goldring vs AT

[pedro ebro]

which will sound better? Goldring E3 va audio Technica VM95EM

[Roberto C2H3]

Hello Pedro;

An expensive cartridge will sound poorly if mismatched to the tone arm.

The first step to answering your question is to ensure cartridge / tone arm compatibility.

What tone arm do you have?

Best from the Pampas,
roberto

[AudioFeline]

The quality will also depend on the stylus you use, there are lots of options for the AT95 series.

[schon8624]

Goldring e3 is made by audio technica

[raphaelmabo]

The Goldring E-serie is an AT95 that is tuned by Goldring, so they work on the same tonearms. I believe that you are meaning the AT VM95EN and not "EM", as it doesn't seem to exist an EM-version. EN = Elliptical, naked. The Goldring E3 is better than the standard VM95E, with a tighter and more focused and more fluent and musical sound (but the VM95E is not bad, not bad at all). But an E3 vs VM95EN is all about personal preferences. I can't say that one is better than the other in terms of sound quality, but the VM95EN offers an upgrade path while the E3 is the top of the line in the E-serie. However, I do prefer the body design of the E-serie - great low resonance bodies are a trademark of Goldring.

[pedro ebro]

Tonearm 16g Acos lustre GS1

[Roberto C2H3]

Tonearm 16g Acos lustre GS1

Great! Input its effective mass into the VE resonance calculator (tools section in the top of this page) and you will be able to confirm if those cartridges you are looking to compare are compatible with your tone arm. If you are in the green zone, you are fine 8)

Make sure to include the mass of the head shell in the effective mass calculation.

Best from the Pampas,
roberto

[patient_ot]

The VM95 series will work on a 16g arm. The trouble is AT lists the dynamic compliance at 100hz and guesstimate methods don't really work. But since I know the resonance of the cart on my arm I can work backwards and tell you the cart is between 11-15 @ 10hz for dynamic compliance. That will put you on the green zone. You can buy any of the VM95 series and upgrade to a better stylus if you want down the line.

There is nothing special about the Goldring E series, just more plastic. The low resonance Pocan material is only used in the Goldring 1000 series, and from experience I can tell you that it's not a world beating feature. My AT95ML tracks better than my Goldring 1042 due to a better designed suspension and a finer stylus.

[pedro ebro]

separation between channels seems very poor in these cartridges, someone has heard these cartridges .?

[patient_ot]

separation between channels seems very poor in these cartridges, someone has heard these cartridges .?

Separation isn't poor on the VM95, at least not the one I have. Nominal spec is 23dB, which is respectable. I measured mine @ 27dB averaged between the channels using an Ortofon test LP. Another member here measured 30dB separation using the DIN test LP. I would not call that poor separation.

[raphaelmabo]

The AT95 is a popular model to tune, tweak and enhance. MoFi Studiotracker and Clearaudio Concept V2 for example, but the Goldring E is less expensive. It’s not just an AT95 in a new body, the generator and cartridge assembly has been tweaked by Goldring.

[themisto462]

... MoFi Studiotracker and Clearaudio Concept V2 for example, ...

The MoFi cartridges are not based on the AT95. They are based on the AT100/120 generator. One just has to compare the generators... .

https://img.stereo.ru/v2/5a/a1788df-037 ... af5cde.jpg
https://img.stereo.ru/v2/10/04d204c-44e ... 6d57a5.jpg
(pictures from stereo.ru)

[chiz]

The AT95 is a popular model to tune, tweak and enhance.

The Linn K9 is another example:
https://www.vinylengine.com/images/model/linn_k9.jpg

[patient_ot]

The MoFi cartridges are not based on the AT95. They are based on the AT100/120 generator. One just has to compare the generators... .

From the pics it appears you are correct. AT100/120/VM500 series generator. Since MOFI doesn't publish full specs for their cartridges it's anyone's guess how different they are from the standard AT stuff. I'd love for someone to bench test one of these. As it stands people don't even know if they work well on TTs besides the MOFI ones because no compliance specs are published. That's before we get to basic stuff like stereo separation, resistance/inductance, etc.

I've also noticed they are starting to push these via social media "influencers" - my guess is they aren't selling too many of them outside of the turntable packages.

[pedro ebro]

I bought a Goldring E3 today; and I have it installed, at the moment it makes me smile, I like what I'm listening to, I'm not going to evaluate it because it's a little strident and it's not rolling, but I promise to comment this weekend