Thinking about switching cartridges.


I have a 2 year old Rega P-10. I'm thinking about switching out the Aphelion 2 for a Hana Red. Is this a waste of money? Your thoughts. Thanks in advance. 

marshinski15

There is a LOT more to it than stylus shape. A careful look at alignment and adhesive ( if applicable ) might be just as illustrative of quality… then there is suspension, tie back, coil former geometry, quality of the wire…. blah, blah…

Have you heard a Red at any length Mijo or is this an artifact of your negative polarity Hana bias ?

to the OP w no other data on your system configuration, i expect IF you dont have HRS equal or better ( Minus K ) isolation…. a better cartridge will be mired in the mechanical noise floor…

Just my $1.49…. should have been $3 but i have an occlusion…..

@tomic 

In relation to Styli type  or form being solely influential on the produced sound. My own experiences have discovered the Styli does create change, but not enough to be considered as the the part that voices the Cartridge.

It is the materials selected to produce the Cart’ and the overall assembly method selected that is the voice of the Cart.

Many Cart’s come as a range of models, of which a range can all be closely related in materials selected, but a different Damper, Cantilever or Body Metal or Magnet, creates a change to the voicing that is quite detectable.

I assume tie wire tensioning or wire type, will also be a influence as well.

My comparisons of Styli Types alone, where differing types are used on very similar Cart Designs, where the Cart' is mounted on same Head Shell Material and used on the same TT and System, undoubtedly suggest detail retrieval and surface noise are where these Styli offer the least/most influence.

Dear @mijostyn  : With all respect but you are " wrong " on that stylus issue and you have to " learn " a little about and other thing that you need to " learn " is who in hell is Excel the manufacturer of Hana, Etsuro and some other top today and past cartridges. I even own an Excel top of the line under its nomination: Excel and I have many first haND EXPERIENCES WITH CARTRIDGES MADE BY eXCEL. the model I still own in mint condition is realluy a jewel starting with the cartridge top plate that's builded of pure ruby around 0.5cm. 

Regarding cartridge tracking abilities I think that you remember the " hot " discussion in the Dava cartridge thread where @mlavigne Etsuro Gold cartridge he owns ( I think he owns 2 units. ) whe your severe critic to that Excel cartridge was that the tracking is 70u and you said that you never buy that cartridge or any other with inferior tracking to 80u but you need to know that 60u is more than enough to track really fine almost any high velocity LP tracks but the Telarc 1812. Btw, the lavigne Etsuro Gold sample is not the stock one but he posted somewhere a " special " one but he never said in this forum  why is " special.

@tomic601  is rigth: " There is a LOT more to it than stylus shape. ". Mijos your memory is a little " short " about the stylus differences because like 3-4 months ago I posted/shared in other thread 6 of my vintage cartridges that were with Joseph Long retipper. All of those cartridges he only changed the stylus ( cantilever NO. ) and in all cases the stylus came/comes by Ogura.

Well, when you seen one of those cartridges stylus under microscopic photo that Joseph sended inmediatly you shared the stylus of your ( in tghose times ) be loved MSL top today cartridge where you posted that in both cartridges the stylus with both samples under microscope looks way similar and I paid way lower than 300.00 against your over 7K MSL stylus: go figure what you are posting in this thread about the stylus importance.

Yes, my vote for the OP still goes to the Umami Red in that " great " RP10. @bpolleti I thimnk that you need to read the Stereophile review of it where the reviewer compared it very favorable against the SAT direct drive one that set you back over 100K  ! ! 

R.