A comparison between an 9 year old and a new stylus

I think you did not mention the cartridge used, I see it is a Shure, but what model? I ran a M97xE with Jico SAS for a while and quite liked it. Great tracking ability.

Also, how did you do the measurements?

 

I forgot to mention since I have posted measurements previously. Shure V15Vx SAS boron. These measurements were made using fixed frequencies of the Ultimate Analogue test record. Ive found that to be the most accuarate togerher with the pink noise on the same record. The recent Tacet, cardas, Hifi News or Ortofon are not useful for accurate frequency respnse measurements.

 

It is the full length album the Queen is Dead from 1986, Rough Trade Records, Warner Bros. A bit difficult to read the matrix number, but something like A-10-1 and for the other side B-10-1.

 

It could be that, but I am also considering that it also could be due to manufacturing differences between stylii, especially the output level above 10 kHz. One could imagine that the fit into the groove for the higher frequencies may differ somewhat depending on the stylus tip symmetry and polish and also perhaps stylus resonance differences. With respect to the channel differences above 15 kHz, I see the same relative difference between the stylii so this could be due to slight different values of the cartridge coils. I could perhaps be fixed by adjusting loading a little bit different between the channels.

I will test some other loading options to see what I end up with.

 

Here is a different loading of the cartridge. 810 pF and 27 kOhm instead of the 130 pF and 47 kOhm shown previously. I also show a 130 pF and 36/47 kOhm loading but that gives channel balance issues lower in frequency. The method is here pink noise instead of fixed frequencies but they are on par on the UATLP and comparable. The 810 pF loading fixes the issue of the 2-8 kHz 1,5 dB dip of the Shure Vx, but gives less bandwidth (-3 dB at 17 kHz).

I also supply a short needle-drop of the Cementry gates using the 810 pF and 27 kOhm loading. Happy listening!

Dropbox - Cementary gates 3.wav

 

When I first read the thread title I thought "why on earth would someone want to compare a child with a new stylus? I mean, what would be the comparators?" Sorry for the threadcrap