Phono Cartridges - Your favorites and least favorites?

I think the OC9XML/1200/KAB combo might be.....not for me. Gonna swap it out for something else for a while, maybe try a different headshell, but feeling like after two separate ownerships and about 200 total hours of playtime I can safely move on to something different. The XEN is still way more appealing to me than the XML, maybe it's just less fickle?
 
ngower said:
I think the OC9XML/1200/KAB combo might be.....not for me. Gonna swap it out for something else for a while, maybe try a different headshell, but feeling like after two separate ownerships and about 200 total hours of playtime I can safely move on to something different. The XEN is still way more appealing to me than the XML, maybe it's just less fickle?
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I found that the KAB damper did not flatter all of my cartridges equally. It may be worth trying the same cartridge without the damper installed.
 
Angsty said:
I found that the KAB damper did not flatter all of my cartridges equally. It may be worth trying the same cartridge without the damper installed.
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I had the cart for about 100 hours before without the damper. I just think it's not a great match for the table and that folks who like it might just be chasing a different sound than I'm after.
 
Bought an LP Gear Zupreme (finally) as a test to see if it might just be the headshell. It’s level but right on the edge so if I can dial it in a little more maybe that’ll change things?
 
ngower said:
No clue what this means.
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I had a VPI Aries with the JMW 10.6 arm for about twenty years. The arm had on the fly VTA adjustment and azimuth adjustment by rotating the counterweight. It gave me audiophile angst the entire time due to thinking I had to adjust VTA for every record as it definitely made a difference in sound and I changed the azimuth at least once a month going for "better" sound. Then I bought the Rega P10 several years ago and haven't had to even think of those adjustments and I'm all the happier for it - no more angst with the set it and forget arm and it sounds so much better than the VPI setup ever did.
 
OMC said:
I had a VPI Aries with the JMW 10.6 arm for about twenty years. The arm had on the fly VTA adjustment and azimuth adjustment by rotating the counterweight. It gave me audiophile angst the entire time due to thinking I had to adjust VTA for every record as it definitely made a difference in sound and I changed the azimuth at least once a month going for "better" sound. Then I bought the Rega P10 several years ago and haven't had to even think of those adjustments and I'm all the happier for it - no more angst with the set it and forget arm and it sounds so much better than the VPI setup ever did.
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I don't worry about it that much but the Technics headshells are not the best in terms of QC. The one that my XML has is still level but if I could get it a degree or two more to the right I think it could help things out. If I really wanna go that route I can just swap with one of the other headshells I know can get that far, I'm just lazy.
 
OMC said:
I had a VPI Aries with the JMW 10.6 arm for about twenty years. The arm had on the fly VTA adjustment and azimuth adjustment by rotating the counterweight. It gave me audiophile angst the entire time due to thinking I had to adjust VTA for every record as it definitely made a difference in sound and I changed the azimuth at least once a month going for "better" sound. Then I bought the Rega P10 several years ago and haven't had to even think of those adjustments and I'm all the happier for it - no more angst with the set it and forget arm and it sounds so much better than the VPI setup ever did.
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Rega’s are a blessing and a curse for just those reasons. On the other hand, trying to correctly adjust azimuth on my VPI, or adjust VTF without messing with azimuth, was such a pain-in-the-ass I’ve sworn off unipivots and sold that whole table.
 
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Did end up swapping the headshell my Bronze was on and was able to set things more securely. Still probably need to fine tune square in the headshell but seems to have improved a little.

I’ll probably just warranty claim the headshell so I can have three A+ headshells instead of one red headed stepchild
 
OMC said:
I had a VPI Aries with the JMW 10.6 arm for about twenty years. The arm had on the fly VTA adjustment and azimuth adjustment by rotating the counterweight. It gave me audiophile angst the entire time due to thinking I had to adjust VTA for every record as it definitely made a difference in sound and I changed the azimuth at least once a month going for "better" sound. Then I bought the Rega P10 several years ago and haven't had to even think of those adjustments and I'm all the happier for it - no more angst with the set it and forget arm and it sounds so much better than the VPI setup ever did.
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The beauty of the Technics is the multiple micro dial adjustments.
It's so easy to dial in the perfect VTA and anti-skate on the fly.
Of course VTF can be micro adjusted too with rebalancing your favorite cart.

I'm really shocked how the other TT mfgs are not copying this mousetrap.
It's damn near a perfect science.
 
Jbraswell said:
The beauty of the Technics is the multiple micro dial adjustments.
It's so easy to dial in the perfect VTA and anti-skate on the fly.
Of course VTF can be micro adjusted too with rebalancing your favorite cart.

I'm really shocked how the other TT mfgs are not copying this mousetrap.
It's damn near a perfect science.
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How do you adjust antiskate?
 
Jbraswell said:
The beauty of the Technics is the multiple micro dial adjustments.
It's so easy to dial in the perfect VTA and anti-skate on the fly.
Of course VTF can be micro adjusted too with rebalancing your favorite cart.

I'm really shocked how the other TT mfgs are not copying this mousetrap.
It's damn near a perfect science.
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It’s hard to replicate cost effectively without high volume sales. Hanpin does it for DJ models.
 
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