Suggest warm mm cartridges

This

 

Another fine warm MM choice is the Nagaoka line.

 

Pretty much we are on the same page, its semantics at this point...how you describe something vs how I describe something. The MP110 is as you say "not very refined and sort of lean sounding". Lets not forget this is a $100 cartridge, and a damn fine one for one bill!!......That's why after 1yr I jumped to the MP200 as you get more refinement, and even for that kind of money you get carts that track like no other almost.

 

Any Shure V15 should do it.

 

To clarify, I did retract my praise of the Wharfedale Denton once I became aware of the extent of the driver misbehavior in the upper mids. The speaker has a lovely tonal balance, but I can no longer endorse them.

 

Hi all. I still haven't made up my mind on the "Warm" cartridge. I did appreciate everyone feedback and took into consideration. I've been having a lot of issues with my Grado black producing sibilance and IGD. I understand it is a budge cart and can only do so much.
At this point I'm not so concerned about having a warm cart but one that tracks well and produces well balanced music without the harshness. A lot of you recommend I simply upgrade my stylus to the 8MZ. will this solve my sibilance and IGD?
I noticed it is still an elliptical stylus but diamond. Will this track better or still give me the same harsh sound I am currently enduring? Should I just move on to the $200 dollar category? I am also in the middle of updating my speakers to the diamond 10.2s.

 

@Firehead find out the dimensions of the stylus tip on the 8MZ.

If it is a .3 x .7 or .4 x .7 elliptical stylus do not expect any major improvements w/r/t IGD vs. what you are already using.

 

Go conical.

 

I use an 8MZ stylus on a Green body on a Dual 1009SK2, in my second system. No sibilance here, not really any IGD either. And I love the sound. I just wish I could use it on my Thorens table, but it hums too much there.

You sure you've aligned the cartridge adequately? And balance, VTF, anti-skating, etc? Even back when I used the Green stylus, it tracked pretty well.

 

And if the styli aren't genuine, they don't perform their best unless Expert Stylus retipped. The Stanton styli and cantilever suspension are very demanding to assemble and finely engineered, and require patient hand labor to assemble.

 

How about flat and accurate. Unlike the M97xE (without those who have adjustable loading on their phono stages), and accepted by demanding professional broadcast engineers. Who suffer no fools or voodoo, and must be practical and high performance.

 

All I can find is that it is a diamond twin tip.

 

Yeah, that's not going to tell you anything. You could try contacting Grado, though I don't think they even make that stylus anymore. IIRC dealers are just selling through old stock they have.

 

Grado emailed me back saying the 8MZ would only reduce the sibliance by a little. Not a significant difference. Not what I wanted to hear. I think i might tryout the vessle A3sE or the A3SV cart or even At440MLB.

 

I reviewed A3SE, there's a thread you can search for.

A3SV and 440MLB would be major upgrades from what you are using now. If your records are filthy or in poor condition, don't buy either of them. Make sure your phono pre has adequate gain if you go for one of the Vessel carts.

 

I keep my records clean and use a RCM before using any records I purchase. Per the Onkyo website the photo overload is 94MV(MM, 1 KHz, 0.5%) and the input sensitivity is 3.0 mV/47 k-ohms. Honestly I don't fully understand technical details. Seems okay?
Ill need to have Uturn send me some magnetic weights to properly setup the AT440MLB.

 

I take it you have the old Orbit arm? I wonder if you could upgrade to the new one for not too much money? Anyway, if you need magnet weights for the AT, you'll probably need them for the Vessel as well. If you have never set up a cart before, might want to take it to professional rather than ruin a $200+ cart by accident. If you must do it yourself, take your time and be very, very careful. Remove the stylus before mounting the cart body on the tonearm. Only reinstall the stylus when you are ready to do the alignment. Generate a Conrad Hoffman protractor (make sure it's printed to correct scale) and hold it and the platter still with blue painter's tape.

Note: be careful when installing and reinstalling the styli on these carts. The AT carts have a thing where you need to line up the little magnets and carefully click it into the body. If you have it lined up wrong and force it in, you will destroy the stylus. The Vessel cart styli are easier to remove but you need to be careful with those as well.

Re: your phono pre, I'm not 100% sure how to work backward from those numbers to the actual amount of gain in the built-in phono pre. Contact Onkyo and see if they have an answer for you. What is likely is they used 35db-40db gain spec because that works well with most carts. Personally I think the Vessel needs a little more gain because the output is low, even moreso when you get to the fancier models in the line. Worst case, you will simply have to turn up the volume on your Onkyo amp a little more than you are used to right now.

 

The best and fastest way to get to the VPI of your dreams, is not to throw money at the U-Turn.

 

The best and fastest way to enjoy vinyl records is to buy the table you can afford now, then upgrade as one's finances will allow.

But I'm sure the OP appreciates your non-constructive advice, now that's he's had a U-Turn for a year.

 

Get a Denon DL-110 High Output MC cartridge. It has a conical stylus, it tracks extremely well, inner groove distortion is not an issue for it and no sibilance at all. Back in 2006 I bought the Denon DL-160 which was a higher quality version of the DL-160 (and a bit more expensive) and its sound was outstanding. The DL-160 is now discontinued and a couple of months ago when the time came to change the cart I didn't think it for a second and got the DL-110 and it hasn't dissapointed me. Sounds the same as the DL-160, that is big soundstage, very defined and refined sound, excellent tracking, no noticiable inner groove distortion, no sibilance and is very forgiving with less than good state records. It's a real bargain on this price range.

 

Agreed, I went from Ortofons (red and Blue) to the 110, and I no longer feel the need to try anything else as just sounds right, I love it. Both Ortofons were a lot brighter.

 

The DL-110 has a very, very fine elliptical stylus. No conical on that cartridge. You must be thinking of another Denon such as the 103.

 

You're right, but it tracks and sound great for the price. Many members here including me love this cart.

 

I will probably try the 110 myself at some point. I would expect it to track well.

 

This is a really cool post. What it's all about.

For the record, I agree the 8MZ on the Black is a great idea.