A week ago, I mentioned to DSJR that I'd discovered another vintage cartridge I considered was a bit of a gem, and which was much maligned (likely because some of the equipment it would've been partnered with in its era, would've been fairly poor - I'm thinking here mainly of preamps/phonostages), well ladies and gentlemen, I give you the old BBC war horse: the Goldring G800, purloined from eBay for the grand total of £3.70 (exc stylus)....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWNX:IT
For those interested, the headshell is NOS, from the 1980s (which cost over 10 times as much as the cartridge did!), as are the headshell leads (Sansui SSL-101 LC-OFC):
The G800 likes a bit of mass, so the LT-12 solid magnesium headshell, plus a 1g spacer weight, (13g in total, excluding mounting hardware) is perfect. VTF sounds spot on at 2.5g (from a range of 2-4g).
To say that this cartridge (in my system) is high in the SPPV stakes, would be an underestimation akin to intimating that Sir Edmund Hillary 'did quite well climbing a wee hill'
I'm off to do a few things, but will return later with my thoughts on a cartridge harking from 'ye olden days' that shines when used with decent equipment, and yet again shows a clean pair of heels to much of the frigid and forensic sounding tat made these days in the budget to mid-end cartridge arena.....
Laters!
Marco.
P.S Dave, and it was even born in Suffolk, so you should feel right at home!