Cartridge Comparisons on YouTube

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by floweringtoilet, Feb 14, 2018.

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  1. Leonthepro

    Leonthepro Skeptically Optimistic

    Location:
    Sweden
    You should try setting anti skating with the blank disc method, having tge arm move inwards slowly on deadwax, see how that sounds with music.
     
  2. floweringtoilet

    floweringtoilet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Warren, RI, USA
    Here's Round Two of the M97xE stock vs Jico elliptical stylus. Song is Bryan Ferry's "It's My Party" from 'These Foolish Things'. This is the next to last track at the end of a very long side one, so it should be a good test of IGD. This sounds much cleaner than the Roxy Music clip to me.

    I'm kind of surprised at how much I am enjoying the stock stylus considering my previous impression of it was negative. Meanwhile the Jico sounds brighter than I would like. If memory serves the Jico elliptical stylus is brighter sounding than their SAS. YMMV, etc.

     
    McLover and Shiver like this.
  3. portisphish

    portisphish Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pasadena, CA
    Thanks for these. I appreciate and enjoy them.
     
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  4. floweringtoilet

    floweringtoilet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Warren, RI, USA
    Here's one with the M97xE against the Denon DL-110. Song is "The Look of Love (Part 1)" by ABC.

     
  5. Doctorwu

    Doctorwu Senior Member

    It’s surprising how much more brighter / detailed The Jico elliptical is than the stock stylus!

    Thank you for all your clips, they are excellent.
     
  6. Thomas_A

    Thomas_A Forum Resident

    Location:
    Uppsala, Sweden
    Thnaks. I’ll give it a listen a bit later. That record has some fiercy s-sounds and sibilants peaking at 8 kHz. Right now I am adjusting the load of my Shure/SAS and it is still a bit bright. The Lexizon of Love record is quite revealing in that regard IMO.
     
  7. Thomas_A

    Thomas_A Forum Resident

    Location:
    Uppsala, Sweden
    The Denon and the Shure are suprisingly similar in this case. Both are lacking just a hint of hf content and clarity and the Shure a bit more hf roll of than the Denon. There is some distortion in some passages but not much. But again this is not something Ive experinced with the Shure. Previos items have been more dark soundng. Perhaps you have mentioned it but what is your loading?
     
  8. floweringtoilet

    floweringtoilet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Warren, RI, USA
    That is a good question, and something I had not thought about as accounting for the difference from what I remembered previously with the M97xE. My Luxman L3 Integrated loading is set at 50k instead of the standard 47k.
     
  9. Thomas_A

    Thomas_A Forum Resident

    Location:
    Uppsala, Sweden
    I wonder if there has been a change in stylus dimensions of the Shure. There are some reports that may indicate a stylus change. How was your previos one compared to this?
     
  10. macster

    macster Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Diego, Ca. USA
    "To me" it sounds more extended than the stock Shure and not as bright as the Jico SAS, actually pretty smoooooooooth and listenable. I could live with the JICO elliptical and be quite happy. I have the blue colored elliptical stylus, if memory serves me right it was $119.00 on the Jico site.

    M~
     
    McLover likes this.
  11. floweringtoilet

    floweringtoilet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Warren, RI, USA
    This is the stylus:

    N97xE, JICO stylus | Online Shopping for Japanese Phonograph Needles
     
  12. The FRiNgE

    The FRiNgE Forum Resident

    This is an easy one! The MP-500 is far more accurate in the treble range, the "esses" are about right, overall reasonable clarity and balance. The MP-100 in contrast sounds dull. The sibilants are receded and a little "hissy" on top, which too much "air" in the upper harmonics will do that. The same effect occurs at the mix stage as the sound engineer adds some extra eq above 10kHz.. really throws the vocals off.
     
  13. Leonthepro

    Leonthepro Skeptically Optimistic

    Location:
    Sweden
    That video has different volume balances for the two carts. Did you level the tracks equally before listening?
     
