[neobop]

John and I were discussing these cartridges on another forum. He has the Pickering and I have the Stanton. They seem to be identical. I got mine recently. As it's breaking in, it's turning out to be astonishingly good. The only thing is, going straight into my phono stage I'm loading it at 2.7K. I know that many phono stages can't accommodate this.

John said that he got good results with a head amp. That would suggest that an appropriate tranny would also work out. I wanted to post this here, because KAB seems to have a few left at $100 for the body. I want to let everybody know. Kevin also has a Pickering .2 x .7 nude elliptical, that fits, for $79. That's what I'm using. It will also take a D81, D91, and a few other Pickering Stereohedron styli. If anybody has the electronics for this, do yourself a favor and pick one up.

[TheChairGuy]

Yup, I use a Leach head amp (thanks again!) in front of my Pioneer preamp because the MC section in that preamp is obnoxious and dead sounding (while the MM section is rather excellent, oddly).

Also, the MC section is loaded at 100ohms and overdamps the poor Pickering.

I think the head amp is not resistively loaded at all.....so the poor Pickering is run at 47K and much too high.....but relatively underdamped is always better than overdamped to my ears.

I'd recommend the Pickering PLZ pre-preamp as it's expressly made for the low output Pickerings and Stantons: http://www.pickeringuk.com/cfb.html

bauzeace50 has an uses it with his low output cartridges and is very pleased with it's performance.

John

FOR SALE: Superphon Dual Mono Preamp and DM200 Amp/fully updated.
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=72676.0

[jrtrent]

If anybody has the electronics for this, do yourself a favor and pick one up.

I used a 981LZ Mk IIs until original styli were no longer being produced (early 90's, if I recall correctly).  It was designed to work directly into a standard MC input with 100 Ohms resistance.  It sounded great with the MC input on my Linn LK1 (which was rated just a bit off standard at 50K for MM and 150 for MC).

[neobop]

"I used a 981LZ Mk IIs until original styli were no longer being produced (early 90's, if I recall correctly).  It was designed to work directly into a standard MC input with 100 Ohms resistance.  It sounded great with the MC input on my Linn LK1 (which was rated just a bit off standard at 50K for MM and 150 for MC)."

Hi JR, That's interesting. I was told by Kevin at KAB that the 981 is a 980 with a stylus, tested by Stanton to meet specs. I'm thinking of getting a ruby cantilever and line contact stylus for it. My sample is still breaking in, so I don't know exactly where I will wind up with loading. Initially, it sounded like both the bass and treble were deficient, at 100 ohms.

This cartridge is an incredible tracker. It seems to track problem records that other carts can't handle.