$800 Cartridge Shootout and Upgrade Path

Okay everyone,

This is where I'm at on the turntable decision. It looks like I will be going for the Teres 160 ($2,250) using the Shelter 501 cartridge. It's now a question of tonearms. Which should it be, the Hadcock 242SE Integra or the Moerch DP-6? I would love to go with the Hadcock because it's cheaper and real nice according to the 6 Moons review. But the Moerch is also very nice. Help! Also, is there anyone who thinks the Teres 160/Shelter 501 combination can be outdone by something else in that price range? Any further help would be appreciated! Thanks guys!

For your arm choice, just get the Schroeder Model 2, it will be a lot better than any of the other choices.

Between the Denon and the Shelter, its a matter of personal taste. For the Denon, a little more care is required with the arm setup and the phono gain as its a low compliance design. Frank Schroeder has a brass plate mount for the 103R and you'll be fine. For the Denon, you will need >60db of phono gain due to the low output.

I've not heard the Shelter, so let others comment.

Artar,

Just as TWL pointed out in his followup on his Music Maker review the cartridge is a bit picky about what tonearms it mates well with. I feel that the Hadcock tonearm is very similar in that regard. I initially purchased a Benz ACE H2 cart to go with mine, but after 8 months of never getting things to perfectly come together I decided I needed to just splurge and get the cart that is designed for use on the Hadcock tonearm - the Music Maker. It was a huge leap forward in sound. So I am saying I would be hesitant in recommending the Hadcock to anyone who isn't going to go with the Music Maker as well, as with just any other cart you may run into mismatch problems. For example you would be the first that I have heard of mating a Shelter to a Hadcock? Maybe? Hopefully???

Artar, if you intend to use the Shelter cartridges, I don't think that the Hadcock will be a suitable platform for them. The Shelter cartridges have shown themselves to be quite difficult for unstabilized unipivot tonearms. I concur that for the Hadcock arm, the Music Maker would be better suited.

For the Shelter cartridges(and Koetsu, Denon DL103R, and other MC with <10cu compliance)you truly "need" a quality gimbal bearing arm of at least 11.5g effective mass, or a very capable stabilized unipivot of similar mass or more.

The Morch DP-6 with it's "dual pivot" design, may be stable enough for it, but I never used that combination myself. I do know that you can get a suitable armwand for effective mass matching. I suspect it would be a much better match for the Shelters than the Hadcock.

If you want a Jewel-like tonearm, I may suggest a Triplanar.

Regarding your gain levels, the 80db gain you have in the system should be fine for the Shelters and other 0.4mv output level cartridges.

When you start bringing "looks" into the equation, and thinking that performance may not be affected, you are venturing into very dangerous territory.

Artar,
Thanks for the kind words. Just to keep things in perspective, TWL's dog knows more about analog than I do. I just try to help where I can.

Re: tonearms
As he said, if you're using a Denon 103x or Shelter, a Moerch DP-6 seems more viable than a Hadcock. I've heard Shelters on a unipivot that's better stabilized than a Hadcock. Compared with good dual-bearing arms the unipivot didn't cope as well. These cartridges feed a ton of energy back into an arm.

Given your uncertainty about cartridges, the DP-6's interchangeable armwands give it an attractive flexibility. There's a downside to that however. Breaks and connectors in the armwire degrade the sound of this very delicate signal. While I haven't heard a Moerch, all the best arms I have heard use a single run of wire from cartridge clips to phono stage. The arm TWL suggested has that, and pretty good wire too. Personally I wouldn't want an interrupted arm wire for higher end MC use. Speaking generally, the higher up the MC ladder you climb the lower the output levels get. This makes the armwire ever more critical.

Re: cartridges
I doubt you'd find a Helikon satisfying. No one has ever suggested it has warmish mids, or warmish anything. The opposite has been said too many times to count.

The ZYX R100 Fuji has a *list* price of $2K. You shouldn't pay that. The ZYX dealer right here on Audiogon sells it for $1500. For your sonic preferences and music types it's an easy winner vs. a Shelter 901 IMO.

A $1500-ish cartridge is in the future anyway, right? Keep your eyes on this forum. In a few weeks I expect to be offering the opportunity to demo my Shelter 901 in your own system at a very nominal cost. Once your rig is up and running you might want to give it a listen.

IMPORTANT: check out this review of the R100 Fuji's little brother, the R100H.

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue15/zyx.htm

List is $995 and our Audiogon dealer sells it for $800. The reviewer describes several cartridges you're interested in. His descriptions of cartridges I've heard tally with my impressions. He makes the R100H sound like a clone of my $3000 Airy2, with which it shares the best tracking and tracing stylus I've ever heard. If his review is even close to accurate, this cartridge should go to the top of your first shortlist.