AudiogoN Forums: The 'tube-transistor' enigma by MC carts?

The 'tube-transistor' enigma by MC carts?

By accident I got to know an guy from Swizerland who has
worked for years as technician (R&D,testing,manuf.etc) by
Benz. I made some joke about 'Zelle',the expresion he used
to refer to carts,by asking if the carts are made by
prisoners? ('zelle' is 'the box' in the prison) He appreciated my joke and explaned to me in 2 sentences
something I never thought about. There are 2 kinds of
'bobins': iron and the other kind. The 'classical example'
of 'iron' is the Ortofon SPU. The advantage: stronger signal and some kind of 'pleasing warm sound.the disadvantage:(more)distortion.
The 'ruby-cross' bobin has (much?) less distortion but can
sound 'thin' depending on the rest of 'the chain'.
This is obviously the so-called 'Holistic' approach ;
aka Rauls 'it depends...'. Me? Because I can't cope with
more then 2 variables at the same time I am for 'simplicity' approch. The best 'definition' of this
approch is from O.Wilde:'I have the simplest tastes. I am
alwys satisfid with the best'. So I am still seaching.
Raul will you please bring (more) light to this issue?

Cheers

Nandric (Threads | Answers | This Thread)

02-17-09

Responses (1-13 of 13)

Click title to read one, or click date to read all below it.

02-17-09 Nandric, i understand that the transfiguration orpheus uses ... Atmasphere

02-17-09 Atmashere. the 'bobin' is the 'thing' one must put the 'coi ... Nandric

02-17-09 If you look at allnicaudio.com in the products section under ... Casey33

02-18-09 Nandric, my understanding is that the bobbin in the orpheus ... Atmasphere

02-18-09 Atmasphere.my conjecture was 'iron bobbin' =the analogy wit ... Nandric

02-18-09 Dear nandric: i can't understand in a precise way what you m ... Rauliruegas

02-19-09 Dear raul.i hate the 'semantical chatter' but the swiss used ... Nandric

02-19-09: Atmasphere
Nandric, I suspect the comparison of different cartridge construction to tube vs solid state is likely a red herring. Tube phono sections do not have to have higher distortion, and some transistor phono sections OTOH can have quite high distortion. There there is also the question of what distortion is important to the ear and what is not. Research has shown that all humans detect distortions in the same way- but that is a topic for another thread.

In phono cartridges, you are also faced with loading issues, and the ability of the tone arm to allow the cartridge to track. These variables play a huge role in the resulting sound you get- Raul is absolutely right as well about the design tradeoffs that a cartridge designer faces, along with the execution. It is not something that can be so cut and dried.
Atmasphere (Threads | Answers | This Thread)

02-20-09 Dear raul.we are waiting for j.carr but i made some investig ... Nandric

02-20-09 Dear nandric: yes, fortunately there is progress. spu: many ... Rauliruegas

02-24-09 Dear atmaspere. very strange that the answer to my conjectur ... Nandric

02-24-09 Dear nandric, i sincerely hope and expect that the jubilee e ... Lewm

02-25-09 Dear lewn, the ortofon windfeld has a channelbalance better ... Nandric