Post photos of your systems/rooms here! (Part 15)

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Halloween Jack, Mar 28, 2015.

  1. Jerjo

    Jerjo Forum Resident

    Can't say I'm a big fan of butt plugs either
     
  2. MisterNines

    MisterNines American

    Location:
    USA
    I can't see any reason why they wouldn't.

    Our amps have different types of speaker connectors - yours are screw-down; mine are spring clamp.

    But both are designed to take bare wire - wire of a much smaller size than the 14 AWG we're both using.


    My connectors are soldered. I did not use the set screws.

    But even when using light gauge bare wire, the wire ends should be coated in solder.

    If your soldering skills are subpar (like mine) - you can probably get a hi-fi shop to configure your cables & connectors.


    These connectors have worked very well for me - including on the two speakers [JBL L100A, which also are made to accommodate only light gauge "bare wires"].

    You need eight (8)* of these pin connectors - total of $22.00 from Amazon


    * Eight,
    if your two speakers are also made to only accommodate light gauge bare wires.

    If you have more contemporary speakers, you might only need four (4) pin connectors [at your amp] - and may have more connection options at the speaker end.
     
    Last edited: Nov 6, 2018
  3. bever70

    bever70 Let No-one Live Rent Free in Your Head!

    Location:
    Belgium
    [​IMG]
    Bedroom system which serves as a beautified alarm clock most of the time and the occasional go-to-sleep-spin.
     
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  4. Dolemite

    Dolemite Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    YES! That Clock in the foreground :nauga:
     
  5. heathen

    heathen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colorado
    Could you explain more what you're getting at? I have virtually zero experience with tubes.
     
  6. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Tubes may or may not bring much to the table, but if you have some harshness in your system, a tube preamp ofr tube buffer will smooth tings out, and take that "edge" off.

    The key word here is" IF".

    However, with such an otherwise nice system, you might up your sound quality and enjoyment by moving to a Ortofon 2M Blue stylus. Both the Red and the Blue stylus share the same cartridge body.
     
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  7. heathen

    heathen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colorado
    Though I don't really listen to vinyl much, I have thought about a cartridge upgrade. Would the Blue be a noticeable difference in sound compared to the Red?
     
  8. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Yes!

    Here is a diagram of a phono cartridge showing the individual parts (the graphic is courtesy of U-Turn Audio).

    [​IMG]

    The stylus comes with a plastic body to hold it and to insert it into the cartridge body.

    As you can see in the diagram, the "diamond" stylus is attached to an arm called the cantilever, which goes up into the cartridge body.

    The Red stylus (Red plastic body) is what is known as a bonded elliptical stylus. What the diagram does not show is that there is a shaft coming down from the end of the cantilever, which is attached to the cantilever.

    On a bonded bonded elliptical stylus, the diamond is attached "bonded" to the end of the shaft. This makes the shaft with the diamond two different pieces which are bonded together.

    [​IMG]

    On the Blue, the stylus is know as "nude" elliptical stylus. Which means there is no separate shaft. the diamond is the shaft itself and it attached to the cantilever directly and the tip of the diamond is finished as a elliptical shape.

    [​IMG]

    This means that there are no separate pieces or bonding agent involved and you will have better music reproduction, without having to change out your cartridge body.

    I have a 2M cartridge body with both the Bronze and the Black stylus and intend on buying a Blue stylus, because some older vintage records sound better with an elliptical stylus, because that is the type of diamond cut that was popular with turntables and recordings back in the 60's and 70's.

    You can buy a Blue replacement stylus on Amazon Prime, for $189.

    Ortofon 2M Blue 100th Anniversary Edition Replacement Stylus (Blue)



    [​IMG]

    You just slide off the Red stylus assembly and the Blue stylus assembly just slides back into it's place.
     
  9. MisterNines

    MisterNines American

    Location:
    USA


    That is fascinating. I still don't quite grasp it - but fascinating.

