Two pairs: My Sonic Lab Eminent Solo mono and Hyper Eminent cartridges, plus Glanz MH-104S and MH-124S tonearms

[sig8]

I would expect the Hyperion to be in a different league to that though.

Different league; better or worst or just different than Solo or Plat Sig.?

 

[montesquieu]

Different league; better or worst or just different than Solo or Plat Sig.?

I would assume that however pleasant a sound the old Denon made, the simple conical stylus and basic coils of the Denon would fall some way short of these rather more exalted cartridges under discussion. Fairly obvious, no?

 

[spiritofmusic]

The 0.1mm tip, if measured correctly, must be a peculiarity of the measurement of the Line Contact stylus design in use - the figure is found all over the internet but unlike MSL presumably the original source info was in English so you'd expect it to be correct. None of the reviewers seem to have mentioned the stylus tip at all except for one which claimed it looked under the microscope like the Ortofon Replicant.

My favourite SPU (having owned way more than a dozen over the years, modern and vintage) is the A95 which has a straighforward elliptical, though I've also always liked the Royal N which has the Replicant 100, if a bit fiddly to set up.

I haven't heard the Hyperion Mono (or indeed the stereo Hyperion) but many years ago in my pre-Miyajima days (possibly 15+!) I had a Soundsmith-mono-converted DL103 and that was very enjoyable. I would expect the Hyperion to be in a different league to that though.

The Soundsmith cartridges don't seem to have much of a following here in the UK, I just went on their web site and there are so many models now! Be interesting to have a listen to one.

Tom, your wish is my command, lol. Soundsmith Straingauge over here.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

very interesting reading about theese arms and carts
reg the Ikeda HBC-MS-5000 I felt it lacked harmonic delicacy and was somewhat coarse, compared to a DIY non shielded solid silver in silk with Duelund plastic free rca connectors
and another DIY shield free armcable with same plugs based on slaughtered Red Rose/Mark Levinson solid silver Litz wires sounded even more refined and freeflowing
the Ikeda cable is in the drawer and will stay there
another Melco owner Ikeda fan/importer in Denmark, reluctantly admitted having come to the same conclusion
best
Leif

 

[mtemur]

My question is that as you stated that the Solo tip is 1 mm or 0.7mm and that must be true, but Hyperion lists cartridge tip as 0.1mm, which is a big difference; 7 to 10 times more for Solo.

The 0.1mm tip, if measured correctly, must be a peculiarity of the measurement of the Line Contact stylus design in use - the figure is found all over the internet but unlike MSL presumably the original source info was in English so you'd expect it to be correct

Neither 1mm nor 0.1mm is correct.

It’s 1.0mil which is equal to 0.025mm or 0.7mil which is equal to 0.017mm.

 

[sig8]

Neither 1mm nor 0.1mm is correct.

It’s 1.0mil which is equal to 0.025mm or 0.7mil which is equal to 0.017mm.

I think you are correct. LP groove at the widest (top) is .0022" (.055mm), so the stylus tip has to be smaller than that. Though SoundSmith specs. say 0.1mm (0.003", which is bigger than the groove top), but they really should say 1 mil, which is .001 inch, so it's tip is about half of the groove at the top (.0022 inch).

Looking at the Solo spec. it says 1 mil, that is .001 inch, same as SoundSmith Hyperion.

 

[montesquieu]

very interesting reading about theese arms and carts
reg the Ikeda HBC-MS-5000 I felt it lacked harmonic delicacy and was somewhat coarse, compared to a DIY non shielded solid silver in silk with Duelund plastic free rca connectors
and another DIY shield free armcable with same plugs based on slaughtered Red Rose/Mark Levinson solid silver Litz wires sounded even more refined and freeflowing
the Ikeda cable is in the drawer and will stay there
another Melco owner Ikeda fan/importer in Denmark, reluctantly admitted having come to the same conclusion
best
Leif

Seems to be quite a strong following - 'belief system' might be too strong a phrase - around the positive effects of unshelded cables, especially among those who roll their own.

