Opinions greatly appreciated

Hi Krazeeyk,
What turntable and tonearm is your dad using? No one could make a solid recommendation without knowing that.

The trick is with load impedance set for MC cart at or near 100Ohms. It's definitely not enough for MM cartridge.
Since V15 is considered to be lower-output MM you may use MC phono with great benefit if you replace 100Ohms resistor by 47Kohms.
The resistor can easily be located first one on the input signal path(there are two for left and right channel).

If you purchased the Creek new from a dealer, maybe he will take it back for the OBH-8. Worth a try.

I doubt you will find a better cartridge in that price range. If you can stretch it by a couple hundred dollars, there are a few choices. But I agree with Doug, we need more info.

No one has responded directly to the questions in the last 2 sentences of your post, so I'll go out on a limb: I think you would have to spend at least $300-400 to find a better used moving coil cartridge, and you'd give up some the important performance qualities of the Shure.

For reasons I've never understood, the audiophile community has a strange reluctance to give the Shure V15V the respect it deserves (although TAS magazine now rates it as "Best Buy" in their "Recommended Components" list). When used with a good medium-mass tonearm, mounted to a good turntable, the Shure V15V (particularly the latest incarnation, the V15VxMR) is an outstanding value in phono cartridges. It offers very flat frequency response, superb tracking (arguably one of the best tracking cartrides made at ANY price), warm musicality, very low noise, user-replaceable styli, etc., etc. It's moderate output (3.0 mV, as I recall) is best suited to a phono preamp of medium gain (about 40 db), and it needs to be terminated with a 47k Ohm impedance, but other than those two points, it's quite "un-fussy".

So, in short, unless you plan to spend quite a bit more money, I think you're well advised to stick with the "Shure thing".

Sdcampbell,
I quite agree about the Shure V15VxMR. It's a good cartridge. Considering the price it's a GREAT cartridge.

Unfortunately Krazeeyk's dad doesn't have a V, he has a IV. Different can o' worms.

Until Krazeeyk returns to further enlighten us, lets combine your suggestion with Ozzy62's or Marakanetz's:

- Return the Creek for the MM model (if possible) OR,
- change the input resistors to 47Kohms AND,
- trade the V15IV for a V15VxMR ($200 or so).

No MC I've ever heard of will come close to that setup on that budget. Just need to be sure the tonearm is right for the cartridge. The Shure V's are pretty tolerant but who knows?

A Denon DL103 or DL103R would make a wonderful moving coil cartridge and the prices are just under 200 for the 103 and about 240 for the 103R. Both should work fine with your Creek MC preamp.

Only question is if they would work optimally with your tonearm.....

Carl

I would try a Denon DL 103, which can be had from Europe (Phonophono) for around $130. But Carl is right: You really have to have a very good Tonearm for that one, at least a Rega RB250 for example. I don't think there's a better MC out there for that price.

Good luck....

Rene

Carl and Rene,
The Denon 103 is a great suggestion, though even further over budget than the Shure, but I would be somewhat surprised if the TT in question has an arm that could handle it.

I'm just guessing of course, as we all are. Krazeeyk are you still around?

Wake up folks,
DL103 with Creek???

Not enough gain? (Don't know Creek).

Hi All,

Sorry for the delay. My dads turntable and Tonearm assembly is a Dual 622 direct drive. He just has the stock tone arm.

Thanks for all of the wonderful suggestions

Why not a DL103 with a Creek? Last time I checked I used the 100 Ohm setting (same as Creek) on my Trichord Dino and the gain of the Creek should be good enough as well. The Creek is not as fast and detailed as say the Dino or a Lehmann Black cube, but I guess it won't be too bad.Do you know any other MC at a $150 that can beat the DL103, even connected to a Creek?

Of course for the Dual arm I'm not really sure that the DL103 will be a good match. At that point I would maybe get the OBH 8 instead.

Rene

No way could a Dual arm handle a Denon. It might fly right off the record on the first bass drum hit. ;-)

Krazeeyk,
The concensus looks like the OBH-8 route. There's no MC cartridge < $200 that will play with a Shure V15VxMR on a Dual, so if you can stretch that far get one. It's good enough to embarass some cartridges that go for 2-3 times the price, and it should work very well on a Dual.

sounds like a shure v15, current model, is the cartridge for the light mass dual arm....hard to beat the price and performance and it works well with a low mass arm