The Marco-boy main system, as of August 2020

[Roy S]

Nice selection of carts... It's probably a modern replacement, Roy, but you can get NOS ones on ebay, etc. Have you listened to your G820 recently?

If/when you do so again, fit it to your heaviest/highest-mass headshell, as it will respond well to that, as will tracking it at the upper end of its range (1.5-4g), so say 3g. Details here:

https://www.vinylengine.com/library/...ng/g-820.shtml

Yes, thinking back that was a replacement stylus I got for it. I seem to recall struggling to get it set up right (on the Pioneer) with it badly mistracking & giving up on it (it's still in the Pioneer headshell). Maybe I'll give it a try on one of my other decks (the PL112D was donated to my cousin's daughter when she got into vinyl).

[Marco]

Yeah, the mistracking will almost certainly be down to the poor quality of most modern replacement styli [possibly also too low a VTF], and insufficient mass in the partnering arm and/or headshell. In terms of the latter, I reckon you'd need at least 15g on the headshell alone.

Sort that out mate, and I guarantee you'll hear something rather different next time!

Marco.

[Roy S]

Yeah, the mistracking will almost certainly be down to the poor quality of most modern replacement styli [possibly also too low a VTF], and insufficient mass in the partnering arm and/or headshell. In terms of the latter, I reckon you'd need at least 15g on the headshell alone.

Sort that out mate, and I guarantee you'll hear something rather different next time!

Marco.

Thanks. I'll have a play when I get chance.

[Marco]

No worries, if you get it right, I think you'll find the experience very rewarding...

The key to getting the best out of these old designs is in *fundamentally understanding* what 'makes them tick', as it were, then simply adopting it, and so failure to do so will almost certainly result in you not hearing their full potential.

Marco.

[Marco]

Ok, earlier on the thread I mentioned that I'd bought the above kit to experiment with and 'tune' the response of my Shure SC35C:



Instructions for use:



Strangely, I guess, in my decades of using turntables, cables and phono stages, I've never experimented with adding capacitance to a MM phono input, as I've never felt the need to, happily using any MM phono stage I've had 'as is', in terms of loading, with many different cartridges, and considered the sound as being great!

However, little did I know that although the sound was great, there was still much more to come... And I'd probably never have discovered that, if I hadn't read comments elsewhere discussing the merits of the SC35C, mentioning that it 'liked' to see more capacitance over and above what existed as standard, via the usual loading of 47k Ohms, provided by the MM phono stage in my Croft preamp.

Yes, in the past I'd experimented with loading values with moving-coils, but never with MM cartridges, so I was about to embark on a voyage of brand new discovery! A what a discovery it's been.... Therefore, after having tried all of the above loading plugs (the construction quality of which is excellent), and assessed them sonically, I settled for the 'Brown' ones rated at 150pF. See here, in situ (fitted as described in the instructions above):



Adding any more capacitance than that, by fitting the plugs with the higher values, tended to rob the sound of 'life', limiting high-frequency extension and vocal clarity, so the plugs with those values were fairly quickly rejected, but may well be used in other applications.

The goal it seems, of using these plugs is to 'tune' the optimal loading value for the cartridge, in order that the flattest frequency response is obtained, and when that's achieved, the subsequent benefits it brings, sonically, are very obvious: less 'grain', more openness/expansiveness throughout the frequency range, with sweeter highs and the removal of a slight 'spitty' quality and 'glare' to vocals [I suspect due to a more accurate treble response],plus a more textured and mellifluous sounding midrange, and cleaner more rhythmic bass.

In short, adding the loading plugs in question in my system has notably 'tidied up' the sound [and you simply won't realise that such may be necessary until you hear the effect for yourself], giving music more 'body', depth, poise and refinement, together with increased clarity and a greater sense 'effortlessness', such that there is now ZERO listener fatigue with any music played.

This results in the SC35C sailing through even the most demanding of material with consummate ease, thus promoting long listening sessions, exploring one's music collection, album after album!

In all honesty, loading plugs like these are absolutely essential, in terms of optimising the performance of any MM cartridge and really making it 'sing'... In that respect, I can say that they are vital in order to hear what any good MM can do, and also that the Shure SC35C benefits *SIGNIFICANTLY* from their use.

So if you've got one and think it sounds superb on its own, without the need for adding more capacitance, as indeed I mistakenly did, then *think again*...!

The truth is, you really haven't heard the SC35C at its best until the loading value has been optimally 'tuned', by adding, in my case, an extra 150pF of capacitance. It was good before, but my goodness, it's an even better cartridge than I thought it was, bouncing music along now with the most infectious joie de vivre and dynamic alacrity!