Having given various commercially available unshielded options a try - silver in cotton wool etc - I can't say I've ever mangaged to replicate the claimed benefits, indeed I've found shielding to be particularly important on arm cables which typically have to deal with signal levels an order of magnitude below the line-level found in most interconnects not attached to a tonearm. But as ever YMMV. Maybe there's a secret sauce not available commercially.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

if there´s one area in audio where it´s a lot of secret sauce, it´s in cables
especially commercially available ones, sourced from many of the same OEM suppliers at sicking prices

 

[JeffDzeel]

Thanks for these really informative posts. I learn a lot from them.
I thought I would share some of my own experiences with the Glanz 1200s tonearm I recently acquired. I originally bought it intending to use it with my Koetsu RSP. I was quite disappointed and found the Koetsu performed much better in my SME M2-12r. With the 1200s tonearm, the sound while quite dynamic, the treble was slightly muddled, and some of the Koetsu magic was lessened. On the other hand, the Ortofon SPU did very well in the Glanz.

@montesquieu , based on your feedback, I may try the Miyajima Madake. Which headshell did you use with the Madake on the Glanz?
I may also try an alternate headshell with the Koetsu. Would you have suggestions on this?

 

[montesquieu]

Thanks for these really informative posts. I learn a lot from them.
I thought I would share some of my own experiences with the Glanz 1200s tonearm I recently acquired. I originally bought it intending to use it with my Koetsu RSP. I was quite disappointed and found the Koetsu performed much better in my SME M2-12r. With the 1200s tonearm, the sound while quite dynamic, the treble was slightly muddled, and some of the Koetsu magic was lessened. On the other hand, the Ortofon SPU did very well in the Glanz.

@montesquieu , based on your feedback, I may try the Miyajima Madake. Which headshell did you use with the Madake on the Glanz?
I may also try an alternate headshell with the Koetsu. Would you have suggestions on this?

Very nice indeed!

I didn’t have good results with the Glanz headshell. I got much better results with the Mysoniclab headshells, or the Oswald Mills graphite one. I suspect the rigid Koetsu head hell would also work well. I don’t think the Glanz headshell is rigid enough.

 

[108CY]

Thanks for these really informative posts. I learn a lot from them.
I thought I would share some of my own experiences with the Glanz 1200s tonearm I recently acquired. I originally bought it intending to use it with my Koetsu RSP. I was quite disappointed and found the Koetsu performed much better in my SME M2-12r. With the 1200s tonearm, the sound while quite dynamic, the treble was slightly muddled, and some of the Koetsu magic was lessened. On the other hand, the Ortofon SPU did very well in the Glanz.

@montesquieu , based on your feedback, I may try the Miyajima Madake. Which headshell did you use with the Madake on the Glanz?
I may also try an alternate headshell with the Koetsu. Would you have suggestions on this?

From my experience the Koetsu cartridges do not perform so well in the 1200s the the M2-12 r and the Glanz 124s are far more suitable on the other hand the Koetsu Tiger eye and Rhodonite with diamond cantilevers are suited to the 1200s. I have listened to the 124s and 1200s at length and they are very different tonearms both have there virtues the 124s does things especially when it comes to air space and nuance the more textured 1200s cant do. The 1200s does seem to work very very well with the My sonic variants on the other hand.

 

[JeffDzeel]

Based on advice in this forum, I changed from the Glanz headshell to the My Sonic Labs headshell for my Koetsu RSP mounted on the Glanz 1200s.

There was a meaningful improvement. Treble had more air and sparkle. Bass was a tad tighter. Thanks @montesquieu

 

[Petrat]

Based on advice in this forum, I changed from the Glanz headshell to the My Sonic Labs headshell for my Koetsu RSP mounted on the Glanz 1200s.

There was a meaningful improvement. Treble had more air and sparkle. Bass was a tad tighter. Thanks @montesquieu

Did the same a while ago ... agreed, that headshell is a better match for the Glanz than the supplied one.