Shure M3D - yet another truly great classic cartridge

[Beechwoods]

Marco's there... audio nirvana. Nobody bother him now...

[NRG]

Bearing in mind that many of us listen at least a metre away from our speakers and that most of our rooms have absorbent furniture, I'd venture to suggest that "in room" there is little coming to our ears much above 12KHz anyway. FM radio is brick-walled at 15KHz and a fair number of LP's have to be rolled away above 15KHz to prent the cutter head taking off. Much used analogue master players have well worn heads and these are only replaced when the 15KHz levels on the master tapes (one of four test-tone frequencies) cannot be brought flat with the adjusters.

No, there is, the amplitude may be lower but there is a lot of information reaching the ear above 12Khz. I have deliberately configured amps to roll of at 12Khz before and recently tweaked the output filter on my TDA DAC to roll off at 12Khz and the effect is clearly audible, loss of detail and air in the mid-range as well as the loss of detail in HF and masking of subtle information.

NK @ HiFi-World clearly showed a few years ago there is plenty of information on LP above 20Khz...the response may be ragged and lower in amplitude but it is there and should not be dismissed.

[Marco]

I don't doubt it, Neal, and I agree to an extent. But like I said earlier, if a cartridge with an extended high frequency response doesn't communicate music as effectively or enjoyably in the main area of its frequency range as well as another example with less extension at the top, who gives a shit? Well, certainly not me! The fact is the M3D gets it *so* absolutely right, musically, within the boundaries of its frequency range that you can forgive it missing out on a tiny amount of resolution.

In any case, I don't listen to music to get a 'cerebral thrill' or to analyse minute detail retrieval - passion, emotion, and hairs standing up on the back of your neck is what it's about. This M3D is fun with a capital 'F' and grooves like a very groovy thing. I can't stop giggling at how laughably good it is, and for £80!!

When the new stylus was fitted it became quite clear that the cantilever on the old one had been bent downwards, or something, perhaps due to significant pressure applied from the top at some point (excessive VTF, perhaps?), as when the cartridge is installed now in the headshell, the cantilever, and the cartridge as a whole as a result, sits up much higher on the record surface. Performance has also moved up considerably; now there is more detail and 'sparkle' at the top end and a greater sense of security in the way music is reproduced, so I suspect the old one must have been quite worn.

I can see now why this cartridge was originally designed for broadcast purposes, as the ease of cueing is fantastic! You can see exactly the point now where the tip of the stylus makes contact with the record grooves. This makes for superb user-friendliness and simply adds to the pleasure of playing music

A couple of other things... Before I installed the cartridge I cleaned the brass output pins with a fibreglass pen which I use for cleaning the pins on my valves, as looking at them closely there was some grunge which had obviously built-up over the years, and then finished off the job by lightly dabbing some Isopropyl alcohol onto them with a clean cotton wool bud to restore them to sparkling like new. You could see the dirt come off quite clearly!

I'm sure this would also have made a difference. I also swapped headshells and it's now living in my vintage FR S/5, which seems to suit it really well sonically as well as visually. Tomorrow I will play around with adding some more headshell mass as I suspect that I haven't quite optimised things fully in that area yet. However, at the moment I'm quite content with running in the brand new stylus and simply enjoying the glorious music this classic gem is making

Beechy, you've gotta get one for your Lenco!!

Marco.

P.S I just worked out roughly what £18 in 1962 (the cost of the M3D back then) equates to today... Try adding a couple of zeros on the end! Yep, that sounds about right

[pure sound]

P.S I just worked out roughly what £18 in 1962 (the cost of the M3D back then) equates to today... Try adding a couple of zeros on the end! Yep, that sounds about right

£18 is actually about £628 compared with average earnings but only £276 against retail prices. It's tricky to say exactly because electrical goods are relatively cheap nowadays.

Good to hear it's doing its stuff though. Has it now consigned your 103 SA to the spares box?

