New Audio Technica AT33 series 33x

[Balle Clorin]

AT33x Series

www.audio-technica.com

Who will be the first to make a library measurement?
Spec are yet again worse than previous generation … but less compliant and lower VTA may be good

 

[JP]

Not me.

 

[Balle Clorin]

..:and .. I cannot justify spend 1000usd just for curiosity when I have 4574 hours of cartridge life left…

Was hoping someone here will be curious enough to do it

 

[lini]

Higher prices (and more meagre accessories - with the previous AT33s you'd still get a set of AT6101 headshell wires...) aside, I'm not happy about AT's recent trend towards rather high body weight and low(er) compliance. *sigh*

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[digitalfrost]

Ugh maybe I should buy 1 or 2 of the old AT33PTG while they are still available.

 

[Balle Clorin]

I closer look shows that The new one is worse on every technical parameter ..27db cross talk etc my existing PTGii is far better

 

[morillon]

I closer look shows that The new one is worse on every technical parameter ..27db cross talk etc my existing PTGii is far better

These are unreliable figures, depending on the test discs used... or perhaps not to the advantage of AudioTechnica... !!
To be verified on a given disc offering a significant margin to be able to distinguish between them...
Example: AT155...on Denon at 1k ref 34/35 ( 5cm?)...40.5/41 on Hungaroton crosstalk test ( 8cm?) etc. The same cartridge on other discs will fall to something like 27/28 etc. ;-)

 

[digitalfrost]

I asked Supergrok to compare the cartridges https://grok.com/share/c2hhcmQtMw==_b481b4a5-6f2f-4122-94b8-1e22a7eeff12

I wonder for which arms they made this, because the typical medium mass arms are no longer an ideal match for it.

 

[Balle Clorin]

As I said , the old one is superior ..

 

[morillon]

As I said , the old one is superior ..

don't want to say anything... the values given are generally irrelevant on this point... which I admit seems surprising... measured one against the other... risks being very comparable...

 

[Balle Clorin]

The new production equipment is probably inferior compared to what was used before, or the staff not at the same skills. And to prevent too many returns the specs are relaxed..

 

[morillon]

The new production equipment is probably inferior compared to what was used before, or the staff not at the same skills. And to prevent too many returns the specs are relaxed..

they probably use 6605..will explain these low values....

 

[Balle Clorin]

6605?? Test record? I have almost that one, 6607. a very poor test record with 20db raw crosstalk.., with bandpass around 1000Hs it is better -25.6/-31.8

Spoiler: 6607 record

 

[DVDdoug]

..27db cross talk etc my existing PTGii is far better

20dB is actually good enough for stereo. If you play a dual-mono recording and one speaker is 20dB louder than the other we perceive all of the sound coming from the louder one. (Although there might be an overall difference with the sound in the room if you disconnect the quiet one completely.)

And crosstalk is pretty-far down my list of issues/limitations with vinyl.

 

[morillon]

6605?? Test record? I have almost that one, 6607. a very poor test record with 20db raw crosstalk.., with bandpass around 1000Hs it is better -25.6/-31.8

View attachment 485526
View attachment 485527

Spoiler: 6607 record

View attachment 485534

View attachment 485533

yes at-6605 (the 6607 is one of those that I don't have)...from memory at 1k nofilter.. but it was a long time ago

 

[mackat]

I may pick one up in the near-ish future

I’d be curious to measure the xMLD with the duralumin cantilever, but I would imagine it would have a lower resonance than the boron of the xMLB.

All my AT33PTG/II’s have measured worse crosstalk than spec, at 20-25 dB. I doubt the new models will be much different in that regard, but we won’t know until we see the measurements.

 

[morillon]

I may pick one up in the near-ish future

I’d be curious to measure the xMLD with the duralumin cantilever, but I would imagine it would have a lower resonance than the boron of the xMLB.

All my AT33PTG/II’s have measured worse crosstalk than spec, at 20-25 dB. I doubt the new models will be much different in that regard, but we won’t know until we see the measurements.

as said above these values are too attached to the procedure (1khz?/level?) / disk used etc ... "to take them at face value"...

 

[mike70]

I have the previous version and I love it.
Using the foobar abx comparator with digitalizations of vm95ml / at33 ptg2... I recognized the at33 as "better"... with more "sparkle" in mid-high frequencies.

I know surely is a little difference in frequency response, not a real "better definition"... but is an equalization I don't need to do with dsp

In the price / performance ratio the vm95ml is a champ, no doubt, but I like better the at33.

 

[morillon]

(check the level of the 1k test ( and lp clean)..also simply impacts the observed crosstalk value)