[ssegrub]

I have just had the opportunity to purchase a fully rebuilt 1980 Shinon Red, as a backup catridge, in case my Koetsu Rosewood Platinum ever needs to go to hospital.  I found that the Shinon Red has a very detailed sound, with a huge sound stage and.09Mv output. I was having trouble taming it's brightness until I lowered my Amedeus Golfball a tad into the silicon oil,which seems to dampen down the brightness and then the cartridge's magic appeared....thought I should share this with you all in case you are ever looking for a way to tame a bright cartridge.

[BobRex]

So now the question is was the brightness reduction a function of the additional damping or did you just get the VTA/SRA correct?

Or maybe both?

[ssegrub]

Good point, however I had re-adjusted the VTA after lowering the golf ball into the gloop...so I would like to think it is the extra damping at work. What other modern turntables offer this wonderful feature I wonder?

[j2d2]

Before I got my present Nottingham 294 'table and arm I put the original Ringmat on the acrylic platter of my original Well Tempered which made an audible difference (much to the good)even for half deaf me.  No doubt because of the vta change mostly but I think it added a bit to the overall sound, too.

[fergs1]

Greetings, I thought the whole point of having thee damping cup separate from the tonearm on the Amadeus was so you could raise and lower the cup to increase decrease damping without adjusting the arm height and hence not have to frig around with the vta etc. Are you creating more work for yourself than is necessary?       cheers  fergs     

[Ensemble]

To tame a bright sounding cartridge, other than applying more damping to the tonearm and lowering the VTA, you can also do the followings:

1)   Adjust the tracking force
2)   Lower the input impedance of your phono stage

I hope the above help.

[FullRangeMan]

If your cartridge was a low price one, you could hammer it out and return it to the manufacturer with proper instructions, to demostrate your displeasure