So different no, or better...I should have a such system to appreciate that difference, I can confirm that is better shielded, less crops..
I recently purchased an ATVM540ML as a replacement for my AT 440MLa. I love it. If my AT 440 should have performed as nicely as this I must have missed on the set up on it for all of those years. Only downside is that I have found a few LPs that have tracking problems that played fine with the 440. Maybe it's in the set up. Still tweaking it.
I have never removed the stylus of my VM540ML and I'd like to to give it a more in depth clean. How is it done? Can it be done without removing the cartridge from the arm?
I suppose you could - I've got a Technics, so I just pull the headshell off, which makes it easier to get to - but I don't know that I'd want to do this while it's mounted on the arm. Someone else may have a bit of experience as to whether it would be okay or not. If you've got the instruction sheet, I'd look at that, but the short version is that you pull straight down (away from the headshell) at the rear of the red plastic stylus/cantilever assembly (furthest away from the stylus end, and closest to the pin end of the cart), and 'swing' the piece out, pivoting around the stylus end. It takes a bit of force to pull this off, which is about the only thing I don't like about the cart - it always feels like a bit too much effort for such a precise piece of equipment. If you can have someone show you the first time, that might be a good idea.
Kiko, what do you use for normal stylus cleaning? I use a micro stylus brush that came with my older Ortofon cartridge. I have a microscope and have found that I need to occasionally brush in opposite direction, towards tonearm, to remove all lint and other thread material. I do this very gently and stylus is immaculate afterwords. You don't need to remove cartridge or stylus to do this.
I use Audio Technica's supplied brush to clean the stylus when playing one record's side and flipping to the other. At the end of the day I clean it with a carbon fibre brush and every 5 days to a week with Audio Technica's stylus cleaner fluid, I don't remember the reference right now, it has a brush in the cap.
For those of you with a Shure V15V/MR/ Jico Neo stylus, you can rest easy. In my system and a similar tonearm (10.5i vice 10.5) the Jico Neo is much more responsive from the bottom end to the mid range (so far). The music just jumps when it's called for and the tracking of music on a VG+/- lp is the same. Imaging and separation of the instruments/vocals are more pronounced. The Jico Neo stylus has about 50 hrs on it and I will be breaking in during the next couple of weeks. M~
Glad you mentioned this as I've followed the same route as you and have occasional skips and jumps on albums that played fine with my old 440Mla. I would have assumed the 540 would be better seeing as it has the heavier downforce, but appears not to be
English Bob, what is your tonearm mass? If much above 12g, your resonance frequency will be low which can cause skips.
Installation and set up was pretty painless. Some serious listening and evaluation still to follow. But I allready can tell I won't be going back to ellipticals anytime soon.
And here is one of the reasons why I won't be going back to ellipticals: I recently bought Billy Joel's first 6 albums for a few dollars in a 2nd hand store. They appeared to be in very good condition with no visible scratches. Sadly though,even after a proper clean on the RCM, some obviously had suffered from a badly worn stylus in a previous life and had distortion on some songs (especially the louder parts of certain songs). Tried playing them with 2 different ellipticals and 1 conical to no avail. Even my Ortofon mc3-turbo, which is a line contact stylus, was no good in eliminating the distortion. After installing the vm540ml I thought about these records but had little hope from my experience with the ortofon line contact....imagine my surprise when there was not a distorted note to be heard with the Audiotechnica !
No idea, its just the standard Technics SL1200MKII tonearm. I have the weight set at 2.0g and the tracking force at 1/2 only. I did originally set tracking force at 2, but found it favored the left hand channel a bit too much. so dialed it back to just 1/2 (half). Placebo effect? Probably. but I think tracking force matching the counter weight is a little bit unscientific, whenever I see it mentioned.
Funny thing about that. Mine was slightly favoring the left also. After ensuring that the physical azimuth was the same on both sides I let it break in. Now that it's broken in the balance is the same on both channels. M~
Got myself a 'vintage' adc lmg1 magnesium headshell (7.5gr) in an attempt to change the resonance frequency of my arm a bit. This cart is 2gr lighter than ortofon/original. Using a test record I was around 8hz with the heavier headshell, with the lighter...I am still around 8hz, I guess it didn't do much . Well maybe it's more towards 9hz now as it was around 8hz before but I don't have a test record with a sweep to record smaller differences, only have test resonances of 6,8,10,12,14hz so hard to tell if it changed anything.
Interesting to hear that others experienced some channel balance favoring the left channel. Same here but after a month or so of use it sounds fine.
One track that played with sibilance on every cart I have tried so far was Dire Straits 'Sssssssix Blade Knife' (Dutch pressing). NOT so with the vm540ml !!! Jusssssssst great !
Honestly, it depends on the quality of your records and how many used ones you bring in. In my experience, at around 800 hours the fantastic performance of a fresh microline stylus starts to degrade just a bit and you start to hear some of the baked in record wear and sibilance that you've avoided so far. That could be 600 hours, or 1,000, but try that same record, same passage, at a later date and you'll be able to tell.
