Do you know the compliance? 4g cart in a 12g arm?
I would rather not get a red ed. I have listened to a few needle drops on youtube for comparison and I'm not sure what I should be looking at. I like detail but it is not a high priority of mine.
I have looked at some popular ortofons, ATs, shure, and even a couple of higher end carts. Something in the mids of the 2M bronze sounds ****ed up to me, but the 2M black sounds dull and closed in compared to the bronze. I certainly prefer the OC9 to the 440MLa. The nagaoka's I heard sounded pretty good, though they were bass heavy. I'm unsure whether that was the set up/vinyl or the cart/stylus itself.
That's the other thing, it doesn't matter how many samples I listen to, it doesn't tell me what it will sound like with my set up.
I don't really have a price limit but I'd like to keep it <100 including postage if I could. I was going to buy a stylus and put it in my stock cartridge.
Please go trough the Audiokarma link I posted - compliance is listed "somewhere". Here you go:
M412STR
Color of body, Gray
Stylus case, Red (N412STR)
Frequency response, 20 - 35 KHz
Channel separation, 30 dB at 1KHz and 27dB at 10KHz
Output Voltage (min), 3.5mV at 1KHz (5cm/sec)
Channel Balance, withinb 1dB at 1KHz
DC resistance, 710 ohm
Load resistance, 47 Kohm
Stylus, STR
Compliance, 24 X 10-⁶ cm/dyne
Tracking force, 1.3 - 2.1 g
Weight, 4.0 g
Overall Dimensions 29 X 18 X 16 mm
Mounting, 12.7 mm (1/2")
STR stylus means Shibata Tri Radial - you need to stretch to Ortofon
Bronze Black in current production to get comparable stylus. At more than 10 times the price.
However, I have LONG ago stopped to rely on any published compliance figures - either from the MFR or from the reviews. At best, it is a RANGE - and your sample may well fall outside that range even. One thing is for sure - if the resonant frequency ends up beig too high, you can always add mass ( brass screws, heavier headshell, lead "shims", etc) ; if it is the other way around, the resonant frequency being too low, that means getting a (very) low mass arm - $$$. Test record will tell you how your combo behaves in practice - it should fall in the range between 8 and 12 HZ for optimum results. My personal favourite is around 8 Hz, if and when the Q of the resonance is not too high (resonance not too sharp) - otherwise there is no way but getting it somewhat higher in frequency ( lighter screws, headshell, removal of all "dingleberries" ( stylus guards, brushes etc )) ; if all that fails, lighter arm is required.
Of course, first punch the nominal data in the resonance frequency calculator - like http://www.resfreq.com/resonancecalculator.html - to eliminate those combinations that are way outside desired 8-12 Hz range. If I put the (4 + 12 +1)g and 24 compliance in, the result is 7.879 Hz - indicating the 12g tonearm is at the high range for mass with this cartridge - but still OK. Definitely the cart is not too light - except if your tonearm can not balance 4 g cart and still allow for enough VTF.
As the "rubber" in the suspension ages, it usually becomes a bit harder - less compliant. In your case, this is good. The vendor in question sold MANY Acoutex carts - and not a single complaint on any forum regarding suspension being shot.
With MM cartridges, there is almost zero chances you can trust a needledrop - because the electrical load can vary all over the place and you are unlikely to be capable of duplicating it - exactly - in your system.
Things are a bit easier with moving coil cartridges - these, due to their far lesser vulnerability to load, sound much more"the same" regardless of the electrical load. You still get differences due to the table, arm, preamp and recorder used for the needledrop - but these are much less pronounced than electrical load for the MMs.
Do you have the ability to play moving coil cartridges - can your phono preamp handle MCs ?
I was dropping manual for a while before I found out how to fix the needle missing on auto. Just for some reason I went to do a manual drop and may have put too much pressure when it was resisting and when it got to the point when it wasn't, it just flew from my hand. My JVC doesn't have this resistance, the motor just starts up when the arm gets to a certain spot. Maybe because the JVC is more modern?
