HiFi help appreciated

Rocker

Axe_meister said:

TheMarlin said:

Depends on your budget and the cartridge. Some are pretty bullet proof   If it’s a fixed stylus, such as on a Lyra, then certainly be wary. A rebuild will cost big money. 
Be careful of cartridges popular with DJ’s, they will have had a hard life.  
At the budget end, there are some good sounding cartridges to be had new cheap, such as the Audio Technica AT95e which can be had new for £35 on Amazon. I put one on my nephews turntable when it arrived with a damaged stylus. Sounded great.  Not quite as detailed at some of the corkage I normally sniff, but highly listenable.  A very enjoyable listen. 

I have one of these on my LP12. Really good for the price. Alas my old Shure MC with fixed stylus broke. £300 rebuild cost.

The turntable has more effect on the sound than either the arm or the cartridge. A good TT, like the LP12, allows a cheap cartridge to sound it’s best. Even better than it ‘should’ sound. The next major sound improvement is to be got from using a good phono stage. A cheap phono stage will work but a good one lets the quality of the rest of your kit shine through. Ten seconds listening or a single piano chord is all it takes for you to note the improvement. Your problem is then going to be one of time - you will want to play ‘just one more song’ and it is getting late...

Gagaryn

robgilmo said:

I had an AT95E for a while, I found it very underwhelming, I dont know why people rave on about them, its a cheap cartridge and it sounds like one. Spend another 20 quid or more and you will get something much much better.

When buying from companies like AT and Ortofon where they share bodies across a range it's not a bad idea to check how much it costs to get into the higher range body line.

I considered getting a VM540ML - top of that standard body range with a Micro stylus. But another £40 got me the VM740ML, the same Microline stylus on the high end body which is shared with >£600 styluses (stylii?).

That said, the stylus is the expensive bit but I think there is logic there.

viz

Gagaryn said:

robgilmo said:

I had an AT95E for a while, I found it very underwhelming, I dont know why people rave on about them, its a cheap cartridge and it sounds like one. Spend another 20 quid or more and you will get something much much better.

When buying from companies like AT and Ortofon where they share bodies across a range it's not a bad idea to check how much it costs to get into the higher range body line.

I considered getting a VM540ML - top of that standard body range with a Micro stylus. But another £40 got me the VM740ML, the same Microline stylus on the high end body which is shared with >£600 styluses (stylii?).

That said, the stylus is the expensive bit but I think there is logic there.

Oddly when you get up to the £1k+ cartridges the stylus is the cheapest bit! Some carts are £8k, but a retip is still “only” £230!

barry2tone

Phil_aka_Pip said:

"Active" speakers is just buying an amplifier and speaker all in one box. You get more choice by buying them in separate boxes.

Agreed.  But this looks interesting in the one-box line.  Includes phono stage.


https://www.facebook.com/evoaudio.uk/?__tn__=kC-R&eid=ARA5qsNX7t25XvmvZ19HwNAxLx1dUm3os0JhJaSq26GAtpPcfTCzJ7dWclFgdB7UWi4-fkxtWzdAnLbM&hc_ref=ARRoJ4SAtID2WENEpXRDmAC-cEHg9Z7eycuZmGjZUyQuf1sAtcNW8cyHUsVZOREjOB0&fref=nf


https://www.heco-audio.de/en/downloads/heco-direkt-800-bt


Home practise amp too?

strumjoughlamps

barry2tone said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

"Active" speakers is just buying an amplifier and speaker all in one box. You get more choice by buying them in separate boxes.

Agreed.  This looks interesting in that line.  Includes phono stage.


https://www.facebook.com/evoaudio.uk/?__tn__=kC-R&eid=ARA5qsNX7t25XvmvZ19HwNAxLx1dUm3os0JhJaSq26GAtpPcfTCzJ7dWclFgdB7UWi4-fkxtWzdAnLbM&hc_ref=ARRoJ4SAtID2WENEpXRDmAC-cEHg9Z7eycuZmGjZUyQuf1sAtcNW8cyHUsVZOREjOB0&fref=nf


https://www.heco-audio.de/en/downloads/heco-direkt-800-bt


Home practise amp too?

Blimey that’s one ugly mutha