Ammonite Audio
10-01-2016, 08:50
A recent conversation with Floyddroid made me realise that my Benz Wood SL cartridge may as well go to a new home, since it has been largely unused for the last 3 years. It's in its original wooden box, complete with spirit level, frequency response trace, tools, fixings and stylus brush. I bought this from ESCo around 4 years ago after ripping the cantilever off a Benz Glider SL. Please note that Benz cartridges do not come with any form of stylus guard :(
Load the Wood SL correctly (eg preferably with more than 250 ohms) and it's one of the finest cartridges around, being delicate, detailed and lyrical sounding. Feed it into a standard MC input with 100 ohms loading and you won't hear it at its best. That pretty much explains why I have not used it for 3 years are so, since my phono amp and SUT combination is just not right for the Benz, but suits the Kontrapunkt B very well. Given a phono amp with adjustable loading, I would probably take the Benz over the Ortofon, but I don't 'need' another phono amp or SUT.
These are knocking on £1000 new. This one, which is my personal property, is in exceptionally good condition and I would like £450 for it, including insured postage within the UK (extra for international).
Specifications:
Physical
Body: Vented machined Bruyere wood
Cantilever: Solid boron rod 0.28mm diameter
Stylus: Nude line-contact diamond, mirror polished
Stylus Tip Radius: 3 x 60um
Vertical Tracking Angle (VTA): 20 degrees
Weight: 9g
Electrical
Outout Voltage: 0.4mV at 3.54cm/s
Internal immpedance: 12 ohms
Frequency Response: 20-20,000 Hz +/- 1dB
Channel Balance: better than 0.5dB
Channel Separation: Better than 35dB at 1kHz
Dynamic
Tracking ability at 315Hz at tracking force of 2g: 80um
Dynamic Compliance: 15um/mN
Setup Instructions
Recommended Loading: 100-47,000 ohms
Recommended Tracking Force: 1.7g - 2.0g
Optimum Tracking Force: 1.7g - 1.8g
Recommended Tonearm Mass: Medium - High
Optimum Working Temperature: 23C
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s301/hugocass/IMGP1688_zpsqmkqn1ja.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s301/hugocass/IMGP1690_zpsmrxekn20.jpg
Load the Wood SL correctly (eg preferably with more than 250 ohms) and it's one of the finest cartridges around, being delicate, detailed and lyrical sounding. Feed it into a standard MC input with 100 ohms loading and you won't hear it at its best. That pretty much explains why I have not used it for 3 years are so, since my phono amp and SUT combination is just not right for the Benz, but suits the Kontrapunkt B very well. Given a phono amp with adjustable loading, I would probably take the Benz over the Ortofon, but I don't 'need' another phono amp or SUT.
These are knocking on £1000 new. This one, which is my personal property, is in exceptionally good condition and I would like £450 for it, including insured postage within the UK (extra for international).
Specifications:
Physical
Body: Vented machined Bruyere wood
Cantilever: Solid boron rod 0.28mm diameter
Stylus: Nude line-contact diamond, mirror polished
Stylus Tip Radius: 3 x 60um
Vertical Tracking Angle (VTA): 20 degrees
Weight: 9g
Electrical
Outout Voltage: 0.4mV at 3.54cm/s
Internal immpedance: 12 ohms
Frequency Response: 20-20,000 Hz +/- 1dB
Channel Balance: better than 0.5dB
Channel Separation: Better than 35dB at 1kHz
Dynamic
Tracking ability at 315Hz at tracking force of 2g: 80um
Dynamic Compliance: 15um/mN
Setup Instructions
Recommended Loading: 100-47,000 ohms
Recommended Tracking Force: 1.7g - 2.0g
Optimum Tracking Force: 1.7g - 1.8g
Recommended Tonearm Mass: Medium - High
Optimum Working Temperature: 23C
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s301/hugocass/IMGP1688_zpsqmkqn1ja.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s301/hugocass/IMGP1690_zpsmrxekn20.jpg