has been stuck in eBay International Shipping for ages - hope it arrives soon.
Further updates to come when I get time to resume playing around with this.
Cheers, Rob
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