Wonder how it compares with the (high output) DL-110 mc cart. I have had 3 so far, I like them so much. Best part is that I don't need a mc phono pre-amp.
I have the OC9XSL and it took probably a good fifty hours for it to settle in to a nice overall sound. I have it loaded @ 1000kohms w/60db gain and it seems to like these settings.
The phono preamp is set at -10dB and its output signal is strong enough already, so there’s no need for even more gain. I can always set it to 0 or +4dB if I would need more gain.
50 hours seems like a long time to me... I hope this one will be broken in quicker haha I believe yours has a higher output (0.40mV instead of 0.35mV), but at 57dB gain it’s loud enough for me.
My 50 hrs is just a wild guess to be honest, and frankly it always sounded good, maybe a little shouty or sharp the first handful of hours, but I was distracted a lot early on because I've been playing with a squadron of mm carts at the time and I didn't have the loading dialed in. I need to get one of those odometers, because I've used this cart mainly for needledrops I do have something that documents the time by way of the list of recorded files, but a simple timer app or whatnot would make life easier.
45dB is fairly low indeed, close to what some MM preamps do. I have the options 57, 67 and 71.5dB, but I think >70dB is exceptionally high gain, idk if there’s any use for it.
Bought it at some random eBay seller, only 1 bucks, but accurate. The brand is called BUM, some generic Chinese brand. I checked the accuracy with a set square, because you never know for sure with these kind of brands... Appeared to be very accurate, all corners nicely 90 degrees and lines perpendicular/parallel. Only the numbers are incorrect; those say there’s 2mm spacing between the lines, but there’s 1.8mm instead. I don’t use it to measure height, so it doesn’t matter to me.
Hi Guys! Nice review! I fully agree that the cart looks great. But compared to an Audio Technica VM-95ML the ML version of the MC (OC9XML) is about triple the price of the MM. Although it looks so great, that's too much for my budget. Bye Andrea
Entry level MC cartridges start at similar prices as mid-range MM carts, that’s just inherent to MC carts. I think it has to do with the precision at which the coils of a MC cartridge need to be wound; the coils of a LOMC compared to those of a MM cart have much less windings, so small imprecisions become much more significant.
Funny thing is I have another phono pre that does 36/46/56/66 and I originally wanted to use that for the mc table thinking 56 would be perfect, but I found out that I have a AT Mono3 mc cart that I can only use on this pre because it hums on the other phono pre for some reason. The OC9 is quiet on that phono pre, but the mono mc gets a hum only on that stage for some reason.
Strange. Maybe it’s a defect? Or maybe a grounding issue through the cartridge body if the body material or headshell differs? Like a ground loop via the headshell screws? Definitely worth checking continuity.
How would you compare it to the high range MM cartridges? I know this is apples and oranges but as i don't have experience with MC just curious. Currently having a 2M Black.
Yeah if nothing else call the manufacturer of the phono stage and ask if they've had any reported issues w/ mono? Maybe there is a suggestion for a cabling change or something, in that specific case.
Depends on your following chain. I'd say yes. I upgraded from vm540ml to 33ptgii, the difference was, well, not small... I am using a 1 to 10 SUT with nanocrystalline cores, an RCA tube manual based phono preamp (2 tube stages per channel), Korg MR-1000 at DSD128 and Sennheiser HD580.
Single coil mono cartridges can cause hum with some preamps. I think the AT Mono3 has two coils but they are wired in series and go to both left and right inputs on the phono pre. If you get hum due to the resulting ground loop, the common fix it to just use one channel into the phono pre, typically the right channel, and short the other input, then connect the right output to both channels of next stage. Sometimes a mono switch in the preamp helps, but depends where and how it is implemented. You could also possibly just remove the ground connection in the left cable, that may fix it with some preamps, depends how it handles the signal grounds at the input.
Not just apples to oranges in terms of cartridge, but also phono preamp. At least my phono preamp has two separate amplification circuits for MM and LOMC, but both share the same passive RIAA filter. Anyways, when I compare the sound quality of this one with a 2M Black or Concorde Century (my favorite) it’s not even that far off. The difference between a 2M Black and 2M Bronze is about just as big. It’s mostly different. FWIW, I’m listening Jimi Hendrix now and guitars seem to sound more hollow/lower pitched - interesting discovery. It’s more well behaved in the higher frequencies, like bright trumpets and hats, less sensitive to dust and surface noise, but detailed nevertheless. The difference might also be quite small because of the preamp quality, since the SPL Phonos is considered to be one of the better MC preamps in the <3k range.
Definitely, if you have a good MC preamp and you’re not “allergic” for an ever so slight IGD on certain records.
How come one ML stylus cart is different from another ML stylus cart in terms of the IGD?Please get your facts straight and don't spread misinformation.
The LOMC cart being discussed by most people in this thread is elliptical. The EN designation is for nude elliptical.
I stand corrected, sorry for overseeing the XEN part and in this case, there is no point to switch from ml mm to elliptical mc. Won't make sense. Jump ml mm to ml mc.
The Mono3 will hum with certain preamp architectures, unfortunately. I have mine connected on one channel just to do needle drops, gave up on it for general listening. I think Davey's explanation is correct.
