What cartridge on your Ariston/Linn

[finger painter]

To copy of another manufacturers thread, what cartridge are you using on your LP12?

In my case a Transfiguration Spirit III and find it a superb match for the Ittok. Comes over as a little lightweight at first, but the rewards are to be found in the imaging and detail retrieval. Very balanced overall.

[youngdand]

I run a decca super gold "Its effects are similar to having your brains smashed in by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick"

but seriously, its dynamic, and has great detail. kick drums and cymbals sound very real, and it give a live feel to recordings.

[goatbreath]

I am trying to keep back the info of the deal I got on Two Aristons,,One with A Linn LVV...I am now minus Kenwood KD7010..I was going to do a big post about it...HaHa..

I have a Denon DL110 on a rewired modified stub RB250 on my Sondek and a Jico SAS on a SME 3 s on this...



I have an AT95e on this for now and this is probably where my Syrinx Arm is going to go when it returns,,the LVV isn't totally awful,,but I think the Syrinx will be way better..Cartridge I'm not sure of yet,,the AT95e gets a lot of use for my less mint stuff..It covers it's tracks well and also sounds great with rock music I think..I know it is cheap,,but it is also cheap to run.. Anyway...AT95e..

[goatbreath]

The Shure /Jico has a lot of strengths,,it is a good sounding cartridge,,although too cultured and polite at times,,it never quite lets itself be great..The SME 3s is probably the perfect Arm for it..I find it a touch bass light at times

The DL110 has many of the qualities of an AT95e,,with improved detail and tracking..Again I find it politer than the AT95e though..

The AT95e,,can track most stuff apart from demanding classical..Not as detailed as the other two,,detailed enough if you just want to boogie though...Very well balanced..

I would like to hear a Decca,,never had the pleasure,,I get the idea that they are not a polite cartridge..I just run what I can afford though..The transfiguration cartridge looks and sounds like kt would be amazing too..

[banerjba]

Goatbreath, that At95e is a very good choice. I owned Linn mm cartridges which were based on the AT95e. I used them on my Axis and LP12. In fact the AT95 variants made for LP Gear in the US are much better sounding than the stock cartridge AT cartridge and offer up the excitement of the Linn versions due to the better cantilever. The yellow bodied AT95ce is a dead ringer for the Linn Basik and sounds as dynamic but a bit more refined up top. The green bodied AT95se sounds like the Linn K5, but again a bit more refined. Either of these cartridges are dirt cheap. $40 to $60. Like many Linn users on a budget in the 1990s, after two K5s, I bought a Sumiko Blue Point.

These days I think the little known Linn Adikt is incredibly good value.

[vincula2008]

That Transfiguration looks jummy, Captain How does it compare to the Dynavector Karat and to the Benz Ace?

If I remember right, you've got the SAEC cart on the Audiomods arm with the JVC deck. However, as I know for certain that you've tried at least the two of them on the Ittok, some general comments about their sonic signature would apply here and could be useful to us merely worshippers.

Regards,

Vincula

[LD100]

When I wear this one out and I fall over a sack of money I will upgrade to another Lyra...unless I hear something better

Argo on Ekos

[finger painter]

Some nice cartridges coming to the surface here and from one end of the scale to the other. 95's I love for an entry level, Deccas I have been told by Cafe Latte should be on the list of 'need to listen' and the Lyras have their own charm.

Transfiguration compared to the others? Very close to the D23R with a little more refinement. Less output than the SAEC which didn't suit the Ittok and yet on paper it should have and the ACE likes being where it is on the Oracle/Ittok.

Otherwise I can't be too bothered with trying them on the different TT/arm combinations as been there in the past and like where they live at the moment.

There is one odd ball in the Clearaudio V2 Artist, but that stays where it is as the arm it sits on suits it down to the ground.

[Debs]

An original Troika in an Ekos:

[vincula2008]

Transfiguration compared to the others? Very close to the D23R with a little more refinement.

Considering how much you love the Dyna, that's saying a lot!

I've got a humble but lovely-sounding Nagaoka MP 20 on my Ariston/774 Mk.I Mission arm (Satanised-version!)



Hopefully trying another one pretty soon

Regards,

Vincula

[Tonybro]

Well, I managed to get the stylus off and gave it a bit of a clean after the arrival of the Axis yesterday. Here's the K9 on the end of the arm!

[Threshold]

I use a Dynavector 20X2L on my Ittok LVII arm. Also added at the same time a Dynavector P75-MKIII phono. Big step-up in SQ.

[Rosewood]

A Goldring 2500 on my Axis.

[james n]

Dynavector DVXX-2

Sounds gorgeous in my LVIII

[Tonybro]

Following on from my previous post in the thread....

I changed the K9 out for my Roksan/Goldring setup from my Systemdek IIX a good while back, just realised I'd not posted a pic in this thread....

Roksan/Goldring 1042