Thoughts on moving from a 1200G to Sota Saphire or above

@chakster

This is so stuid idea for people with many mono records, all they need is a dedicated tonearm for mono!

Not stupid at all. I’ve been playing my mono LP’s the last couple days by installing my dedicated mono cart (and headshell) to my Jelco 850 arm.

I have a SOTA Sapphire, which cannot accept a second arm. I’m fine with using an arm with removable headshells to accomplish this goal. Quick switch, reset VTF & VTA, and ready to go.

I’m not getting rid of my SOTA, and do not really have room for a second table.

Chakster, I must say I am impressed by your level of certainty, at times.  You wrote, "Additional headshell pins and even a DIN connector on a tonearm will not change the sound of a great tonearm/cartridge."  How can you, or anyone, know this for all the different combinations that are possible?  I think the odds are that the connections are less audible with high output cartridges vs very low output MC cartridges, where I would worry more.  Since you are drawn to MM and MI cartridges with output voltages way higher than 1mV, that may account for your personal experience.  I can think of many cases where replacing a physical contact interface in the signal chain with a hard-wired connection did make an audible improvement in SQ.

I really love the Kuzma 4 point headshell solution.  You can swab cartridges fast and still have a clip to RCA continuity.  As stated above, the 4 point 9 is not too heavy for the Sota's suspension system. 

I like tone controls on the integrated subs in the Vandersteen Quatro/Kento/Seven.

Since you are drawn to MM and MI cartridges with output voltages way higher than 1mV, that may account for your personal experience.

@lewm

I’m not drawn to MM or MI at all, I have/had some amazing LOMC, such as: Miyabi Standard, Miyajima Kansui, Shelter 5000, EMT 75th Anniversary, Miyabi MCA, ZYX Premium 4D, ZYX Airy-3, Fidelity-Research FR-7fz, Victor MCL10, Grace Asakura-One, KLIPSCH MCZ-10, Ortofon SPU Spirit amd Royal G mk2, Supex, Ortofon MC2000 … is that enough? I have more MC cartridges in my collection and I like them a lot!

What is the reason for you to say that I’m drawn to MM or MI or anything at 1mv or higher (even if I like the usability and sound of MM) ??? I have all types of cartridges (phono stages, suts, headamps), many tonearms and turntables to compare them all in my system. I’ve been doing it weekly since 2011 (I even uploaded 100 images in my virtual system for the first time after my 11 years of membership on a’gon). Of course you will not find $10k cartridges, $15k tonearms and $30k turntables in my system. 

In fact I bought my €5000 Reed 3p 12 inch (earlier version with fixed shell) a long time ago, before I discovered FR-66fx or EPA-100 mk2 and related vintage Japanese tonearms with removable headshells. I have MORE FUN using all those Japanese classics than modern Reed 3p.

Put FR-64s or FR-66fx (you don’t have this one) agaist any modern tonearm like Reed, TriPlanar … whatever and you will head that DIN and removable headshell have ZERO EFFECT on the quality of FR top of the line tonearms (if you have a good cartridge).

I’m sick when people repeat high-end propaganda. It’s not as simple as some people would like to represent it.

No point in our getting into a private back and forth here, but please do not take what I wrote as a criticism or an insult.  Most of all, I would not insult your cartridge collection.  I hope you would admit that you are a champion of MM and MI cartridges, by and large.  That leads me to think you listen to them most often, compared to time spent with LOMC cartridges, regardless of how many you may own.  I was just trying to understand why you feel so categorically that DIN connectors, headshell connectors, etc, etc, do not make any difference to SQ.  In my own experience, those connectors in the phono signal chain do have little effect with high output cartridges, but not so with LOMCs.  So I was projecting my own experience to yours. 


I do own an FR64S with B60, by the way; I don't know why connectors would make more or less difference with an FR64fx vs an FR64S, but as you say, I don't own the latter.  I would also say that the match of tonearm to cartridge seems more important than the number of connections.  For example, my Koetsu Urushi sounds far better in my FR64S (using an Ortofon LH9000, 18gm headshell) than it did in my Triplanar, despite the fact that the Triplanar achieves direct connection from cartridge to phono inputs.  So my generalization (that physical connectors DO make a difference with LOMCs) does not hold up 100% even in my experience.  That's another reason why I was wondering about your level of certainty.