Cool! be careful with isopropyl alcohol, it should not touch the cantilever as it might dissolve the cantilever glue. One more cartridge and stylus to your collection, one more can't hurt right ? keep this going and you will never need to order spare styli to your cartridges
I am gonna try this option (highlighted) with my new level (The Ortofon Libelle) that I will put on top of the headshell:
That's the correct way, i just watch while it plays a perfectly flat record. Ofc First i lose lock and set the tonearm height and lock it again before playing and checking that it's parallel.
It might not work together with the Technics overhang gauge. Please report how the experiment went when you are done.
I recommend the Concorde Century, when it comes to sound quality of Concorde cartridges. I've had multiple DJ concordes and tried a concorde 40, but those didn't even come close. It's about 600 euros, so it's a fourfold of a high-end DJ Concorde, but when it comes to sound quality, it's worth it. Performance wise, it's an equivalent of a 2M Bronze, so you're paying for the convenience and looks as well. I have zero experience with those 2M PnP cartridges though.
The Concorde Century has the looks. The specs, looking at them with my limited knowledge, is pretty close to the 2M Bronze. The KAB SYS40 has the price, multiple stylus options (including 78's) and has specs close to the 2m Black Has anyone compared both? I can get get the century (new) pretty close to the KAB price ($450)
KAB has the 40th Anniversary Concorde with the 40 stylus, which should be better... it is more equivalent to a 2M Black (though I believe lacks the silver in the wiring), but actually better specs than the Black, at least in terms of tracking and the stylus shape itself. On paper, the 40 is better than a Century, but it may be subjective. I had a 2M Bronze and didn’t like it...I got inner groove distortion on a lot of records with it. I do not have that problem with KAB’s previous version, which was a Pro S body with 40 stylus. I prefer that by a wide margin to the 2M Bronze.
Ha! I’ll need you to do that if you get the Ortofon. I don’t have the AT, but I do have the Concorde 40. I’ve been considering one of the AT ML variants for a while though.
That Concorde with a 40 stylus is a great all-around cartridge on a Technics. I think it's very slightly warmer than neutral, slightly forward mids, good dynamics, very punchy deep bass. I really like it on 80s records for that reason, particularly 12" singles, but it's very good on any material. Despite the more advanced stylus profile I don't find it picks up much extraneous noise. The soundstage depth is quite good, though it's not as wide as some cartridges I have, for example a Benz Micro Wood SL which has better channel separation. Of course the Benz is a moving coil and substantially more expensive, but in some instances I actually prefer the Ortofon. The mids are kind of recessed a bit on the Benz, which sometimes makes things sound too dull (but sometimes it's awesome -- just depends on the material). There aren't any other integrated designs I'd bother with...definitely not the integrated 2Ms.
Similar experiences here when comparing my Concorde Century to my Benz Micro Glider SL. The Century is more linear/flat, while the frequency response of the Glider is more like the fletcher-munson curve.
Yes, great description! Sometimes I find the Benz lacks a little bite for that reason, but the bass is huge and treble is sweetened a bit, which can sound very nice. At first I loved that, but I had it out of my system for a while after the stylus became too worn and got accustomed to a more accurate sound, like what I get with my old Stanton 981 and Pickering 5000 Stereohedron models. I’ve just gotten the Benz back from being retipped, which turned out perfectly, so I’m trying it out again.
Nice, are there specialistes audio stores that do retips or do you need to send it to the manufacturer? The Benz Micro is my only/first MC and I only have it for about a year now, but it would be useful to know that in advance. I’m used to the replaceable styli of MM cartridges. Generally, I also like the linear response, I based most of my purchases of the gear on being linear and accurate. Certain types of electronic and rock music are an exception, but I use a DSP to add a bit more bass (all analog without EQ for all other types of music). I think the SL-1200GR itself also adds to that linearity, making it even more notable (I’m using the SL-1200G, but I assume the characteristic sound of the GR is very similar).
I did not send it back to the manufacturer...I’m not sure if Benz is doing that anymore. You may just get a discount on a new one with a trade-in. I actually used a guy that’s a member here, @needlestein. Highly recommended. The Benz was my second moving coil...I had a a Clearaudio Concept MC before that. They both seemed to wear out faster than any moving magnet cartridges I’ve had. I also like the more linear response I think. Perhaps I just got so used to CDs in the 90s that the more “romantic” sounding cartridges sounds slightly off to me now.
That’s funny, because some people claimed the new Technics turntables to be digital sounding - maybe they actually meant linear instead. I think the warmth of the Benz Micro is nice from time to time, but a linear sounding Concorde is way better as main cartridge.
