Introducing the Phono Cartridge Measurement Library

[narud]

Please humor this not at all veiled attempt at asking purchasing advice, but I would rather inquire here and then provide useful data.

Carts in consideration:
ART9XA
AT33SA
VM760SLC
Hana SL mk1 or mk2

Open to other ideas in this price range that measurements are needed for from designs/companies that have a good track record. Two notes are I am looking to achieve near flat FR, and this will be going through a CA duo and then most likely a Darlington Labs MP7b. Of course, I'll get CBR measurements from both if it is worth it. I don't have any actual testing equipment.

i dont have any experience with the hana, but its supposed to be close to neutral i believe. i have had the 33sa and it was pretty close to neutral. this was before the script for me, so when id compare needle drops of it and some made with my shure v15vmr, they came out very, very close. i listened to recordings of the art series carts and ruled them out because they were noticeably brighter than recordings of a 33ptg2. i sold the sa and kept the ptg2 because of the micro ridge. the shibata on the 33sa lost more high end by the time it got to the end of a side.

 

[dougi]

JICO J44D IMPROVED NUDE

• This is the Jico remake of the Shure M44G, nude spherical tracking range 0.7-1.5g
• Link to product page here
• Baerwald alignment for this one. Tracks HFNRR +16dB antiskate track at 1.35g OK
• As mentioned before, these Jico cantilevers are massive! Hence (I assume) why resonance well in audio band
• Azimuth could do with tweaking, but not really worth it, is it?
• Not sure what the best loading should be, used my highest C cables in an assumption needed it like the original Shure
• Sibilance worse on tracks with already bad sibilance.

 

[dlaloum]

I can confirm that my original VxMR stylus look similar in fr response. This is one reason the JICO SAS/B suits these bodies well; the added resonance 10-20 kHz helps. Not so with the V-MR bodies; peaking goes into the 4-5 dB range.

You can achieve a flatter F/R with custom loading.... keeping in mind that Shures always had the 47K R load as an indicative, and their docs often stated "up to 75k R load) - and the capacitive load was also a range....

Although my experience is that you can achieve a flatter overall F/R by accepting a slight dip around 10kHz (rising a bit after the dip) keeping the range within the desired 3db (+/- 1.5db) - or alternatively you can achieve a flatter F/R through to circa 15kHz, but then accept a steeper drop off above that (the alternative that I prefer)