My Constant State of Change System...

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I suppose you guys are right. As Pigmy Pony pointed out, I don't post much if at all in other threads as well.

Anyway, curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to do another experiment. I played the "A" side of each album listed below. These are very familiar albums to me, and I have already played them all at least twice this past week alone, not including today. These were played with the AT-OC9XSL and Nasotec headshell. After I played these four albums (A-side only) back to back, I went to work on swapping the AT cart over to the stock Technics headshell and making the alignment with the stock Technics overhang tool.

Swing Out Sister - It's Better To Travel
Eurythmics - Savage
U2 - Joshua Tree
Eastern Airlines - Images In Flight (mono)

Playing these four albums again now with the AT cart mounted on the Technics headshell revealed a few things. Bass has considerably more definition, detail and impact. Midrange and vocals are more precise and spacious. The treble is very clean and polished. Stage depth has increased with a natural amount of space around instruments and singers. And to top it all off, there's still zero IGD anywhere on any of the albums.

Tonality-wise, everything holds true for the mono Eastern Airlines album. The center image is spot on with even a sense of depth within the recording.

In short, even though the Nasotec swivel headshell showed great improvements with the Ortofon and Sumiko carts over the stock Technics headshell, the exact opposite is true when it comes to the AT cart. This cart is a much better match to the Technics cart. With the AT-OC9XSL / Nasotec headshell combo, I always got a slight low rumble during very quiet passages and in between tracks. And in direct comparison to the Technics headshell, the treble took on an almost grainy texture with the Nasotec headshell.

Apparently, some carts such as the Ortofon 2M series greatly benefit from the Nasotec swivel headshell, and other carts such as the AT-OC9XSL do not. So with that being said, the Nasotec will be getting packed back up and shipped back.

[brian2957]

Got to admit I was surprised by your conclusion. That Nasotec headshell looks the biz, doesn't it?

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Got to admit I was surprised by your conclusion. That Nasotec headshell looks the biz, doesn't it?

I was surprised also honestly. It did an excellent job of "cleaning up" the sound of the Ortofon and Sumiko carts, but unfortunately just the opposite for the AT cart.

Yes, the Nasotec is a great looking, very well designed and built headshell. It works, but apparently not with all carts. And it's quite heavy too. In order to use it with any of the carts, I had the counterweight nearly backed all the way off just to balance the tonearm. Another quarter turn and the weight would have fallen off!

[Lawrence001]

I suppose you guys are right. As Pigmy Pony pointed out, I don't post much if at all in other threads as well.

Anyway, curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to do another experiment. I played the "A" side of each album listed below. These are very familiar albums to me, and I have already played them all at least twice this past week alone, not including today. These were played with the AT-OC9XSL and Nasotec headshell. After I played these four albums (A-side only) back to back, I went to work on swapping the AT cart over to the stock Technics headshell and making the alignment with the stock Technics overhang tool.

Swing Out Sister - It's Better To Travel
Eurythmics - Savage
U2 - Joshua Tree
Eastern Airlines - Images In Flight (mono)

Playing these four albums again now with the AT cart mounted on the Technics headshell revealed a few things. Bass has considerably more definition, detail and impact. Midrange and vocals are more precise and spacious. The treble is very clean and polished. Stage depth has increased with a natural amount of space around instruments and singers. And to top it all off, there's still zero IGD anywhere on any of the albums.

Tonality-wise, everything holds true for the mono Eastern Airlines album. The center image is spot on with even a sense of depth within the recording.

In short, even though the Nasotec swivel headshell showed great improvements with the Ortofon and Sumiko carts over the stock Technics headshell, the exact opposite is true when it comes to the AT cart. This cart is a much better match to the Technics cart. With the AT-OC9XSL / Nasotec headshell combo, I always got a slight low rumble during very quiet passages and in between tracks. And in direct comparison to the Technics headshell, the treble took on an almost grainy texture with the Nasotec headshell.

Apparently, some carts such as the Ortofon 2M series greatly benefit from the Nasotec swivel headshell, and other carts such as the AT-OC9XSL do not. So with that being said, the Nasotec will be getting packed back up and shipped back.

The singer from Swing Out Sister went to my school but a few years before me

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The singer from Swing Out Sister went to my school but a few years before me

Nice. Small world. She has a great voice.

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A few new pics of the system at a totally different angle. The 32" monitor on the back wall is connected to the tiny PC running Roon Core. Everything is hidden in that buffet table, and that huge monitor needs to go and a small monitor put inside the table as well. That wall is prime real estate for some acoustic panels!

Also, those LPs on the wall are damaged and are on pre-existing nails in the wall. Though I do want to do some kind of "wall art" with old non-playable LPs eventually.

[Rush2112]

Hi Charles,

How do you find the OC9 ? I had an early version back in the 90's and loved it !

As for headshell's I'm not in any way an aficionado I do have a ADC one somewhere from back in the day when I had a JVC QLA7 which made a significant difference compared to the standard one with the arm, I recall bass was better defined and general detail improved but back then I was running fairly basic MM cartridges such as A&R Cambridge P77 Nagaoka MP11 and the JVC Z1 cartridge that came with the deck !

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Hi Charles,

How do you find the OC9 ? I had an early version back in the 90's and loved it !

As for headshell's I'm not in any way an aficionado I do have a ADC one somewhere from back in the day when I had a JVC QLA7 which made a significant difference compared to the standard one with the arm, I recall bass was better defined and general detail improved but back then I was running fairly basic MM cartridges such as A&R Cambridge P77 Nagaoka MP11 and the JVC Z1 cartridge that came with the deck !

Hello sir,

I'd have to say that so far, this OC9 is probably the bast sounding cart I have ever owned, and that includes the Benz Micro Ace S I used to have. That was a great cart, but I feel the OC9 is much better at pulling minute details and textures out of the groove.

I was just watching an older YouTube video from ANA[DIA]LOG, and he claimed that from his past experiences, his best and/or favorite headshells is the stock Technics headshell and the very same ADC headshell you mentioned. I think for now, I'm just going to stick with my Technics headshell.

[jasonC]

Thank you.

Got an Ortofon 2M Bronze mounted and aligned. Just as I figured, the built-in phono stage of the Quad sounds excellent!

I love your photography skills.
The lighting is just beautiful.

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

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I love your photography skills.
The lighting is just beautiful.

Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

Thank you. All taken with my Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ phone. I just manually select focus point and adjust exposure before taking the shot. No post-processing required.