  14. The FRiNgE

    The FRiNgE Forum Resident

    Yes! I used my volume control to balance them reasonably close.
     
    Leonthepro likes this.
  15. macster

    macster Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Diego, Ca. USA
  16. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    All audio youtube comparisons are null and void as they can never sound better than system I am listening on nor any better than Youtube's compression will allow. Also all BluRay video promotion is null and void on the DVD I am renting or own.
     
  17. The FRiNgE

    The FRiNgE Forum Resident

    Some of the better you tube uploads sound pretty dang good on my system. You don't need to go to high rez, as 450p is the highest audio quality, good to 18kHz, probably equal to 320 kbps MP-3. I agree this isn't true audiophile sound, but good enough to discern some of the differences between cartridges. The compression on you tube should not be confused with dynamic range compression, as I've heard some highly dynamic examples on you tube (ie: a total range of 90 dB is a "lousy spec" but a lot of dynamic range in real world application)
     
    macster and nosliw like this.
  18. Shiver

    Shiver Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    Get your point, but having owned the M97xe with standard and Jino styli, and DL-110, I can say their essential characters and differences between them are captured well enough here for good basic impressions.
     
  19. floweringtoilet

    floweringtoilet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Warren, RI, USA
    Here's a new comparison video. A fellow forum member loaned me his Stanton 680EE with EVG (Jico) elliptical stylus and was curious to hear how it stacked up against the Shure M97xE with Jico elliptical. I've not had any experience with Stanton carts in the past, but this is very nice sounding cart IMO. Interested to hear how others think the two compare.

     
    Last edited: May 16, 2018
  20. floweringtoilet

    floweringtoilet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Warren, RI, USA
    Here's another comparison with the Stanton 680EE with EVG stylus taking on the Nagaoka MP-110. Track is The Colourfield's "Miss Texas 1967".

     
  21. floweringtoilet

    floweringtoilet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Warren, RI, USA
    Here's the Stanton 680 EE vs the Denon DL-110. Track is "The Passenger" by Iggy Pop. Enjoy!

     
    H8SLKC likes this.
  22. floweringtoilet

    floweringtoilet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Warren, RI, USA
    Here's a comparison of the Stanton 680 EE with the Shure M97xE with stock stylus. Track is "Raining Twilight Coast by Robyn Hitchcock from his 'Tromsø, Kaptein' album just reissued. When this originally came out in 2011 I chose to buy the FLAC download rather than the expensive LP. I always regretted it, so when I learned it was being reissued on LP I jumped on it.


     
  23. Uglyversal

    Uglyversal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney
    The DL110 was my first moving coil, I think it provides unbelievable value for money, there is no point for me to hear the comparison as right now I have the crappy laptop speakers on but don't you lose a lot of quality with the youtube compression? I didn't realise Brian Ferry sang It's my party.
     
  24. floweringtoilet

    floweringtoilet Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Warren, RI, USA
    "It's My Party" is from his amazing first album 'These Foolish Things'. It's probably my favorite "covers" album of all time.

    [​IMG]

    On youtube compression and sound quality, there are varying perspectives on this. You are obviously not going to hear any cartridge's ultimate capabilities via youtube. Some would claim no digitized comparisons of analog gear are valid. Others would say the Technics SL 1200 is not good enough to show what a cartridge is capable of. There is no shortage of opinions on anything related to audio. I believe youtube compresses audio using the AAC codec at 192kps. So there is certainly a loss of quality from my original files that were recorded at 24/96.

    All that said, IMO, to my ears the essential character of the carts still come through. Nothing will ever be a replacement for hearing a cartridge in your own system, with your preferred music, under set up conditions you can control. This is just a convenient way to get a general sense of what a cart sounds like, IMO.
     
    tin ears and Uglyversal like this.
  25. Uglyversal

    Uglyversal Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sydney
    1) you can say that again
    2)I am sure it gives some idea but it is very difficult to rely on.

    I will later connect the USB interface to listen with proper headphones because this computer has microscopic speakers.
     
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