[Barry]

A couple of other things... Before I installed the cartridge I cleaned the brass output pins with a fibreglass pen which I use for cleaning the pins on my valves, as looking at them closely there was some grunge which had obviously built-up over the years, and then finished off the job by lightly dabbing some Isopropyl alcohol onto them with a clean cotton wool bud to restore them to sparkling like new. You could see the dirt come off quite clearly!

Marco.

Had the same problem with an EMT recently. After setting it up in an SME arm, there was no sound. Thought the cartridge was faulty, but the coil resistance measured correctly. Nearly tore my system apart looking for the fault. Traced it to the cartridge contacts that had become oxidised (they are not gold plated). A little application of a diamond file worked wonders and the system was back firing on both cylinders.

Barry

[Marco]

£18 is actually about £628 compared with average earnings but only £276 against retail prices. It's tricky to say exactly because electrical goods are relatively cheap nowadays.

Yes indeed, Guy. I think my figures were a bit out, although I suspect that's it is still a little more than the £628 you're quoting. Regardless though, it was an expensive item in its day and way beyond what the average person could probably afford. The fact is the M3D is not a budget cartridge, and it sounds like it, too

Good to hear it's doing its stuff though. Has it now consigned your 103 SA to the spares box?

LOL! Not quite yet, but it's certainly the one playing tunes at the moment and seems likely to become my de facto cartridge of choice - yes, that good! It's about 90% there - I just need to eke out the remaining 10% of performance from tweaking a little further. I've settled with bang on 3g VTF, which is where the music seems to snap into focus, so not too excessive, as the 103 tracked at 2.7g.

Tomorrow I will play around with headshell mass and ascertain the optimum amount. Right now it's off to listen to some more tunes and then bed...

Marco.

[SPS]

and the fact that they kept making it.

It'll be interesting to hear one of these. Always thought the V15 was a piece of junk. Trackability (their word, I think) substituting for dynamic range.

i think you have Guy, it was a m3d playing most of the day in my room at the wigwam shoiw ..
i'm sure you came in with pete..?

i have had a couple of v15's and done a a/b with a m97and loads of others from my cart box...
my view is there was no comparison... but the stylus is critical


steve

[DSJR]

You'll be "discovering" the Decca FFSS (or whatever it is) next. Another goodie and they don't seem to self-destruct like the London models do...

[Marco]

Hehehehe... Oldies are quite often goodies, as I'm sure you're often told, Dave



Marco.

[SPS]

No, there is, the amplitude may be lower but there is a lot of information reaching the ear above 12Khz. I have deliberately configured amps to roll of at 12Khz before and recently tweaked the output filter on my TDA DAC to roll off at 12Khz and the effect is clearly audible, loss of detail and air in the mid-range as well as the loss of detail in HF and masking of subtle information.

NK @ HiFi-World clearly showed a few years ago there is plenty of information on LP above 20Khz...the response may be ragged and lower in amplitude but it is there and should not be dismissed.

that is interesting Neil,
what sort of filter did you use to roll of at 12 khz.. with out affecting the treble too much


overtones is quite an interesting subject
i have a few books that cover the subject..

excluding electric music it seems there are not many instruments overtones that extend above 15 k and many commonly used going only up to around 10khz..
there are of course conflicting views.. one book works out the overtones per instrument.

as a comparison far more instruments produce bass notes at under 50hz, which many systems can strugle to reproduce correctly, and usually substituting a little box /port resonace to help things along

i was not saying theres nothing above 12k.. but its of little importance to me..
my hearing extends to 14.5khz, but the volume starts drops off above 12 khz
whilst testing my latest baffles playing test tones, my girl was running about with her ears bleeding at the other end of the house.. in line with what the sound meter was reading...
whilst i could only just hear those tones...

in my veiw a good level of bass is more important

that was my point.. the m3d works for me.... at the age of 51.. and the cartridge just a little younger.. its a good a good match to my ears....


to me... its the cartridge equiv of a globe px4...