Phono Cartridge Reviews

Larry Archibald once told me that I managed to find myself on the horns of every hi-dilemma there is: CD or LP?

I flip over the convenience of CD and the fact I don't have to flip over the disc. But I find, still, that LPs, at their best, sound superior. The problem, of course, is that most LPs and CDs, for that matter, do not represent the particular medium at its best. Better a well-recorded CD than a mediocre LP.

Every time I make an improvement in my CD playback system—the Musical Fidelity Digilog, for instance—I manage to make an even bigger improvement in my analog front end—for example, substituting the SME 309 arm for the Rega RB300 arm on my AR ES-1 turntable.

I go down to Definitive Hi-Fi, in Mamaroneck, New York, and hang out with Lars, Lou, Steve, Tony, Jeff and the rest of the Thursday night 'philes. We have the Mike Moffat-designed Theta processor to listen to, as well as the new Krell Digital. Then proprietor Rudi Kothe puts a record on the Versa 2.0 turntable and it's all over—analog is still king, and everyone agrees, including digital-loving Lars: "The best sound I ever heard in my life," said Lars, the other night, after WQXR disc jockey—excuse me, radio personality—Steve Sullivan had finished tweaking the VTA of the van den Hul Grasshopper on the Versa 2.0.

I wonder how a Shure V15 Type V-MR might sound in the Versa 2.0. I don't think I shall get the chance to find out. I also wonder how substituting tube amps for the Krell Reference Monos on the Wilson WAMM would affect the sound of the system. The Krells sound cold. Maybe the Krells are too good: too much detail. Or maybe they're just cold. Was it my friend Mario who said that an amplifier reflects its designer's personality—warm or cold, depending on whether the person was? Yes, it was Mario, whom you'll meet again in a moment.

Before I forget, I want to tell you that the Musical/British Fidelity Digilog, reviewed last month, is sounding even better after a longer burn-in. The soundstaging has improved—deep, wide, spacious, lots of "there" there. And that sibilant smear I complained about last month—well, that's diminished.

I still think the Theta and the Krell processors do better, but at $995, the Digilog is an outstanding buy. Of course, you could wait to see how those new players and processors with single-bit conversion perform. But I wouldn't rush to buy one of the first Bitstream units. It's new technology—may take time to get it right. The good thing about Bitstream may be that it allows inexpensive Japanese CD players to sound okay—less chance, perhaps, of a player's DACs being misaligned. If you're interested in the Digilog and you like the way it sounds, go for it. Remember, though, that its improvements might be subtle and noticeable more over time—like several weeks—than they are over a few minutes in a quick A/B dealer demo.

There are other dilemmas, too. Sure enough, Larry's right. I am caught on the horns of all of them. Moving-magnet vs moving-coil cartridges. You thought that one was settled, right—like direct-drive turntables vs belt-drive. Well, the other day, I tried the Shure Ultra 500—now discontinued and a bargain if you can find one cheap, like under $200—on my new SME 309 arm. The result? Magnificent. Maybe I lucked out and got the VTA just right without any fooling around. I hear a smoothness I do not get with moving-coils. On the other hand, the moving-coils may retrieve a little more detail. But, as JGH has asked, what do you want: detail or music? If you want music, you might opt for a Shure.

Shure gets a bum rap from everyone. Audiophiles are down on them because they're so cheap—the V15 Type V-MR selling at a typical street price of $129. Not that most of these 'philes have actually heard the V. And if they have, it's probably in a grotty arm on a budget table in a Cheapskate system. Put the V in a Rega RB300, or better yet in an SME 309, and you may be amazed at what it can do. Cheap arms can make the Shures sound hashy, harsh in the treble. It's not the cartridge; it's the arm.

High-end dealers are down on them because they would be lucky to make $10 margin selling a V15 Type V-MR; you can buy it almost as cheaply as they can! That makes it a terrific recommendation in my book. If they carry the V at all, which is doubtful, they are not eager to demo it against, say a $1200 moving-coil, on which they might make up to $600 margin.

Here's another reason to go for a Shure: record wear. There isn't any with a properly maintained Shure. I've been using mostly Shures since 1958 and I have, in all that time, never worn out a record. True, I have so many records that I'm not likely to wear out an LP with any cartridge, but my library wasn't always so large.

Last summer, I visited our esteemed editor John Atkinson in Santa Fe. He played some records on his Linn. They were all worn—every one. Not from neglect, but from cartridge gouging: low-compliance moving-coils that just scraped their way through the vinyl. Now tell me: what's worse? Losing a little detail by using a Shure, but saving your records? Or extracting a little more detail with a low-compliance moving-coil but rendering your records so worn that you soon won't want to listen to them with any cartridge? With most of your LPs now irreplaceable, give this one some thought. I have, and I'm sticking with Shure.

In the September '89 issue a reader wrote and asked if I really meant it that a typical moving-coil, in a typical audiophile's system, might last six months or so. I did mean it. That's how long most of my tweak friends seem to keep a particular moving-coil before replacing it with another. Some 'philes spend $2000 a year, year in and year out, on moving-coils. This is insane.

Buy a Shure V15 Type V-MR and you can rejuvenate it instantly with a $79 replacement stylus (typical street selling price, again). Incidentally, the replacement stylus for the Type V-MR will fit in the Ultra 500 cartridge body and work perfectly, so far as I can tell. What's more, because a Shure tracks so lightly and so well, the stylus is usually good for at least 1000 hours vs maybe half that time for a low-compliance, poor-tracking moving-coil. At $79 for a replacement stylus, that's 8 cents an hour to run your cartridge. If you buy a $1200 moving-coil and use it for, let's say, 500 hours, that's $2.40 an hour. It costs you 30 times as much!—Sam Tellig