Daily Blog - John E. Johnson, Jr. - July 14, 2008: SOMETIMES SMALL THINGS COME IN LARGE PACKAGES.
Coming home from a benchmark training trip a few evenings ago, I looked in my driveway and saw these packages stacked one on top of the other.
Believe it or not, these represent one turntable.
The McIntosh MT10 turntable that I have been using for our Vinyl vs. CD article series is reference quality, and in order to test other cartridges, I would have had to remove the one in the MT10. The McIntosh is not configured for exchanging cartridges easily, and I also wanted to be able to go back and forth between two cartridges in my listening tests. So, I decided to acquire a second reference quality turntable.
Searching all over the place on-line and reading a lot of reviews, I decided on VPI Industries, which makes a number of very high quality units. I chose the HRX. It’s there in all those boxes in the photo. Actually, it’s the same model in the photo on Page 3 (Turntables, Tonearms, and Cartridges) of the Vinyl vs. CD article series.
I also ordered a cartridge to compare with the one in the MT10. The new cartridge is an MC (moving coil) unit, but it has 2.5 mV output instead of the 0.75 mV output of the MC cartridge in the MT10.
Results will be forthcoming shortly.
July 14th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I am so glad to see another table and cart being used. as some one that has listen to vinyl since the early 50’s, I can’t believe you are even trying this. CD equipment can sound different but when it comes to vinyl; Cart, Arm, Table, Setup, IC’s, Phono pre, etc which effect so many things with out geting into the room it is tough, it make CD plug and play.
July 14th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
I might think of having a talk with the delivery company. It’s sort of like leaving a wallet with $12K in it sitting in front of your house. Based on my experience, you’re going to love it. What’s the cart?
July 15th, 2008 at 8:08 am
To start off with, I got a Sumiko Blackbird. The choices for MC cartridges that have high output (2.5 mv) are limited, but I have heard this is a very good one. Then, on to some higher end cartridges.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Question; what is the arm mass and the cartridge wieght and compliance on the stock McIntosh TT?