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Testing the Yamamoto HS-4 Carbon Fiber headshell.

Received the Yamamoto HS-4 Carbon Fiber headshell today and tried it on my 12" Jelco 850L. I guess this is a common upgrade path for many Jelco users so I succumbed to temptation.
Turntable is a modified Garrard 401 in a slate plinth on a maple and concrete support with new third party bearing, platter and idler.
I tested it with my Decca "Garrott Brothers Microscanner" Gold with new line contact stylus and Decapod.
Three records were played. Ketty Lester - Love Letters (1962), Cole/Davinport/Tate/Dickenson - French Festival Nice France 1974, Buddy Tate - The Great Buddy Tate (1981).
I played sample tracks from the records before swapping the standard magnesium Jelco headshell out. From the first needle drop using the Yamamoto, there was a soft grey veiling. Not a great start. There was definitely greater depth and improved bass - I could hear the kick drum pedal hitting the skin in a very specific location and acoustic bass was well delineated and easier to follow. Soundstage was more of a wall of sound with greater height. I remember the same effect using grey plate Sylvania Gold 5751s once which are acclaimed but not to my taste. Female vocals didn’t have the articulation and airy projection I normally experienced and it was that which forced me to stop going any further and I duly put the original shell back. The greyness was gone, replaced by a transparent black background and what I can only call a vast increase in precision and focus. I deliberately didn’t mention the mids and highs with the HS-4 simply because they were compromised and wholly unsatisfactory. With the Jelco, the tremendous detail returned: The color and metallic shimmer of cymbals, the beauty of vocal inflection, instruments speed and clarity. Piano hammers sounded fast and believable. But most importantly, dynamic range now soared with startling realism. That bass drum is not as clearly evident and it is the one area I’ll give to the Yamamoto. Make no mistake though, this carbon fiber headshell was an enormous fail for me. I can only assume the material imparted its soft plasticky sonic signature onto the music. Not recommended.

128x128noromance
nandric's avatar
nandric
4,086 posts
 
Dear noromance, Whom are you addressing? To put this
otherwise how many members in our forum you think have
ever heard about Schrodinger? You should join some scientific
forum instead of ''hobby forum'' like  A'gon. 
BTW all societies have their own ''social rules'' by which or in
the context of which ''values'' make sense. That is to say for
the members of the same society. Those rules have nothing in
common with your physics. 
noromance's avatar
noromance OP
9,436 posts
 

My older post from 2019. Interestingly, I have had the opportunity to test out a very well made 12" Well Tempered clone with a carbon fiber tube. (See Virtual Systems profile) And it has the same characteristics of slightly slower and duller sound. A grayish veiling, reduction of dynamics. (Note that the arm builder has improved this by changing a part). Is this "plastic" coloration endemic in carbon fiber?

lewm
12,480 posts
 

Noromance, I don't know why I did not bring it up earlier in this 2-year thread, but I completely agree with you on the "sound" of carbon fiber when it is used structurally in audio components, except for headshells.  I have not at all liked the Well Tempered tonearms, for the same reasons (and others) that you mention.  I heard the same dull, sluggish SQ from the Sonus Faber speakers that first came out with CF cabinetry.  Likewise, I do not much like the Black Diamond racing CF shelves or cones.  With the headshells, as I have said repeatedly, I think it has a lot to do with the compliance of the cartridge.  Low compliance cartridges put a lot more energy into the headshell than do high compliance ones.  Since two years ago, I now run my Koetsu Urushi in my FR64S tonearm/B60 base, using an Ortofon LH9000 headshell.  Formerly, I had the Urushi in my Kenwood L07J tonearm, which has much lighter effective mass, but also using the LH9000 headshell.  The Urushi is sounding better than I ever thought it could, in its current livery, which is to say better than in a CF headshell.  The LH9000 is a metal layered composite and weighs 18g by itself.  Anyway, for other than headshell construction, I hear what you hear with CF.

noromance's avatar
noromance OP
9,436 posts
 

Thanks @lewm . I can rest easier now!

tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,793 posts
 

not to muddy the waters but have you tried the Korf ceramic headshell ? i am going to add a ceramic spacer to my Delos installed on Triplaner on advice of J Carr. Mostly a mass add vs vibration control but.. i suspect it may have effects there also….

And of course, many of us are familiar with the cat…

God does not play dice with headshells…

i am a qubit powered robot

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