Shure Adventures Pt IV - Problems = Solutions!
Not Shure (sorry) if anyone is following this little series of posts as I don't seem to get much feedback, anyway I do this so others can have a play if they fancy. Firstly, a BIG thanks to Tony over on PFM for sending me a link to a pair of splitters which can be modded to add capacitance to the Croft MM phonostage!!!!!. Here is a link if you fancy producing something yourselves
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gold-Plated...f_=as_li_ss_tl
Yep, a big link. I've a set of loading plugs for the EAR 834P clone and the resistors have a 5% tolerance which to me is no good as I'm supposed to be critically matching each channel as closely as possible. So it looks like I may have to order some resistors from here
https://www.vishay.com/en/product/31814/ with a tolerance of 0.005% or it might be a call to Hi-Fi collective if I can't get the correct value, tolerance goes down to 0.01% but that's not too shabby. I'll make up a pair of loading plugs for the Croft once I've got a properly measured value from the MM stage itself. I'm already bugging a few people with brains far larger than mine to have a look at the insides of the Croft and figure this out. It may even be that
I have to make a pair for the EAR 834P clone. We shall see when critical listening tests start. I've added another 3.5hours on the M44-7 stylus today which is approaching the half way period.
It now appears that JICO are making M44 stylii which are compatible with the M55E, thats great if yoy wamt boron but what about Sapphire and Ruby which is something that JICO used to produce for the M55E. Both Ruby and Sapphire are better cantilever materials (to my ears) than Boron. Boron is cheaper but the others do offer a significant upgrade and by experimenting with these materials you can get a cheap entry level into listening to cartridges with Crystal based cantilevers, a little like
https://ortofon.com/products/mc-diamond ok, this cart is £10K but it does have a diamond cantilever. I'm not suggesting a 50-60 year old cartridge would sound anything like Ortofon's top cart but the JICO crystal based cantilevers offer a massive upgrade to the Boron cantilevers, and once you factor in the diamond profile it's a killer combo. Please don't bother flaming me for making comparison with a 60 year old MM cart. You won't get any response from me.
OK, enough for tonight. I've got to listen to Atomic Rooster.....
Stay tuned....