New Old boy

[DSJR]

Grado? Well really only the body i think. It works quite well in the Mentor arm but alas i really need a better phono stage to do it justice.Jim

I'm trying to be polite to a newbie... but ANY cartridge will sound better with a better phono stage in my experience. The Mentor needs a better cartridge (a Grado's a Grado, no matter what diamond EsCo fit for a third party) and, since this turntable and arm was conceived to work properly with a Decca, and bearing in mind even the current London's are still tetchy and failure prone (such a shame, but it goes with the territory!), I'd suggest something like a Rega Apheta, a lively sonic to be sure, but it has substance to the sonics too and the exuberance is easily tamed if you find it a bit strong

[JimG]

Well a newbie here i may be but old in hifi terms i am. I take it you are not keen on Grado's then even one of Len Gregory's. I am quite happy with the MusicMaker and i take it you have listened to one and are not happy with it?
I do have other cartridges and have actually used a Lyra Helikon on the Mentor some years ago in my 'old' Zeta.
However it was not so much better than the Music Maker or worse only different. I could still do with a better phono stage though.
I was not aware the Mentor was designed for the Decca, but that was many years ago and the Mentor has changed somewhat since the original with mine likely being the last version. Thanks for your advice but i have never been keen on Rega products after i spoke to Roy Gandy in the seventies about my newly purchased Planar 3!
Jim

[DSJR]

Sorry for coming across all "DSJR..."

The only Grado's I can tolerate these days are the cheapest one ('cos it has more life to it) and one or two of the wooden cased models over the decades. The rest just sound dull and bland to my ears for reasons that may become obvious once you get to know my experience and tastes in music/noise reproduction. I've heard nothing to really separate the Musicmaker models out from the models its based on I'm afraid. Once you've been spoiled as I was with the Microscanner and some 15IPS master copies of a track or three I had on vinyl, I couldn't live with anything else on the Mentor (mine was an early one) and when the Decca tried to commit suicide, as they still seem to do eventually, I couldn't then afford anything good enough to bring the Mentor back to life (mine was from the days where both Tom and Glenn used Decca's themselves and it was Tom who supplied me with mine back in 1988 or so to go with the deck I'd just bought second hand from him).

Once the Mentor was sold in 1993/94 or thereabouts (the chap I sold it to still uses and rates it, albeit with different arms apparently), I sort of went all master-tapey with the ATC100A's and all but abandoned vinyl for far too long. Times is different now and my humble stereo sounds great with all sources except badly compressed FM stations

Roy Gandy may still "own" Rega, but he has little influence on day to day running of the company and the old-time sanctimonious smug attitude they once had (thanks to him?) seems largely absent these days. I still feel most fervently that most of their range can stand fair comparison with anything else out there that claims to be competition and although slightly "raw" for a top end cartridge, I still feel in my bones that an Apheta would sound fantastic on a Mentor - it does in the current Dias/AceSpace arm so I feel confident in my suggestion

Nuff/too much said already. Enjoy the forum

[JimG]

Hi Dave, well who's to say your are not right, i have not heard of the Apheta probably because i do not read mags anymore, so assume it is a relatively new cart. from Rega, i will investigate further. I have no problem with Rega at all at present and know they still make fine hifi. My experience goes way back to the late seventies. I actually forgot i did buy an RB300 in the mid eighties.
I did look at the Decca Gold when i was considering a new cart, and at that time it was about the same price as the Musicmaker. However after perusing quite a few reviews(i have at least seven or eight and not all are magazines) plumped for the M/maker. Also spoke to Len Gregory re the Mentor Musicmaker match. I understood he also uses or did use a Mentor at one time.
Unfortunately my modest listening room is full of armchairs which are full of cats and other things as my living room has been completely re-furbished including a complete re-plaster. So not a lot of listening done at present.
Regards Jim