[ACHiPo]

Trigger pulled!  Fidelity Research FR-6-SE coming from Hong Kong with an NOS stylus (and stylus guard--learned the other one I was considering didn't have one).

Looking forward to hearing it on my TransFi.

Neo,
I'm not sure what the input capacitance is on my phono stage, and I have low C phono cables, but it definitely is fine with the MLX.  I think the problem I had with the other arms was more of an effective mass issue, or it could be that the MLX is just finally hitting its stride?

Henry,
Thanks again for your guidance!  Will post some shots of the FR-6-SE when I get it installed.

AC

[Halcro]

Congrats Evan,
You sure have your listening 'work' cut-out for you....
I'm so enamoured with the FR-6SE that I rushed in to secure a spare for myself in case something untoward occurs....
Just to be safe....

Regards

[ACHiPo]

Congrats Evan,
You sure have your listening 'work' cut-out for you....
I'm so enamoured with the FR-6SE that I rushed in to secure a spare for myself in case something untoward occurs....
Just to be safe....

Regards

Henry,
That's a good plan.  These things are rare, desired, and expensive.  I'm still licking my cheapskate wounds.  My consolation is that I won't be out too much if it's not my flavor, as I know somebody that'll prolly take it off my hands! 
Evan

[ACHiPo]

Now, for that perfect Shure V15.  The question is III, IV, or V?

[ACHiPo]

TK7SU is installed. Sounds really good--definitely better than the MLX.

[Halcro]

Straight off....if it sounds good, that's a great sign Evan.
In the TransFi arm you have no worries about geometry but is there a way to check azimuth because you know a Shibata stylus is probably the fussiest profile for alignment.

[ACHiPo]

Straight off....if it sounds good, that's a great sign Evan.
In the TransFi arm you have no worries about geometry but is there a way to check azimuth because you know a Shibata stylus is probably the fussiest profile for alignment.

Henry,
I have the Feickert Adjust+ record and software.  Dialing in the TK7, Kleos, and Zero on the Pioneer are on my list of things for this weekend.  The TransFi is amazingly easy to get close out of the chute.  Adjusting azimuth is more fiddly than with an AT head shell on the Pioneer, but VTA is a piece of cake.

Oh, and I have a V15-III and Jico Neo-SAS coming! Did I mention I'm diving into the rabbit hole?

Evan

[Halcro]

Henry,
I have the Feickert Adjust+ record and software.  Dialing in the TK7, Kleos, and Zero on the Pioneer are on my list of things for this weekend.

Oh, and I have a V15-III and Jico Neo-SAS coming! Did I mention I'm diving into the rabbit hole?

Eav

Hahaha.....
It's like you've been bitten Evan....
With all those cartridges, it might be a better idea to have them mounted in their own headshells and use them with the pivoted arm leaving the Kleos for the TransFi?
Just a thought.....

[ACHiPo]

Hahaha.....
It's like you've been bitten Evan....
With all those cartridges, it might be a better idea to have them mounted in their own headshells and use them with the pivoted arm leaving the Kleos for the TransFi?
Just a thought.....

Henry,
That's an interesting idea.  I have two wands for the TransFi--I'd planned on running either the Kleos or an MM cartridge on the TransFi and can keep one plugged into an MC input on the phono stage and one plugged into the MM input.  The Pioneer I'd planned on keeping for the Zero and plugged into the second MC input, but it's not that hard to swap inputs.

Now that my MM collection is growing, however, maybe it makes sense to mount a few on the Pioneer.  I also thought the Pioneer to be a bit too high mass for 70s era MM cartridges, which I thought liked lower mass?  The FR-6se should play quite nicely in the Pioneer arm, though.

Oh, the TK7e with the AT20SS arrived from Singapore today.  I'm enjoying the TK7SU so much at the moment, I'm not itching to mount it just yet.

Zoot is sounding very nice! 

AC

[neobop]

New AT cart announcement - coming (Japan) in Dec.
https://www.audio-technica.co.jp/atj/list_model.php?categoryId=1010502&sortType=releaceDate

New stereo motor is in the VM700 and 500 series.  It's 460mH, 800DC/2.7K, 4mV out.  Looks like a higher output 15/20 series (450mH, 2.7V).

The 500 is plastic and the 700 is deluxe.  Top stylus is LC, then shibata, then ML.  All cantilevers are aluminum. 

New mono MM (2) is 600 series and has inductance which looks like one channel - 230mH, 400DC/1.4K, 3mV.

The VM760SLC - $771 list. 
New AT-150Sa - $877 list.

neo

[ACHiPo]

The FR6e arrived today.  Will mount it up on the Pioneer arm this weekend and give it a listen.

[Halcro]

The FR6e arrived today.  Will mount it up on the Pioneer arm this weekend and give it a listen.

You did mean the 6SE....?

[Plato65]

Halcro,

(Thought I'd comment here rather than on Audio Karma, since we were drifting further away from the topic of the thread there.)

Just got my first Yamamoto HS4 carbon fiber headshell and the effect was quite striking.

