Shure M3D - yet another truly great classic cartridge
Well, after winning this little baby on Ebay last week and having it shipped from the States:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...EOIBSA:US:1123
I finally got around to installing it this afternoon... And I have to say that I am UTTERLY, UTTERLY gob-smacked!! :eek:
I'll just put a few initial thoughts down as I'm still optimising the set-up and tweaking a few things, but even at the moment, it sounds simply stunning and is arguably the best cartridge I have ever heard.
This thing does not sound like any MM cartridge I've used, as it has much of the refinement, subtlety and resolution of a good MC but with it such massive weight, scale, and cavernous soundstaging in terms of both height and depth, that it takes your breath away. It is yet another classic 1960s-era broadcast cartridge featuring Alnico magnets which completely outperforms the 'forensic', thin-sounding monstrosities, posing as phono cartridges, foised upon us today.
It trumps the DL-103SA in all the areas which it traditionally excels: bass weight (here the M3D has massive extension and drive which almost makes the 103SA seem 'anaemic'), rhythm, midrange clarity, tonal richness and tunefulness, and adds with it more 'insight' through the upper frequencies with all types of music giving a listening experience that is utterly beguiling. It is funky with a capital 'F' and boogies like a b*stard. I literally can't believe what I'm hearing with this cartridge - it has to be the bargain of century at £80-odd including shipping from the States, so excuse me while I laugh out loud! :lol:
It's a bloody huge bugger to fit into a headshell, though. If you thought the 103 was 'chunky', then the M3D is a veritable King-Size Yorkie bar in comparison, being both wider and considerably deeper, and also heavier. It took my extra-long NOS AT-LT12 headshell to accommodate it, especially when positioned sufficiently back towards the bayonet fitting (necessary for optimal alignment), squeezing my bulky solid-silver Ortofon headshell wires tightly up against the back. This is not a cartridge that will fit in a 'normal' arm or headshell.
Like a 103, it also needs plenty of mass, so the 17g of the magnesium AT headshell including cartridge stabiliser seems about right. VTF has been set at 3g (I think the range is 3-5g somewhat like an SPU). The cantilever is about the thickness of a toothpick so high VTF should present it no problems, and in terms of vinyl wear I'm not someone who frets over such matters as long as the stylus is in perfect condition and tracking securely, which sonically it appears to be, although I will treat myself to an original and genuine NOS stylus from Ebay shortly.
Anyway, as I say, it sounds absolutely stunning and begs me to ask the question: when these cartridges were first introduced, did the amplifiers and, in particular, phono stages exist to show what they were truly capable of??
I suspect not!! Quite frankly, short of a top-notch SPU, there is nothing on the market today which offers the M3D's type of sonic and musical qualities. If you see one in good condition for sale on Ebay, just buy it!
More later when I've got a better handle on things :cool:
Marco.
Differentiating between 'hi-fi' and music...
Well...
Like I said, the 103SA definitely has better high frequency fine detail retrieval (it goes up to 25,000Hz), but the effect on the 'meat' of the music is fairly benign.
I can hear it, but it's not significant in terms of affecting the communication of the emotive element or 'soul' in musical performances, which for me is what matters. This is what I listen to music for on a hi-fi system (the emotional connection) - not forensically dissecting the minutiae of subtle details.
This is every bit as much a part of 'hi-fi' (if the goal is to replicate as close as possible the qualities of live music) as reproducing every minute detail on recordings. If my system or choice of cartridge didn't get the former aspect of the presentation right then the latter would be meaningless, and the overall result devoid of any real worth.
It boils down to the old argument again of how you listen to music, i.e. with your 'heart' or your 'head'. I will always firmly belong in the former camp, and cartridges such as the DL-103, Ortofon SPU and Shure M3D serve my needs perfectly, as to my ears they sound fundamentally more 'musical' than any über-transparent forensic detail retrieval device, which is mainly what today's high-end moving coil cartridges excel at.
What use is a barrage of information firing at your ears if the overall presentation lacks musical merit? If I'm not bopping away and tapping my feet then quite simply the musical message is missing and my system has failed in its purpose. It's a matter of differentiating between a sound that's 'impressive' and one which is 'natural' and believable. *THAT* is what true 'high fidelity' is all about! :)
Marco.