    On the Nude, how/where (at what point) is it converting vibrations to electrical signal?

    To me, it looks like a longer-shafted diamond.
     
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  10. Noel Patterson

    Noel Patterson Music Junkie

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
  11. NoDad

    NoDad Forum Resident

    Location:
    Santa Rosa CA
    Very nice. Haven't seen B&O like that for a long time. It is B&O right?
     
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  12. Donniej

    Donniej Senior Member

    Awesome! Love the green
     
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  13. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    It IS a longer shaft diamond. That is the entire point.

    One diamond with a long shaft is better than having some kind of metal shaft attached to the cantilever and then having a small diamond "tip" attached to that metal shaft.

    It is far better that there is only one single "diamond" that is attached to the cantilever.

    All of the Ortofon 2M cartridges that are a step up from the Red, incorporate a single diamond design.

    More expensive cartridges have a stylus with a more exotic cut diamond top.

    Both the Red and the Blue stylus share the same cartridge body.

    The difference between the Bronze and the Black cartridge is only the cut of the diamond.

    While you would not think that this could make much of a significant difference, it does. And these upgrades do not come cheap (except when upgrading from the Red to the Blue, let's not say cheap, but say, relatively inexpensive).

    As an example, when I bought my TT as a preowned unit, it came with the 2M Bronze cartridge, which has the Bronze stylus on it.

    To buy the Bronze cartridge and stylus on Amazon, costs $439.

    [​IMG]

    Now, if I want to upgrade to the Black level, since they both use the same cartridge body, I only need to buy the Black stylus, which is called a Shibata stylus, because of the cut and quality of the diamond used.

    To buy the Black stylus on Amazon, costs $576.

    [​IMG]

    When I take my Bronze stylus off and replace it with the Black stylus, I now have the Ortofone 2M Black cartridge and stylus.

    This is my vintage Thorens turntable with my 2M Black cartridge and stylus.

    [​IMG]

    You do understand it perfectly!

    Upgrading to the Blue stylus will be the best, easiest and most inexpensive upgrade that you can make for your present system.

    The diamond only rides in the record groves and picks up the vibrations from inside of the grooves that are made as the turntable rotates.

    The diamond does not convert these vibrations into an electrical signal.

    It only transmits these vibrations to the cantilever, which transfers these vibrations to the magnet(s) at the end of the cantilever.

    The vibrations of this "moving magnet" close to a fixed coil(s) of wire, up inside of the cartridge body, create the electrical current, which is then further amplified.

    See the diagram!

    Having one single diamond to transfer these vibrations directly to the cantilever, is what give a nude stylus design a big advantage to a diamond which is bonded to a metal shaft, which is then bonded to the cantilever.
     
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2018
  14. MisterNines

    MisterNines American

    Location:
    USA
    Thanks!

    PPG from the 1955 Frank Lloyd Wright palette.

    Wright Spring Green #FLLW396

    [​IMG]
     
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  15. MisterNines

    MisterNines American

    Location:
    USA
    I do now!
     
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  16. MisterNines

    MisterNines American

    Location:
    USA
    So the Nude eliminates the "middleman" shaft - therefore allowing a more direct path to the cantilever?

    ...and the composition of the cantilever can be metal [e.g., aluminum; beryllium] or possibly another stone [e.g., ruby; sapphire]?
     
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  17. MisterNines

    MisterNines American

    Location:
    USA
    I love the Diagram!

    I saved a copy - for my reference - to my Cartridge-Stylus file.


    DIAGRAM BY SandAndGlass
    [​IMG]
     
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  18. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Yes, that is completely correct! You WIN one of these! :nauga:

    Different materials transmit vibrations differently and also have a different mass.

    and then there is some kind of bonding agent (glue) which is between the bonded diamond and the shaft.

    So there is, diamond, bonding agent, shaft, cantilever.

    With the "nude", there is diamond, cantilever.

    No changes in material densities. What vibrations the tip of the diamond picks up, are faithfully transmitted directly to the cantilever.

