You Tube Cartridge Auditions

I was watching on You Tube what appeared to be a very high end TT, amplifier & speaker set up reviewing various cartridges. The MP-110 & MP-150 was one of his favorites in the under $150 & under $300 price class.

So, I bought a MP-110. I have highly modified vintage tube gear and reasonably good sounding speakers. My system sounds terrific. What disappointing performance came forth from the MP-110 . 30 hours use showed little increase in perfrmance too. A Grado Blue sounds much better and an AT VM540ML just kills both cartridges.

I do not trust You Tube auditions now. I am sure many here will tell me 'I told you so'.

 

May be he has a much better phono stage but I do not think you should trust completely youtube for that.

 

That same guy hates my Ortofon Quintet Blue which I like very much.

 

We told you so

 

Each cartridge has its own sound signature, whether emphasizing midbass, treble, or rolling off the highs. Comparing them directly will reveal the differences, but then you can also compare your receiver with the loudness button turned on and like that sound better too, even though it is not as true to the original sound. Sounding better to you may be just that you like crisp highs or such.

That's not necessarily a fault; you can think of these differences between cartridges as their "built in EQ" - they all have some, where ideally they'd all be compact-disc-flat.

Youtube also isn't the best platform for audio analysis (you're admitting that 96k AAC is going to add less coloration than the cartridges themselves); the best way to get a glimpse at what it is going to sound like is look at the manufacturer's (or forum user's/review site's) frequency response graph.

There is still some tuning that can be done, since cartridges are affected by loading from the preamp and the capacitance of the cable. Here's how an MP11 responds to changes in loading - it gets much flatter in the mid-treble with significantly more capacitance than stock preamps; the MP-110 may be similar:



and a comparison to a different flavor, here's the AT, quite flat up to the 15K where people stop being able to hear (and happy with low capacitance):

 

Great info. Thanks !!

 

Or some just prefer different sounds?

 

Depends on your setup and what you compare with. Did you ever try tge Hana EL?

 

Ian's videos are pretty good and he really does like Nagaoka carts. I took his advise after talking to him a few times and bought the Nagaoka MP110 and the Schiit Mani Phono stage and all I can say is WOW!! I love the sound that I'm getting out of my ARC system with Maggies.

 

No I have not. If I buy another cartridge, it will be a London. The GE VR 1000's spoiled me. I only want 'direct scanning' cartridges from now on. The A/T ART 1000 interests me but it costs $5K. Londons start at $995. And of course, I have the two GE VR 1000's with a lifetime and then some supply of styli both here and at my stylus distributor. LOL. And the Ortofon Quintet Blue is not even broken in yet as I rarely use it.

 

Why not get the London at some time, once you have a suitable turntable and tonearm for it?. It's a wonderful cartridge, if finicky on some setups.

 

I want to someday when I can afford it.

 

No different than taking one persons opinion from here or other forums. It helps to know if you and the reviewer like the same type sound presentation.