V15-VxMR & Jico in STEREOPHILE
- Thread starter ghamilton
- Start date
Pio1980
AK Member
The late J.G. Holt, founder of Stereophile loved the V15-III and used it as a reference and his fave pleasure listening cart for years. OTOH, I had a V15-III and loathed the thing for it's opacity and lack of dynamic response, much preferring M-A 2002e and later Signet TK-7. Later moved onto MCs and they've since stayed in my 'A' system.
I've recently come to appreciate that carts and preamps may well be interdependent on what gives satisfaction in what system, F.I. the Elliott ESP-06 seems suited for the upper-end Shures but may not be a good choice for HOMCs. My previous pre may have been a poor match for the Shure. The Elliott is presently an optional front end for my 'B' experimental system, the 'A' system is running a reworked Cambridge Audio 640P with an O'fon HOMC tho' it can handle a LOMC as well.
I've recently come to appreciate that carts and preamps may well be interdependent on what gives satisfaction in what system, F.I. the Elliott ESP-06 seems suited for the upper-end Shures but may not be a good choice for HOMCs. My previous pre may have been a poor match for the Shure. The Elliott is presently an optional front end for my 'B' experimental system, the 'A' system is running a reworked Cambridge Audio 640P with an O'fon HOMC tho' it can handle a LOMC as well.
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For a Rega Planar 3 with RB300 tonearm...
Tonearm mass 11.5g, cartridge mass 6.6g = total mass 18.1g
Compliance of the SAS = 22cu
Resonant frequency around 8Hz - within the acceptable range but only just
Best results will be achieved using the damping brush which will damp the resonance and shift it towards 10Hz...
So best V15 options would be - any with a brush...
V15IV
V15V
V15VMR
V15VxMR
Ultra500
V15VP (p-mount, fitted with V15VMR Stylus)
V15HRP (p-mount, fitted with V15VxMR stylus - custom loading required)
It is important to get the loading right if you want to achieve the cartridges potential....
The section from an ADC ZLM review circa 1977 (one of the V15's major competitors):
To put it simply - if you want top performance from a top MM or MI cartridge you have to be able to adjust the capacitive (and prefereably resistive) load.
The main inherent advantage that MC's have, is that they are far far less sensitive to resistive load variations, and almost completely insensitive to capacitive load variations.
Bye for now
David
Tonearm mass 11.5g, cartridge mass 6.6g = total mass 18.1g
Compliance of the SAS = 22cu
Resonant frequency around 8Hz - within the acceptable range but only just
Best results will be achieved using the damping brush which will damp the resonance and shift it towards 10Hz...
So best V15 options would be - any with a brush...
V15IV
V15V
V15VMR
V15VxMR
Ultra500
V15VP (p-mount, fitted with V15VMR Stylus)
V15HRP (p-mount, fitted with V15VxMR stylus - custom loading required)
It is important to get the loading right if you want to achieve the cartridges potential....
The section from an ADC ZLM review circa 1977 (one of the V15's major competitors):
To put it simply - if you want top performance from a top MM or MI cartridge you have to be able to adjust the capacitive (and prefereably resistive) load.
The main inherent advantage that MC's have, is that they are far far less sensitive to resistive load variations, and almost completely insensitive to capacitive load variations.
Bye for now
David
flavio81
Turntable technician
The best way to tell is to listen to what they review and see if you agree with them. I prefer absolute sound and some of the UK magazines to Stereophile, but they're a good way to see what's going on, regardless of what they write about those things.
I'm not surprised they haven't mentioned the v-15 in a long time, even though I love my VMR. It's no longer in production and they only deal with current products.
flavio81
Turntable technician
Seems fair then.
It is according to a Shure white paper I read once when it was launched. It was one of the compromises made to make it more compatible with the higher mass arms in vouge in the late 1990's when the VxMR was introduced, along with a retooling of it's "character."
nailer
audionerd
Back-in-the-day both the MR and xMR were on the Recommended Components list as best buys.
They were a real favorite of Sam Tellig, along with the more upscale variant of the V15VMR, the Ultra 500.
LP-THORN
Super Member
Even the Abso!ute Sound grudgingly gave the V15MR it's due back in the day, with the caveat that you had to pay EXTREME attention to loading and capacitance...which in my experience with the cartridge is true, moreso than for others.
kconnor
Well-Known Member
After perusing through my vintage audio magazines, by all accounts The V15xMR was a stellar performer. Probably second in tracking ability and distortion levels only to the V15 V-MR by what was practically an insignificant amount. The test records of the day could not begin to tax the capabilities of either cartridge. The frequency response of both cartridges was virtually identical to 10kHz at which point the curves started to diverge. The xMR being down about 2dB or so from the V-MR at 20kHz. Though I haven’t directly compared the two cartridges its hard for me to believe there is that much difference between them when utilizing similar high quality replacement styli like the Jico SAS.
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Most magazines have not yet,and probably will never discover some real gems
I'm confused by this, and the basic sentiment of the thread. It seems they had, in fact, discovered it, and praised it. It seems we can't discuss this magazine at all without a whole heap of bias and conjecture, about what is thought.
I find a similarity concerning direct-drive turntables. Where I work I've had the opportunity to read back issues of TAS and Stereophile from almost issue 1 for both and, instead of seeing a blanket condemnation of direct drive turntables which is the general assumption, I found that many of the turntables that found favor during the late 70's and early 80's in both magazines were direct drives!
HP in particular favored the Technics SP-10 and the Goldmund Studio tables. In fact, shockingly, it's the Linn LP12 that gets brick-a-brats thrown on it continually from both magazines. (TAS more so than Stereophile.) Mostly about it's maddeningly fussy setup requirements, a bad habit of it going out of adjustment for seemingly no reason, and a bottom end that vexed HP no matter what was done.
Bias and conjecture, about what is thought, indeed!
Mr. Lin
Lunatic Member
Well that was the late 70s and early 80s. Things have changed.
Yes and no. The British hi fi magazines seem more than a bit apologetic about the whole Linn/Naim thing, even in the last issue I was reading today on a plane, calling there own behavior as being 'sycophantic' for those brands, when there were so many good DDs that had been ignored! But the US press, from what I gather, wasn't so adamantly opposed to anything but direct drives.
There's a lot of stuff written in the magazines that I disagree with, but I also read a lot of criticism of them in threads like this that just doesn't match up to the reality of things. And sometimes, the things the ignore- deserve to be ignored. Just because its talked about a lot on AK does not mean it is great.
I think the self-criticizing UK magazine was Hi Fi World. Hi Fi News has also given praise (and a lengthy current review) to such DDs as the vintage Sony PS-8750 and a modified SL-1200. (I notice these things because...I'm a bit of a DD convert of late myself, no longer caring at all what drive I have).
Mr. Lin
Lunatic Member
I was alluding to technological advances in turntables more than the magazines' obsessiveness with one make/model or another.
And the whole marketplace changed, making DD kind of a non possibility for the smaller companies that were left when vinyl was eaten by CD. Its not some conspiracy by the magazines not to cover DDs- there just weren't any after a certain point.
But budget cartridges are covered in both Stereophile and The Absolute Sound ALL the time. You'd get the feeling reading some posts in this thread that its all $5000 carts, all the time, and that's simply not the case.