Why is HFW so biased against vintage cartridges?

[pure sound]

There is also an IoII which is an Io1 with the heavy body afaict.

My 'Gold' was made with a copper body as an experiment. I think that works pretty well too.


next time this needs a rebuild it'll return as a Ltd : )

[Marco]

LOL - I can feel a letter to Santa coming on...

Going back briefly to Alnico magnets, could we compile between us a list of equipment that is known to use them, and see what the consensus of opinion is of the respective components?

I'll kick things off with the gear that I know of:

Cartridges: DL-103, Audio Note IO, Ortofon SPU and SL-15, Shure M3D, EMT TSD/XSD-15 (I think).

Speakers: Vintage Tannoy drive-units such as Blacks, Silvers, Reds and Golds. Altecs too, possibly, and Vitavox? Correct me if I'm wrong here.

In my opinion the above equipment, when properly partnered, is amongst the finest sounding available.

What other Alnico-equipped gear is out there?

Marco.

[anthonyTD]

LOL - I can feel a letter to Santa coming on...

Going back briefly to Alnico magnets, could we compile between us a list of equipment that is known to use them, and see what the consensus of opinion is of the respective components?

I'll kick things off with the gear that I know of:

Cartridges: DL-103, Audio Note IO, Ortofon SPU and SL-15, Shure M3D, EMT TSD/XSD-15 (I think).

Speakers: Vintage Tannoy drive-units such as Blacks, Silvers, Reds and Golds. Altecs too, possibly, and Vitavox? Correct me if I'm wrong here.

In my opinion the above equipment, when properly partnered, is amongst the finest sounding available.

What other Alnico-equipped gear is out there?

Marco.

early lowther speaker drive units also used alnico magnets, do they sound diffrent, yes,,, although i have to say that all lowther drive units IMHO are an aquired taste!!!
anthony,TD...

[Mr. C]

early lowther speaker drive units also used alnico magnets, do they sound diffrent, yes,,, although i have to say that all lowther drive units IMHO are an aquired taste!!!
anthony,TD...

Absolutely in agreement Anthony, a very acquired taste

[anthonyTD]

guitar pick ups are another example, ie, even today some are alnico, some ceramic, depending on the musicians taste, and the type of guitar, although it is posible to make an alnico pick up sound like a ceramic and vice versa, it all depends on how good [knowledgeable] the pick up winder is.
anthony,TD...

[Marco]

early lowther speaker drive units also used alnico magnets, do they sound diffrent, yes,,, although i have to say that all lowther drive units IMHO are an aquired taste!!!

Indeed, Anthony, but we've also both heard some rather excellent Lowthers belonging to Steve (sps) at Scalford Hall in that huge big room, remember?

This system, funnily enough, also featured a Shure M3D (on an Fidelity Research/TD124 combo)

Steve's system was voted one of the best sounding of the day, and I can understand why. It certainly played realistic sounding music through his very nice D.I.Y SET amps.

Undoubtedly, Lowthers can be somewhat 'fierce' sounding, but when implemented correctly (there's that word again!), they have a magic all of their own...

Marco.

[SPS]

I'm not quite sure i agree about the type of magnet..
its a fact that older speakers( as in well used) can sound better and smoother, the cone flex's more give an improved break up, and the suspension softens giving a lower fs

the alinco types of magnet where in common use from the late 30's to the early sixtys, when the ferrite magnets came into the frame

and by the end of the 60's low eff bass drivers where becoming the norm along with matching tweeters and mids

all my speakers use both alinco and ferrite, and both sound very well to me


the best of the pre 70's cone speakers was always high efficency, i believe cartridges where wound with less turns as the years have gone by.
and standards of quality have in real terms dropped.

a friend who owns and loves his yam ns1000's said to me this week that an early goodmans magnum was so close.. with more bass and a more life like mids, and more eff,

he uses good quality valve amps.

music in the main, is made up of resonaces and overtones from the instuments and voices
not alot of kit really reproduces these at an acceptable level, and with that, able to reproduce the 'sweet' music that is possibly on the source,
i'm not talking about any thing false just being able to hear the music.



i know what people mean about the real sound of music, it is dynamic and peaky, that why just about all recordings are compressed to some extent

and there are not many systems that i have heard that can play it in a realistic way

[pure sound]

Most speaker manufacturers until the mid 60's or so were making drive units with Alnico magnets as the cheaper ceramic magnets had not become available by then. So there are plenty of examples of fine sounding drivers from that era that are potentially capable of very good results. Wharfedale, Goodmans, Vitavox, JBL, Saba, Klangfilm, Tannoy, Westrex, Jensen, Celestion, Magnavox, Electro Voice & Altec all made good drivers and of course many of these still command high prices today. Currently manufacturers such as TAD are still making drivers using Alnico, as do Audio Note(UK) via SEAS, Supravox & Fertin in France, Ale & Goto in Japan and indeed Heco on the Statement model I sell.

Many guitarists still seek out alnico magnets for their speaker cabs to get a particular richness of tone.

Some enthusiasts still refer to the more commonly used ceramic types available now as 'mud' magnets!

[i_should_coco]

Just to point out the IO body is different to the Ltd and the LTD is double the weight...

Edit: the stylus is different as well according to the AN web site...

To the Io-1, yes. To the gold, no: There are 4 Ios:

Io-1: Normal compliance, Type 2 stylus, Alu body (light), AlNiCo Magnet, Iron pole-pieces.
Io-2: Low compliance, Type 1 stylus, Gunmetal body (heavy), AlNiCo Magnet, Iron pole-pieces.
Io-Gold: Low compliance, Type 1 stylus, Gunmetal body (heavy), AlNiCo Magnet, permendur pole-pieces.
Io-Ltd: Low compliance, Type 1 stylus, Gunmetal body (heavy), Electromagnet, Permendur pole-pieces.

Ah, I see Guy has already posted this info....

[anthonyTD]

Indeed, Anthony,

but we've also both heard some rather excellent Lowthers belonging to Steve (sps) at Scalford Hall in that huge big room, remember?

This system, funnily enough, also featured a Shure M3D (on an Fidelity Research/TD124 combo)

Steve's system was voted one of the best sounding of the day, and I can understand why. It certainly played realistic sounding music through his very nice D.I.Y SET amps.

Undoubtedly, Lowthers can be somewhat 'fierce' sounding, but when implemented correctly (there's that word again!), they have a magic all of their own...

Marco.

hi marco,
i remember steve's system very well and his speakers,,, and yes the system he put together was very listenable, [in certain ways it was one of my favourites] but not soley because he was using lowthers, or a vintage cartridge, IMHO it was because of how he implemented those and the rest of the components in the chain.
steve did a very good job of bringing out the merits of each individual piece...
"i should coco's system was also very very good" but in a diffrent way to steve's.
A...