There is nothing remarkable about me
Guys
I had my hearing tested a few months ago at Torquay Hospital. There is nothing remarkable about me, I'm in my middle 50's and could easily hear 16Khz. But that is not the point:
If an electronic device rolls of at say 15Khz, then way before that there might be phase distortions that could be audible. Also its response to transients could be badly affected. I routinely test phono stages to 32Khz (it's a easy figure for my test gear) and my favourite cartridges the AT-OC9ML/II and Shelter 501 II both go up to 50Khz. When I ran a SL-1200 with an OC9 using Alex's A.N.T. MC Ltd phono stage and his prototype headphone amplifier at the Heathrow Show a month back, OK with a pair of £900 Denon headphones, a lot of people said it was the best sound of the show. :kiss:
But the above is of importance for "me" and the music "I" like. Marco and I have quite different tastes and we have both learnt from that. What suites Marco doesn't quite suit me, and visa versa. For both of us this was a big and steep learning curve. Personally I like " über-transparent forensic detail retrieval devices " they deal with female voices spectacularly well in my opinion. But I know where Marco is coming from.
I'm sure when Marco says " *THAT* is what true 'high fidelity' is all about! " he is expressing his own opinion based on his own tastes?
But there is now a quest, to keep Marco on song, what is the modern cartridge that would get him singing and toe tapping, could it be this one click here to see it ? Maybe I should get one for him to borrow? Maybe I would be converted?
:bag:
Regards
Dave
In striving for 'accuracy' have we lost part of the music?
Good post, Dave - I'm with you 100%, even though I may not entirely agree, if you see what I mean :)
Quote:
I'm sure when Marco says " *THAT* is what true 'high fidelity' is all about! " he is expressing his own opinion based on his own tastes?
Absolutely. It's clear that we value slightly different things when listening to music. For me if a cartridge doesn't get it right, musically, in what I call the 'meat and bones' of the audible range, then it matters not a jot what's happening in frequencies which are barely audible, even if as Barry and you correctly say, there is a knock-on effect further down the range where it can be heard on subtle aspects of the music. Basically, if (appropriate) music doesn't sound 'funky' or fails to 'boogie' then I'm not interested. My hi-fi system or the cartridge I use isn't some scientific tool for the analysing of detail - it's a device for listening to music!
This is what I feel is missing with modern moving coils such as the OC-9. Whilst it 'measures like a dream', and I greatly respect what it does in a hi-fi sense, it's rather too 'polite' sounding, lacking the 'soul' which a 103, SPU or the M3D has in spades - the latter despite having a curtailed high frequency response. Note that I'm not saying that these characteristics are somehow magically superimposed on the music by any of those cartridges, but rather that they simply reveal them more when present on the record. And incidentally, I don't hear anything an OC-9 does with female vocals which a 103SA can't ;)
When I listen to music, I don't want to just sit there nodding in polite approval respecting what a cartridge does to music in a technical sense; I want the way it presents music to make me feel like partying: it's that 'fun/feel good factor' - the sensation where music instantly puts a smile on your face, and before you know it hours have passed and there are 100s of album covers scattered across the floor... :gig:
Do you know what I mean? It's all subjective of course, so difficult to explain.
Most modern pick-ups I've heard, at any price, fail to engage me in that way... It's as if in the quest to tick all the hi-fi boxes some 'magic' has been lost in the process which is fundamental to portraying the passion and soul in music, rather like the way in which a good valve amp treats music in comparison to its equivalent solid-state counterpart. Often the latter is 'technically superior' in a hi-fi sense, whilst the former despite that is still somehow more musically satisfying. It's a similar type of difference between the classic cartridges I've mentioned and the likes of an OC-9. In effect, 'musicality' has been traded in favour of analysis. If that's your bag, then fine, but it's not for me. Hi-fi is all about choosing your compromises, anyway.
For me though, it's a real wake-up call listening to some of the classic cartridge designs from the 50s and 60s and comparing them to today's examples. I think that somewhere along the line designers have lost focus a little and taken their eye off the ball. What is most striking is the complete sea change in the type of sonic presentation or 'tone' favoured by manufacturers today and offered by their components, and I don't just mean cartridges. It applies to almost all areas of the replay chain, even recordings themselves! It makes one wonder how much real progress has been made since the heyday of stereo vinyl replay outside of striving for a notion of absolute 'accuracy' and the clinical style of presentation that often goes with it...
Marco.
Just installed the new stylus
Oh mammy, daddy, Mary and Joseph... :wow: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :D: :eek: :eek: :champagne::champagne: :mex: :dance: :dance: :fingers: :goodnight:
Marco.
