So I lowered the back of the 12" arm about 6mm in 1mm steps and the sound snapped into focus improving the aforementioned dynamics by an order of magnitude. This thing is growing on me.
Woot! Decca cartridge bargain
Picked up a Decca Grey Export with a Garrott sticker on it and a metal clamp mounting bracket. It was sold untested for $270. As luck would have it, the thing works perfectly and sounds pretty darn good on a Jelco 750L with brass counterweight tracking at 1.75g on a Garrard 401.
Compared to my Paratrace Super Gold, the Grey is slightly darker with less detail but most notable is the reduced dynamic range. The Gold soaring while the Grey is more restrained. Nevertheless, the Grey is very musical with clean bass and clear metallic cymbal brushwork. Glad I snapped it up.
Anyone know what the Garrott improvements were on a Grey?
Compared to my Paratrace Super Gold, the Grey is slightly darker with less detail but most notable is the reduced dynamic range. The Gold soaring while the Grey is more restrained. Nevertheless, the Grey is very musical with clean bass and clear metallic cymbal brushwork. Glad I snapped it up.
Anyone know what the Garrott improvements were on a Grey?
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What i know for sure is that Stereohedron is superbHear Hear! I have one (Stanton D881S). I came by it while helping a friend. He wanted me to service his Thorens 124, so I did. It had the Stanton. He said it was crap and throw it out; I’d never heard of it (this was many many years ago) but was curious: every unknown cartridge deserves a chance. The stylus was encrusted with black hard crud, I wasn’t even sure there was a stone under it. No solvent, no brush or machine made a dent in that crust. I had to use a scalpel blade — with extreme care — and finally carved it all away. The stone was there, bright and gleaming. Under a 60X scope, it looked good too: sharp tip, clean lines, like new (though I know more X is needed to really see wear). After all that work, I hoped it was at least decent, and with some trepidation I played a record... IT BLEW MY MIND |
@bimasta haha, nice, you can't go wrong with Doug Sax's disc mastering monitoring cartridge. |
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