Marco's latest vintage marvel....

[kininigin]

Hi Darren, I have been on this forum for some time, but don't post as often as I should!
I have not listened to the ne styli so can't comment on those. They are available for around £15 and my re-tip will cost £60 to the existing cantivever if still usable. At least this will keep the original spec as the new replacements will no doubt alter the characteristics.
The original suspension should be fine, so no worries there.
My email is northwestanalogue@hotmail.co.uk
if you need to get in touch.
Dom

cheers dom,i see that you took the cart apart in the pics did you do any other work on it?

[Dominic Harper]

Hi, not on the cart that was tipped. I had 3 G800's to play around with. One was dead on one channel( cart in bits) and two with diamonds missing.
The one in bits will be used for experiments as I wish to re-wind the coils and create a low output version along the lines of the Grado statements.

[kininigin]

Hi, not on the cart that was tipped. I had 3 G800's to play around with. One was dead on one channel( cart in bits) and two with diamonds missing.
The one in bits will be used for experiments as I wish to re-wind the coils and create a low output version along the lines of the Grado statements.

I see,right im off to listen to some 12's at loud volume and yes on a sunday

[Marco]

Hi Dom,

New tip was a standard spherical, Tested on my Garrard 301/sme 3009 imp fixed headshell
and was duley gobsmacked at the results. I use a Supex 900super in Audiomods arm daily, but I may well get a G800 now. No suckout whatsoever, and firm bass with midrange to die for. Plenty of subtlety and expression, no sibilance which was not expected. All in all extremely satisfying.

Nice one - I'm glad you like it. In the right (high-mass) tonearm, and with a quality (open and detailed sounding phonostage, not the syrupy, euphonic kind), the G800 is laughably good, particularly with a NOS stylus.

I picked up an early, totally mint NOS one on eBay last month, but haven't had a chance to listen to it yet. I will do though, later this week, and will report here

Marco.

[Dominic Harper]

Hi Marco, compliance figures can be very missleading. I found the Goldring to work perfectly well in the SME, actually prefering it to the Supex I currently use in an Audiomods arm. I have another G800 body and damaged stylus here I will re-tip for myself and install in the Audiomods. I will also report back when listening tests start.
Funnily enough I had a G800 many years ago mounted in a Hadcock unipivot. Phono stage was medeocre at the time, so this combination didn't inspire me.
This cart def needs a top phono stage for best results.
Dom

[chelsea]

I have a g800 body but the cantiliver was snapped clean off when i got it.

Any advice on a cheapo replacement stylus.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Back in the very early 70's I was working for G.W Smith & Co who was one of the constituent parts of what became the Audiotronic group that traded as Laskys. I remember every Saturday at 257 Tottenham Court road we would sell about 100 TT packages that consisted of a Garrards SP25 in a Alan Sugar plinth and cover with a Goldring G800. AND every Monday morning there would be at least 10 of them back having shed their stylus as soon as they were asked to play a record, so I was very jaundiced towards them. I preferred the Shures, but on much later listening realised they were probably musically better than the Shures. Apart from the M3D which has a unique boogy character that is quite addictive. Interestingly when they tried to go up market with the G800 super E to try and compete with the likes of the Shure V15 (everyone aspired to SME / Shure V15) it didn't really work, the low compliance with a high mass body made the thing warbly and unstable.

Richard

[kininigin]

I have a g800 body but the cantiliver was snapped clean off when i got it.

Any advice on a cheapo replacement stylus.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/REPLACEMENT-GO...item45faf9aec0

Can someone help me out,before i buy a replacement stylus i just want to check i have set everything up correctly.

Symptoms im having is extremly sibilant treble which stands out like a sore thumb.

Im using the baerwald alignment,2.5 tracking,use a bubble spirit to check azimuth which is spot on.

Have i missed anything? Looking at the stylus tip by eye it looks ok but im not sure.Is sibalance a sign of a worn or damaged needle?

[Marco]

Hi Dom,

That's interesting and noted, although it's different from my own experience. I use mine on a Jelco SA-750, which with its original headshell, has an effective mass of around 16g.

I'm not a big fan of the stock headshell, considering it as somewhat flimsy and not in keeping with the superb engineering of the rest of the tonearm, and so have fitted a NOS Audio Technica LT-12 (12g mass, similar to the Jelco headshell), although it's made from solid magnesium - one of the best materials from which to make a headshell, IMO.

The (spherical-tipped) G800 worked very well in the LT-12, but then I thought I'd try adding a little more mass, by fitting a 3g VPI headshell weight: http://www.analogueseduction.net/pro...eight_VPI-SSHW, and after doing so, the sound improved markedly, adding more weight and authority and removing a slight tendency to sibilance, with some recordings.

Therefore based on that experiment, it would *seem* that the G800 likes some added mass. However, that was with it fitted on my Jelco. I suspect that your SME would 'grip' it better, given the excellent damping qualities of the SME's all-magnesium arm-tube (it's a V you've got, yeah?), which may explain why it works fine on that, without any further added mass.

Anyway, if that's the case, it will mean that the G800 is more accessible to people with 'normal' tonearms, which is good news

I suspect that the Hadcock you used to use with it, would've been a less than ideal match, even taking into consideration the poor quality phono stage you had at the time.

One area where massive advances have been made since the days of the G800, are in terms of the quality of phono stages and preamps which are available now, and so for that reason, I doubt that anyone who used a G800 first time round would've heard its true qualities.

I love quality vintage gear, but I've yet to hear a vintage preamp or phono stage that gets near to even some of the better budget ones these days! They were generally way too noisy and/or over-complicated.

My view is that good vintage cartridges had superb quality generators (far better than most of what is produced today), and so with a sympathetic stylus re-tip, or the use of mint NOS examples, fitted to a quality tonearm, and through a quality modern preamp and phono stage, the results can be a real ear-opener, producing a level of musicality which makes most of today's cartridges sound rather 'frigid and forensic', and distinctly 'hi-fi', in comparison.

Anyway, hopefully your revelations will create some more G800 fans on here!

Marco.

[chelsea]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/REPLACEMENT-GO...item45faf9aec0

Can someone help me out,before i buy a replacement stylus i just want to check i have set everything up correctly.

Symtoms im having is extremly sibalant treble which stands out like a sore thumb.

Im using the baerwald alignment,2.5 tracking,use a bubble spirit to check azimuth which is spot on.

Have i missed anything? Looking at the stylus tip by eye it looks ok but im not sure.Is sibalance a sign of a worn or damaged needle?

cheers.