montesquieu
02-10-2015, 19:35
I don't have a telly ... which means I listen to music every night as my principal means of relaxing.
The down-side of this is wear and tear on cartridges. My old Io needed a full rebuild at Audio Note after just two and a half years - ouch.
When I bought the Miyajima I was therefore looking for something to reduce wear and tear, that I could bang in there for non-critical listening and save a bit of tip wear - if I could get 5 years from the Shilabe rather than two and a half, it would be nice I thought.
The thing is, what to put in there that gives a reasonable sound, but requires minimal re-jigging when swapping headshells (I've already got the other two Miyajimas, the Zero mono and Premium 78, set up to be hot-swappable with no other adjustment). Needs to be able to track at a fair weight (over 2g as the Shilable is 3g - a small amount can be adjusted on the arm, the FR64S is dynamic VTF).
I tried a few things but the first to make an impact was a Denon 103. For a very modest sum, I nabbbed a re-cantilevered/Shibata tipped DL-103 from a chap in Japan who seems to specialist in re-tipping/re-cantilevering them.
I'm on record as very much NOT being a fan of re-tipped 103s after several bad experiences here in the UK.. but I must say, for the money, was well impressed (nice match on the Hashimoto HM7s as well). He has been selling assorted others with different tips and cantilever materials (I assume from his own experitmentations).
Since June I have been using his 103 in a heavy shell with an additional 8g stabiliser weight bonded to it .. headshell and cartridge weight is an SPU-ish 31g, add the 30g effective mass of the FR64 arm and you have a really nice low compliance match. (In my experience most people who diss these cartridges are attempting to use them in a too-lightweight arm, and often at the wrong impedance setting as well.) It does, of course, fall quite a bit short of the Miyajima Shilabe (UK retail £2450), but all in all it felt like a real bargain - I preffered it to the vintage SPU GE I had in recently. Nice blend of oomph and detail, not the last word in anything but nothing to get annoyed about either and not embarrased by the Shilabe which cost me (even with the Hong Kong discount) about 10-15 times the price.
I was back on the chap's ebay pages recently and got chatting to him about another cartridge ... moving magnet Denon DL-109D, which he had for sale for more money than another Shibata-tipped 103 he had for sale. On investigating it, it seemed it sold new back in the 80s for double the price of the 103. This guy rated it as better than any of the vintage Denon 103s (which he knows pretty well).
So I had to give it a go. It arrived today. And I must say it's very impressive. It's a really ballsy cartridge, brining out a muscular side to some Mozart piano trios I have on at the minute (Phillips/Beaux Arts recording), and I swear before that I heard new detail in a John Martyn recording I've owned since high school. Seems to have all that big sound of the 103 (or even) SPU, withouth missing out on detail.
Soundstage and overall refinement is ahead of the Shibata-tipped 103, but some way short of the Shilabe (as you'd expect ... it's not a miracle - in particular it's a shade narrower). But it's lovely and musical, certainly a good bit ahead of the 103. Balance top to bottom is great, with plenty of sparkle but no shrillness, and the oomph goes all the way down to the low frequencies.
It's probably the most low-compliance MM cartridge I've ever come across and seems extremely happy in a 20g FR headshell on the FR64 (though I did have to wind back the VTF a bit on the arm). Not many MM cartridges can do that! Worth picking one up if you can (though whether a stock one would sound as good, I don't know ... and I doubt there are many original tip assemblies left for them either).
Chap is very accommodating on shipping options/customs etc and speaks better English than your average Japan-based seller. I would certainly recommend him. (Though he hasn't that much for sale at the moment).
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/sahkha/m.html?item=291457538124&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562&clk_rvr_id=905289165290&afsrc=1&rmvSB=true
http://i1181.photobucket.com/albums/x440/montesquieu61/IMG_0325_zpsnhxj0tsz.jpg
The down-side of this is wear and tear on cartridges. My old Io needed a full rebuild at Audio Note after just two and a half years - ouch.
When I bought the Miyajima I was therefore looking for something to reduce wear and tear, that I could bang in there for non-critical listening and save a bit of tip wear - if I could get 5 years from the Shilabe rather than two and a half, it would be nice I thought.
The thing is, what to put in there that gives a reasonable sound, but requires minimal re-jigging when swapping headshells (I've already got the other two Miyajimas, the Zero mono and Premium 78, set up to be hot-swappable with no other adjustment). Needs to be able to track at a fair weight (over 2g as the Shilable is 3g - a small amount can be adjusted on the arm, the FR64S is dynamic VTF).
I tried a few things but the first to make an impact was a Denon 103. For a very modest sum, I nabbbed a re-cantilevered/Shibata tipped DL-103 from a chap in Japan who seems to specialist in re-tipping/re-cantilevering them.
I'm on record as very much NOT being a fan of re-tipped 103s after several bad experiences here in the UK.. but I must say, for the money, was well impressed (nice match on the Hashimoto HM7s as well). He has been selling assorted others with different tips and cantilever materials (I assume from his own experitmentations).
Since June I have been using his 103 in a heavy shell with an additional 8g stabiliser weight bonded to it .. headshell and cartridge weight is an SPU-ish 31g, add the 30g effective mass of the FR64 arm and you have a really nice low compliance match. (In my experience most people who diss these cartridges are attempting to use them in a too-lightweight arm, and often at the wrong impedance setting as well.) It does, of course, fall quite a bit short of the Miyajima Shilabe (UK retail £2450), but all in all it felt like a real bargain - I preffered it to the vintage SPU GE I had in recently. Nice blend of oomph and detail, not the last word in anything but nothing to get annoyed about either and not embarrased by the Shilabe which cost me (even with the Hong Kong discount) about 10-15 times the price.
I was back on the chap's ebay pages recently and got chatting to him about another cartridge ... moving magnet Denon DL-109D, which he had for sale for more money than another Shibata-tipped 103 he had for sale. On investigating it, it seemed it sold new back in the 80s for double the price of the 103. This guy rated it as better than any of the vintage Denon 103s (which he knows pretty well).
So I had to give it a go. It arrived today. And I must say it's very impressive. It's a really ballsy cartridge, brining out a muscular side to some Mozart piano trios I have on at the minute (Phillips/Beaux Arts recording), and I swear before that I heard new detail in a John Martyn recording I've owned since high school. Seems to have all that big sound of the 103 (or even) SPU, withouth missing out on detail.
Soundstage and overall refinement is ahead of the Shibata-tipped 103, but some way short of the Shilabe (as you'd expect ... it's not a miracle - in particular it's a shade narrower). But it's lovely and musical, certainly a good bit ahead of the 103. Balance top to bottom is great, with plenty of sparkle but no shrillness, and the oomph goes all the way down to the low frequencies.
It's probably the most low-compliance MM cartridge I've ever come across and seems extremely happy in a 20g FR headshell on the FR64 (though I did have to wind back the VTF a bit on the arm). Not many MM cartridges can do that! Worth picking one up if you can (though whether a stock one would sound as good, I don't know ... and I doubt there are many original tip assemblies left for them either).
Chap is very accommodating on shipping options/customs etc and speaks better English than your average Japan-based seller. I would certainly recommend him. (Though he hasn't that much for sale at the moment).
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/sahkha/m.html?item=291457538124&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562&clk_rvr_id=905289165290&afsrc=1&rmvSB=true
http://i1181.photobucket.com/albums/x440/montesquieu61/IMG_0325_zpsnhxj0tsz.jpg