In article , Don
Pearce
wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:
Just posting to let people know that audiomisc.co.uk now includes a
web version of the 4th article in my recent HFN series on LP.
[snip]

Jim, it looks, given the two frequency responses, as if the Rega Exact
and the Ortofon M2 Black will sound very different. Did you do any
listening tests as part of this - even if just for interest?

I would expect the two Shures to sound very similar.

I didn't do any systematic listening comparisons as I didn't have time and
didn't want to include my personal subjective impressions in the article.
Big enough without that! :-)

However I did spend time comparing the Shures. As you might expect, I found
the V15 HE and MR essentially indistinguishable once set up well. The 97xE
I did feel sounded a little different, but wasn't able to decide. Put it
down provisionally to the lousy channel seperation of the 97xE. Must admit
I was shocked this was so poor - and well below the spec quoted in the
leaflet. I ended up trying two 97's in case the first was faulty, but they
gave much the same results, despite experimenting with tracking angles,
etc.

Also surprised by the stark differences shown by the photos of the stylus
of the 97xE compared with the old HE and MR. Chalk and cheese.

I did listen briefly to the Ortophon and Rega. Not long enough to really
say. I'd probably be happy with the Ortophon, but would alter the loading
to get a response nearer to the Shures if I wanted to change to it. I would
recommend the M2 Black as a good MM for people who don't have access to the
old V15. My thought before doing the comparisons was that I'd prefer the
97xE if I needed to replace the V15. But given the results I'd now either
go for the M2 Black or see if I could get Expert Stylus to retip a V15
stylus.

FWIW one 'feature' I didn't comment on in the mag is that if you look at
the responses you can see a 'kink' in most of them. This seems to depend on
the headshell and the level of the cartridge's effective compliance, etc.

Slainte,

Jim

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