MC better sounding than Clearaudio Virtuoso

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/mp

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Re: MC better sounding than Clearaudio Virtuoso
« Reply #40 on: 2 Sep 2014, 05:18 am »
Not to make this even more complicated but another avenue of consideration is buying a used cart. Yes they're delicate critters and they're not a durable good but as Arthur Salvatore writes somewhere on his website the non-DJ people still using phono cartridges are pretty fanatical about their care.  Check out how much retipping/rebuilding costs. Used plus rebuild may be less than buying new and the cost would be split over time. Alternatively, some manufactures offer substantial discounts on trade-ins for more expensive models. As always, your mileage will vary.

jsm71

Re: MC better sounding than Clearaudio Virtuoso
« Reply #41 on: 2 Sep 2014, 12:45 pm »
Not to make this even more complicated but another avenue of consideration is buying a used cart. Yes they're delicate critters and they're not a durable good but as Arthur Salvatore writes somewhere on his website the non-DJ people still using phono cartridges are pretty fanatical about their care.  Check out how much retipping/rebuilding costs. Used plus rebuild may be less than buying new and the cost would be split over time. Alternatively, some manufactures offer substantial discounts on trade-ins for more expensive models. As always, your mileage will vary.

Buying used and retipping if needed is not lost on me.  I recently read through the agon cartridge posts just to get a feel and saw a number of candidates.  Many claimed low hours (< 200) so assuming they knew how to ship properly and it didn't arrive damaged, retipping would be put off and the cartridge would already be broken in.  Cartridges are clearly one of the easier items to ship and the original packaging isn't hard to retain just for this purpose.

neobop

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Re: MC better sounding than Clearaudio Virtuoso
« Reply #42 on: 2 Sep 2014, 04:10 pm »
Not a bad idea, I was thinking the same thing about a step up.  Problem is, you can't test one without the other.   

Sounds like a corny old song, but buying both at the same time is a challenge.

neo

Muser

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Re: MC better sounding than Clearaudio Virtuoso
« Reply #43 on: 5 Sep 2014, 09:32 pm »
WRT to retipping, not all retyping services are alike, and a re-tip isn't necessarily a return to original.
I had van den Hul retip my Koetsu Rosewood - nice, sweet, round and emotionally engaging water color of a cartridge.
It came back from vdH a black and white line drawing. It was dumb to send a Koetsu to vdH, but the choice arose because
I thought a retip was a retip and a return to the original.

I can't give you personal experience as I sold the Koetsu rather than having it rebuilt at Koetsu per Koetsu's suggestion. In this latter instance, you'd be looking to Koetsu rather than Peter Lederman or vdH, for instance.

BTW, the XX2MkII is a full bodied sounding cartridge in my system, slightly richer in sound than Ortofon's Jubilee, which was also a very nice cartridge similarly priced, the latter was just a bit leaner. I've only heard a few Dynavector cartridges at length, but I'm especially engaged by their sound, excellent dynamic contrasts in my experience. very good imaging, too. Clearaudio cartridges, by comparison (about 10 years ago) were more muted and less dynamic. My experience may not translate to yours, but it's another data point to consider.

Larry

neobop

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Re: MC better sounding than Clearaudio Virtuoso
« Reply #44 on: 5 Sep 2014, 10:40 pm »
Hi Larry,
Actually, there's a difference between retipping and rebuilding.  One just replaces the stylus and the other is more extensive and can include even more than the cantilever.  VDH rebuild service is famous for changing the sound of the cart.   It's hard to know all this ahead of time.  Other places like Expert Stylus (UK), and Andy Kim, often replace just the stylus.  Soundsmith replaced the stylus only on my Genesis 1000 and I can't really tell it from the original. 

Cantilever selection is usually limited and it may not come out sounding the same, especially if the new one is made of a different material.  In the case of the Virtuoso - it's made by AT and has cheap stylus assembly which is a straight aluminum cantilever and a bonded elliptical.  Any high quality replacement is a step up.

Sorry to hear about your Rosewood, that's a sweet cart.  Do you like the Dynavector as much, or just different? 
All the Dynavector carts are spec to very tight/accurate response.   I think they sound richer/fuller than ZYX which also have very accurate response, and apparently the Jubilee as well.  I haven't heard all the models from these companies and it's nice to get user experience.
neo