Astatic MF-100

[worrasf]

Just had to pen a few words about this gem. Just bought from AudioGon auction for $300 USD. It is the most stunning cartridge I have heard or owned.
My initial thoughts at http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1252605722&openmine&zzWorrasf&4&5#Worrasf

Info is scarce but a few nuggets at http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1200430667&openflup&1415&4 and http://www.vinylengine.com/cartridge_database.php?m=Astatic&t=any&sort=1&ascdesc=DESC&Search=Search&mod=MF-100

Anyone else have experience ? I believe the Glanz 5 is similar.

Steve

[Marco]

Hi Steve,

I've never heard of the Astatic MF-100. Where is it available from? :)

Marco.

[worrasf]

Hi Marco - No longer available in current production but occasionally come up as NOS on auctions usually in US. Some background info to be found at: http://www.vinylengine.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=30219&sid=d6aab3198957b0babd5405c962208bf8

I can not overemphasise just how good this is. Well worth trawling AudioGon auctions every now and again.

Regards
Steve

[Marco]

Ah I see... I thought it was a currently available item. Is it MM or MC - and could you take some pics? :)

Marco.

[worrasf]

Hi Marco - it's MM - works stunningly with my Croft 25R preamp (has Telefunken ECC801S in phono stage) :)

Images attached.

Regards
Steve

[Marco]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for that - very interesting! I may well keep an eye out for one and add it to my cartridge collection :)

Looks like you've got it strapped to a Rega arm - what's the rest of your system?

I'm not surprised your Croft likes the Astatic! It's rather difficult to beat the phono stage in the 25R, isn't it?

Quite frankly, the phono stage alone is worth the asking price of the whole preamp - and even at that it'd still be a bargain!! ;)

Marco.

[worrasf]

Hi Marco - it's an Origin Live Silver II arm in an OL Aurora II deck with OL liner flow arm cable. Totally agree with you regarding the Croft - stunning piece of kit a ridiculously low price.

Rest is:
Croft 25R/Croft Series 4s (GE, Telefunken, RCA NOS valves)
Cyrus CD XT se/Cyrus PSxR
Benchmark DAC1 (for the Cyrus output)
Beresford Caiman DAC (for DVD & MP3 output)
Wadia i170 iPod dock
Epos M22i + Townshend supertweeters
Merlin Verdi interconnects
Chord Carnival Silver speaker cable

Second system is:
Quad 33/303 (with full Net-Audio upgrades to both)
Quad FM3
Quad 67
Quad 21L's

Regards
Steve

[DSJR]

It's a bloody GLANZ I tell ya!!!!!!!

Glanz cartridges were very good at the time and the cheaper ones punched well above their weight I thought, although they sometimes had iffy reviews and weren't totally reliable from memory.. I suspect a modern sounding equivalent would be an AT440MLa or Nagaoka - light and fresh in balance.

[worrasf]

Hi - Certainly from reading the posts in Audiogon it seems that Glanz and Astatic were the same bodies with same patent/designer - but as I had never heard either all new to me. Regarding modern comparisons, I swapped out my AT 150 MLX for the Astatic and they are very different. I was (still am) mightily impressed with the AT 150 MLX - the Astatic is less forward but more revealing, bass is better controlled and more defined. The other biggest difference in the phrasing and emotion in voices. The whole presentation is more musical and enjoyable. Tracking is as good as my musicmaker III - seems best at 1.25 - 1.3g. The only downside is that the suspension is very (?overly) compliant - the Shibata stylus sits deep and the cartridge will ground on the record with anything over a slight warp. I am sticking firmly to MM designs as the phono stage in my Croft 25R is so darn good. If the "grounding" gets to much of a pain then I'll scout around for something else but having heard what this can do I'm not sure what would do the trick. Have heard good things about the Glanz 5 and 7.

Steve

[DSJR]

Forget the Grado clones - they're dull, dull, dull..............

[worrasf]

Now had the Astatic all of 3 days and starting to get the measure of the thing. Not only is it tracking force critical but also VTA (SRA) call it what you will is critical. I initially set up as per tonearm instructions of arm parallel to record and as per previous posts was very pleased;) with sound "out of the box". I have a Pete Riggle VTAF (http://www.vtaf.com/) on my OL silver so VTA adjustment is very easy. I ended up raising the arm 12 turns on the VTAF (just over 1/4 inch) and hitting the "sweet spot" - added bonus the tendency to "bottom out" on warps seems to have gone. I am aware that one can spend a life time messing with VTA and it will be different for every record - I have no intention of setting it for every record I play - I'll leave the current setting alone now as a good compromise - interesting though;)

Steve