I had earlier compared Audiocraft AC4000 unipivot tonearm, an aluminum headshell, and Audiocraft AC03 cartridge with Micro MA505LS tonearm, Yamamoto HS3 boxwood headshell, and A&R P77 + Jico SAS cartridge. The P77 sounded nice, warm, but not as refined or extended as the AC03 and also a hint bloated.

Yesterday, I just changed the Yamamoto HS3 boxwood to Yamamoto HS4 carbon fiber and everything else stayed the same. The P77 now sounds much more open & refined, less bloated, and in general much closer to the AC03, though the latter is still a notch more refined & open. On the downside, some of the warmth also disappeared. So I'm wondering if a headshell of hard wood like ebony or an ebony spacer with the carbon fiber headshell would be the optimal combination. What's your set-up for your Garrott P77?

[Halcro]

Yesterday, I just changed the Yamamoto HS3 boxwood to Yamamoto HS4 carbon fiber and everything else stayed the same. The P77 now sounds much more open & refined, less bloated, and in general much closer to the AC03, though the latter is still a notch more refined & open. On the downside, some of the warmth also disappeared. So I'm wondering if a headshell of hard wood like ebony or an ebony spacer with the carbon fiber headshell would be the optimal combination. What's your set-up for your Garrott P77?
 

Hi Plato,
I'm not familiar with the AC03 but "bloat" is not something I've heard with the SAS in the Garrott P77, although with its original stylus that word could possibly apply.
With the P77/SAS and HS4 carbon fiber headshell, the sound is simply sublime.
I could almost be tempted to say....near perfect 
Now admittedly that's in the Dyna DV-507/II tonearm so perhaps you could try it in your AC-4000 tonearm?
The A&R P77 is not however identical to the Garrott P77 although it does form the basis of it.......

[Plato65]

"Bloat" was a bit of an exaggeration and certainly there's no excess bloat with the HS4. And yes, the sound is indeed pretty amazing. I'll have to keep my eyes open for a Garrott P77 body.

So which cartridges do NOT sound great on the HS4?? And what works for them?

Also, you've been advocating the Shure V15-III recently. Why the III rather than IV or V or Vx?

[Halcro]

Also, you've been advocating the Shure V15-III recently. Why the III rather than IV or V or Vx?

Good question....
I've not heard the others and the III seems to have the greater reputation. There also appeared to be greater satisfaction with the SAS mating with the III than the others 

So which cartridges do NOT sound great on the HS4?? And what works for them?
 

Most of the cartridges I've tried sound better in the HS4 headshell and those that don't (like the Atlas)...at least don't sound worse 

[ACHiPo]

You did mean the 6SE....?

Prolly 

[Plato65]

Good question....
I've not heard the others and the III seems to have the greater reputation. There also appeared to be greater satisfaction with the SAS mating with the III than the others 

Ok, thanks! Based on everything I've read, the III & V seem more popular than the IV, though the sonic differences aren't entirely clear.

Most of the cartridges I've tried sound better in the HS4 headshell and those that don't (like the Atlas)...at least don't sound worse 

That's seems like a strong endorsement  So for which ones do you prefer a wooden, metal, or ceramic headshell?

[Halcro]

So for which ones do you prefer a wooden, metal, or ceramic headshell?

Prior to the Yamamoto Carbon Fiber HS4 headshell, I used to have a loose 'rule-of-thumb' that metal-bodied cartridges sounded best in wood shells, plastic-bodied cartridges sounded best in metal head shells and wood-bodied cartridges could go in the ceramic shell.
But even that 'rule' is undone by the exceptions 
After trying literally a dozen cartridges in the SAEC ceramic headshell of my 8000/ST tonearm.....the FR-6SE was born for this shell


My Signet TK-7LCa has sounded so brilliant in the Copperhead plastic resin-bodied arm and shell that it's not coming off.....


Similarly....my Victor Z1/SAS sounds so good in a no-name metal headshell I bought for $5.00, that it also is going nowhere...


And then there's the Fidelity Research FR-3 headshells which are mistakingly (IMO) maligned by some afficianados


yet which cleverly combine metal inserts in a resin body to create a decoupled headshell which matches so beautifully with many cartridges when used with the FR-64s and FR-66s tonearms.

So rules are good as far as they go....but the real lesson is to try different combinations because the cartridge/headshell interface is, IMO......one of the greatest factors in extracting a cartridge's maximum performance.
And it's a factor that the majority of high-end audiophiles with their high-end 'fixed-headshell' tonearms are simply unable to exploit...

[Plato65]

Thanks again!

I have the same FR-S/3, which I think is pressed aluminum rather than resin. My Miyajima Premium BE (ebony body) sounds fabulous in it. My Accuphase AC1 (aluminum body) sounded very open, smooth, and dynamic in the SAEC ULS-3X headshell (ceramic, like yours), but not quite warm or natural enough for my taste. It's now in the Audiocraft MC-S/T arm wand (aluminum) and it's not coming off 

Also, I changed the headshell leads on the HS4 carbon fiber headshell to 1877 Angel's Breath and was very positively impressed. Quite a change in sound.