Interesting - looks like the arm should be mounted further to the left and closer to the spindle to get much closer to tangential to the grooves. I used to have the later UA-7 tonearm.
Yea, be fun to try a pair, but prices are really crazy now with all the interest, just saw a decent looking pair went up on ebay a couple days ago for $529, kinda silly. Could hardly give them away a few years ago.
Yeeesh. I've got a spare pair of Newcomb TR-91 laying around, was hoping to box them up and trade them for something interesting. Guess 4722 are out of the running.
Thanks! As you surmised, it's due to lens distortion. The tonearm was mounted following the 300mm spindle to pivot spec found at vinylengine.com.
I checked out some cartridges to figure out what would be the best to replace my old Excalibur Platinum. Some photos;
I have the Cadenza Black and it's outstanding. No easy choice between those three but I'd also bet you can't go wrong. Would love to hear the Hana someday.
Nice set of cartridges. How did you check them out, were they loans from your dealer? The new Audio-Technica ART20 is in that range and has been getting some good notice, including a very happy owner around here.
I'm looking at an MC Cartridge and the Ortofon Cadenza Black and the Hana Red are both on my list. Obviously if I can save a little with the Cadenza that would be great. I'd like to hear your thoughts on the two. I do not have a high end system. Pro-Ject 6 Perspex SB turntable through a Pro-Ject Tube Box DS2 to a Marantz AVR to Def Tech Speakers... Thanks
I haven’t heard any of them, but going by looks alone it’s the Umami all day long. After using a Hana SH for a year, I’m really curious to hear that one. @Mr.Sign Have you considered a Kiseki Purpleheart? I was particularly impressed by that cartridge at my local dealer.
Hello Davey, yes, they were loans from a Dealer. I was interested in the new AT-cart too,but could not find an opportunity to try it. I finally kept the Hana.
Hello Dadawada, both are fantastic cartridges but each with a different flavour. The Black`s performance is very detailed and clean ( not harsh or cold), i would called it neutral in the best way. The Hana delivers lots of detail too, but with more punch and liveliness and a holographic presentation if the recording offers it. I stuck with it. I had the Bronze for some weeks too, almost bought it. The Phasemation PP-500 was smoother, sufficient detail and a superbe soundstage. I could live with all of them.
Hello Harris, I have had the Hana SL for some time and liked it a lot. After upgrading my TT I wanted an appropriate cartridge. I finally kept the Umami although all the competitors were very fine performers too. I have heard of the Kiseki but never had a chance to listen to it.
Thanks for sharing your opinion of the three cartridges you auditioned. I'm also looking to move up the cartridge ladder and the Cadenza Black and Hana Umami Red along with the Dynavector Te Kaitora Rua are on my list. I see you had a good listen to my current cartridge the Ortofon Cadenza Bronze. How would you describe the Bronze versus the Umami Red?
Last xmas I rebuilt a PL-S30 and a Sony of similar make that I had sitting in my basement for years to build a nice starter system for my two nieces. Stripped them down and painted them some of their favorite colors. Put an Ortofon Red on them and paired them with a Dayton Audio intergrated amp. The Ortofon is a little too large to mount on the PL-S30 and align correctly, I had to modify the headshell but it was totally worth the effort. Testing it with the beat-up US copy of Abbey Road i got when I was 8yrs old (an awful sounding pressing to start with), that album was singing. My friends that heard it all agreed that we wished we had systems that sounded that good when we were 12! For a turntable that’s mostly made of plastic, your PL-S30 has a lot of musicality in it when paired with the right cart. Cheers, Jake
Audio-Technica carts work well on this table. The AT-95E sounded much better than my previous carts and replacing the stylus with an ATN-95EX made it that much better. About a year and a half from now, I plan to upgrade to either an AT-VM95EN or an AT-VM95SH. It depends on how much money I feel like spending. (I have some styrene 45s, so microline is out of the question.) Thank you for confirming my suspicions about the Ortofon 2M. It seemed like a bit much for this (annoyingly) proprietary headshell. The funny thing is that I have had this table since it was new when I was in high school. It is almost forty years old. When I started reading audiophile threads about a decade ago, I started to wonder if it was inadequate. Only in the last year has it dawned on me that people buying new (and more costly) turntables are chasing a sound that I already have. I get that turntables from the 60's and 70's, as well as the coveted Technics SL-1200, blow mine away. Nevertheless, this bad boy served me well all these years. (Even the anti-skate still works!) Furthermore, I know how to keep it going. At this point, why change?
Hello AvFan, as much as I liked the Bronze, at least in my setup and for my taste, the Umami plays in a different league. Bigger soundstage, richer tonality and bass with more authority without loosing any detail. Highest frequencies with energy and finesse. Hope that helps, Mr.Sign
Thanks for your insights. The Bronze has been described as warm though I think "polite" might be better since it doesn't pull out the details that I'd like to hear. I'm not sure I'll get to that "different league" with the Cad Black either if soundstage is a criteria and if I stay with an Ortofon I have to move up to the Windfeld TI and that is probably more than I want to spend. The Umami Red is on definitely on the short list but also Etsuro Urushi Cobalt Blue also made my Excel.
That’s fantastic you’ve been rocking that table that long! From my experience of rebuilding a PL-S30 like yours, using any advance profile stylus (like a microline or similar) is only going to give you more headaches than improvements. An elliptical profile is more forgiving if the alignment is not 100% perfect, while a microline/shibata etc. must be EXACTLY perfect in all regards or else it will have increased inner-groove distortion and many other issues. The fact that your tonearm doesn’t have much adjustability is what’s going to bite you. It has limited headshell space for alignment, no way to adjust zenith or arm height. All things that will tick-off an advanced stylus if not adjustable. I’m not digging on you, or saying your rig is crap, but you’d notice more sonic improvements if you instead spent the increased cost on upgrading your phono preamp perhaps. Looking at your profile tells me each part of your rig is sonically on the same plane, and that’s why it’s so enjoyable. The biggest changes to an audio chain start with transducer (cart or speaker) then small signal preamps (phono/tape) then... everthing else . So that’s why I suggested upgrading your phono pre if you want to make improvements. I’d be happy to share some cost effective suggestions should you want to go down that road. Feel free to PM me anytime. Cheers, Jake
Just mounted the SAE 1000LT, currently connected to my Conrad-Johnson EF-1 phono stage set to 46dB gain @ 10k ohms input impedance. I'll see how it compares to my normal AT-OC9XML and Lundahl LL1933 SUT into the same phono stage, maybe post some audio samples after giving it some break-in time.