My advice? If you want to REALLY hear what the incredible (for the money) SC35C can do, or indeed any other high-quality MM cartridge, then I strongly recommend that your order a DBP-6 capacitor loading kit from Acoustic Sounds: https://store.acousticsounds.com/d/6...le_Accessories

Trust me, it'll be one of the best £30, or so, you'll spend on your vinyl set-up, and which will reward you tenfold, in terms of increasing the overall enjoyment of your favourite music on vinyl!

Marco.

[Marco]

Surprised there's been no comments on the loading plugs, as some of you, Adrian included, had said you were interested in what they did!

Barry wasn't far off with the amount of added capacitance needed... Turned out to be 150pF, not 180. Anyway, these have just arrived from the US: https://theartofsound.net/forum/show...51#post1218351

So will be trying them out later, just to see if there's any difference between between them, sonically, and the NOS one already on the cartridge

Marco.

[kininigin]

Hi Marco,hope you are well. Very interesting read this thread has been.Especially what you have written about the SC35C and the loading plugs. I'm also a big big fan of this cartridge, so any possibilty of improving what it can do always gets my interest and if adding the Funk Houdini changes the game, then i can only imagine how much better it can get!

I'll start small and order the loading plugs and see what that brings to the party.

[Opti-cal]

Hi Chris,

In terms of the bits in bold, most certainly. The first bit I've also heard for myself, and have tried various "shims" made from different materials, such as graphite, exotic hardwoods and brass - all made improvements in slightly different ways, but there's no doubt that most cartridges, certainly moving-coils, benefit from a bit of added mass, and the Houdini provides that with its 2g weight.

However, that's just a side show... The 'main event', as it were, is the isolation and decoupling effect it provides, which touching upon the latter (above) is designed and engineered, in order to tackle the two aforementioned issues WAY more effectively than any wooden, plastic or metal "shim". Therefore rest assured, that if you try a Houdini, it will outperform ANY other such device you've used to date, and in a way that will amaze you!

Marco.

Hi Marco,

thanks for taking the time to explain its virtues, as you say it should all become more clear upon listening . . .

I'm certainly looking for a way to divert some funds towards it right now, as compared to a lot of 'upgrades/tweaks' etc, it sounds like a leap rather than just a step.
Also scratching the surface of loading plugs myself but I will reply to your more recent post about them.

I'm super busy at the moment trying to sort out some unscheduled but necessary work on my new house (BALL ACHE!!) which is taking up my usual 'buggering about on AOS' time.

Typical, just when a subject directly relating to things I've been doing at the moment pops up, I'm at my least active.

Hopefully carve out some time soon, priorities!

Cheers

[Opti-cal]

Surprised there's been no comments on the loading plugs, as some of you, Adrian included, had said you were interested in what they did!

Barry wasn't far off with the amount of added capacitance needed... Turned out to be 150pF, not 180. Anyway, these have just arrived from the US: https://theartofsound.net/forum/show...51#post1218351

So will be fitting one later, just to see if there's any difference between between it and the NOS one already on the cartridge

Marco.

So, after reading a few comments regarding how beneficial it is to tweak/load the capacitance of most MM carts I thought I'd give it a go too. The cartridge in question is just a very humble Ortofon OM type with an OM10 stylus. The cartridge body remains the same however, all the way up to the semi-exotic OM40 so upgrades are incredibly simple and once the cart is perfectly aligned you can just forget about it and swap the styli in 5 seconds flat! Part of its appeal, anyway. . . .

I'd heard this particular cartridge really does like a few picofarads 'up it' (somewhere in the region of 400) so I came across these on the god ol bay.



They're basically just an RCA plug added to the circuit using a 'Y' splitter, so the signal travels through but the plugs add around 220pf. It has a resistor neatly soldered into the send/return lugs of the plug providing the capacitance. As the cable and phono plugs are usually around 150pf themselves, the approximate total brings it nicely into the carts 'peak' operating levels (by all accounts) around 370-400pf.

Not quite as versatile or indeed flexible as yours but they certainly do the job.

The chap actually included (at my request as they were on some of his other lots) some much better gold plated Y splitters, so that is what I received.

Like these:



I've got to say that everything sounds better. The technical explanation involves flattening out the cartridges response to more closely follow the RIAA standard (I think).
As I say I'm barely scratching the surface here, I've played around with the loading of MC carts before using dip switches and pots on phono stages that allow the adjustment, but my current phono stage (although having an MC input also) offers no such adjustment to either type.

Links below:

Loading plugs: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Phono-Car...72.m2749.l2649

Y splitters: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gold-Plat...QAAOSwFJBZVit7

I'll be interested to see how things develop regarding the Houdini and playing around with the loading plugs.

Cheers

[Beobloke]

Surprised there's been no comments on the loading plugs, as some of you, Adrian included, had said you were interested in what they did!

That's 'cos we've all got nice modern cartridges that don't need fudging...