Mono Reissues and the Conical Stylus
solypsa, I agree about which tonearm with which cartridge. I like the Schick and it's affordable but it's still much more than a Jelco. Additionally what makes the Jelco nice is that it will drop right into my Thorens without modifications. The Jelco will also work well with modern cartridges and from what I've been able to find, the Schick is raved for its compatibility with the better vintage cartridges. |
@goofyfoot Thanks chakster but I’d rather own an MC, just a personal preference. I am familiar with Grace as I owned an F 8 but I wasn’t all that impressed with it, though it filled a need at the time. Maybe the F9 would have left me with a different opinion. F8 is cheap entry level cartridge, F9 is somewere in the middle, nothing special. The Grace i am talking about is F14 Mono with two pins, the high-end Grace cartridges are F14 and LEVEL II models, only those two models comes with the best cantilevers (Sapphire, Boron Pipe, Beryllium) and best styli (MicroRidge). Those are the last cartridges made by Grace before they went out of business in the late 80’s. These models are better than many MC cartridges, but they are not cheap, actually very expensive and superior compared to any F9 version. I have F14 MONO, the stylus does have a vertical compliance and the diamond profile is Luminal Trace. Nice for original mono records from the 60s/70s. This Grace F14 Mono has only two pins to connect leadwires. I don't have any pre-60's mono records and i don't buy mono reissues. Anyway, a Conical stylus is anachronism and must be avoided in the modern world (except for 78rpm SP records). An MC cartridge with such stylus must be retipped every 300 hrs. |