    The cantilever now can reproduce these vibrations more accurately.
     
  19. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    While I appreciate the most sincere complement. I looked up on Google for an illustration so that I could use said illustration to better explain what is happening and to show you the major parts of a moving magnet type of phone cartridge.

    As it happened, the diagram that I located on Google, was from the U-Turn people, who made your turn table.

    If you can't believe you turntable's manufacturer, who can you believe?

    If you look back, I did give them the credit that they deserve for their truly creative and innovative artistic work.

    Besides, I don't draw the well! :p

    Just keep this in the back of your mind when you are ready for your next system upgrade.
     
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  20. Kostas

    Kostas Forum Resident

    Location:
    Athens,GR.
    Ortofon mentions that physically all styluses ft but they are suggesting that red is interchangeable with blue & bronze with black.

    Stylus 2M Black
     
  21. jonwoody

    jonwoody Tragically Unhip

    Location:
    Washington DC
    You posted this twice I see so I'll bite. What troubling things have you heard? I would caution if they were from tequila take them with a grain of salt. :D
     
  22. Don Parkhurst

    Don Parkhurst Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vancouver, BC
    Hahaha! Well said : )
     
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  23. MisterNines

    MisterNines American

    Location:
    USA
    Logical.

    Thank you for illustrating this so clearly.


    I forgot about the bonding agent.

    Isn't a glue required with the Nude?


    When I was purchasing my 1974 Shure V15 III [different sport], I knew that if the cartridge was perhaps oxidized - but not damaged - it would work as originally designed.

    But the epoxy on a N.O.S. stylus might be subject to deterioration.
     
  24. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Yes, the Red, Blue, Bronze and Black stylus will fit either the Red/Blue cartridge body or the Bronze/Black cartridge body.

    There are to different with four different stylus combinations.

    While you can put the least expensive "Red" stylus on the most expensive Bronze/Black cartridge body.

    It make no sense to do so.

    However, there is a reason to put the Blue stylus, which is a nude elliptical design on the Bronze/Black body. Different members do that for a specific reason.

    Those who listen to vintage records that were made back in the 1960's and 1970's, were often played back with people who had nice turntables that had cartridges that were equipped with a stylus that was an elliptical type design.

    No one that I knew back in those days was using other more advanced design, like the nude fine line design of the Bronze stylus or the Shibata design of the Black stylus.

    While many records from this era do sound nice and even exceptional with these more advanced stylus design's, there are many that do not.

    So, by putting the Blue nude elliptical design in the Bronze/Black cartridge body, you have the benefit of a better cartridge body design along with an elliptical style stylus that better matches the vintage period.

    The Red stylus is their entry level elliptical stylus and it is just that, their entry level stylus. If an upgrade is made ti the Blue nude elliptical stylus, you will get better performance out of the Red/Blue cartridge body.

    That is a significant improvement, without having to spend $439 to upgrade to the Bronze cartridge body and stylus.

    To buy a new Black cartridge with the Black Shibata stylus would cost $750 (on Amazon Prime).

    [​IMG]

    IMO, the Red stylus that the OP is currently using is by far the most limiting factor in his otherwise excellent system.

    This is why I stepped up to offer my decidedly unsolicited system upgrade suggestion.

    Here is a link to a page on the Soundsmith web site which may offer some further explanation and videos.

    From Audio Technica:

    Here are some close up drawings of the tip of different stylus types.

    [​IMG]

    From JICO:

    [​IMG]
    1. Spherical
    2. Elliptical
    3. Shibata
    4. Hyper elliptical
    5. SAS (Special micro ridge type)

    And we can now return back to the subject of the thread...
     
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2018
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  25. MisterNines

    MisterNines American

    Location:
    USA
    Actually, I've got a Dual 1229.

    ...funny that you mentioned U-Turn - I just gave away one of those.

    I wanted to like it, but a friend liked it more.
     
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