Cartridge for Schroder CB 9 tonearm

[Tlay]

Hello all. I am looking for a compatible cartridge for my Schroder CB9 tonearm. I have never used anything other than MM cartridges. I now use an Audio Note IQ3 which is getting long in years.


If anyone has had any experience knowing some good synergy with this arm I’d love to hear about it.

I value tone and dynamics. Budget up to 4000 including a SUT which will probably be a Sculpture A which is around 1000.
Other recommendations are welcome as well.
My system = PTP solid 9>Misho MM phonostage>Devore O96 speakers.
Thank you.

 

[Solypsa]

Nice analog front end, I imagine you can take full advantage of carts even over your stated range. Do you have the heavier head shell plate that the CB tonearms can use?

 

[shakti]

you can see on many pictures the Soundsmith Hyperion on CB9

looks like a good combination.

 

[Tlay]

Nice analog front end, I imagine you can take full advantage of carts even over your stated range. Do you have the heavier head shell plate that the CB tonearms can use?

you can see on many pictures the Soundsmith Hyperion on CB9

looks like a good combination.

Thanks guys. I do not have the heavier head shell currently. Just the stock headshell that makes my tonearm 14g effective mass. The Hyperion is out of my financial range but looking at the rebuild cost maybe it could be worth saving for.

 

[Yeti]

For tone and dynamics, If it reacts anything like my Reference to cartridges then an SPU Royal N, assuming your phono stage has enough gain because it wan’t no more than a 1:20 SUT, 45dB would be ideal. You’ll need the brass mounting plate, use Ortofons supplied tools to mount the cartridge and spacer to the plate and be gentle when tightening the plate to the headshell. A bit of rock music can be very telling when you’ve got this right (I used some of Black Sabath), it lacks energy when you have this too tight. Same goes for the counterweight on the Reference but I may be extrapolating too far when it comes to the CB, experiment.
There’s a nice blog here https://medialux.blog/2018/05/ second part after the show review.

 

[dcc]

Lyra cartridges are working well with the CB9. I have an Etna mounted on mine.

 

[Tlay]

For tone and dynamics, If it reacts anything like my Reference to cartridges then an SPU Royal N, assuming your phono stage has enough gain because it wan’t no more than a 1:20 SUT, 45dB would be ideal. You’ll need the brass mounting plate, use Ortofons supplied tools to mount the cartridge and spacer to the plate and be gentle when tightening the plate to the headshell. A bit of rock music can be very telling when you’ve got this right (I used some of Black Sabath), it lacks energy when you have this too tight. Same goes for the counterweight on the Reference but I may be extrapolating too far when it comes to the CB, experiment.
There’s a nice blog here https://medialux.blog/2018/05/ second part after the show review.

Lyra cartridges are working well with the CB9. I have an Etna mounted on mine.

Thank you for your feedback. I really should pick up the brass head shell. The Lyra cartridges seem to get a lot of good press and I’ve always wanted to try an SPU but haven’t read much about the Nude versions. Thanks again to you both.

 

[Holmz]

Nice analog front end, I imagine you can take full advantage of carts even over your stated range. Do you have the heavier head shell plate that the CB tonearms can use?

Do the Aidas carts need the heavier plate?
The importer of the CB-9 here can get them.
And I also have a Korf ceramic spacer that gives another gram or gram and a half.

 

[Solypsa]

The CB-9 with standard plate is 14g effective mass and that's fine for the Aidas! The heavy plate ups effective mass to 19g which also is fine for the Aidas ( pushes resonant freq. to around 8.5hz ).

Do the Aidas carts need the heavier plate?
The importer of the CB-9 here can get them.
And I also have a Korf ceramic spacer that gives another gram or gram and a half.

That said trying a but more mass might be a fun experiment

 

[Tlay]

Do the Aidas carts need the heavier plate?
The importer of the CB-9 here can get them.
And I also have a Korf ceramic spacer that gives another gram or gram and a half.

Thank you for the offer! However I just put in an order about 4 days ago.
It will be nice to have even if I don’t need it right away. I will be able to experiment with a wider variety of carts in the future.
I have heard wonderful things about Aida’s carts-definitely on my short list.

 

[Holmz]

Back to the CB9 my question is…
Can one swap carts by having a few of the plates with a cart mounted to each?
Ideally with a tapered shim for SRA and maybe one of the WAM fulcrum or SS cart with the middle spacer that allows for azimuth to be set?

Then it would only need overhang, Zenith, and VTF

 

[worldtime]

Try DS audio W2 set, it was my previous setup with cb 9. It should satisfy most of people if they dont want to spend so much energy, money on solving matching phono, sut, second arm/cart etc…simple and huge rewarding

 

[Solypsa]

@Holmz which CB9 mounting plate did you end up preferring with your Aidas cartridge?

 

[Holmz]

@Holmz which CB9 mounting plate did you end up preferring with your Aidas cartridge?

I’m still awaiting the TT parts, so I am just basically just working and riding the wind trainer.
But I head out in a week and hit the “big smoke” and will stop by Dohmann HQ and see if they have a brass one.
(Worse case is I get a peice of brass and a drill, tap, saw and file.)

So I have put the cart ahead of the horse… and the cart is on the shelf.

Then… I also need to sort out the loading for the phono stage.

 

[Fishfood]

Back to the CB9 my question is…
Can one swap carts by having a few of the plates with a cart mounted to each?
Ideally with a tapered shim for SRA and maybe one of the WAM fulcrum or SS cart with the middle spacer that allows for azimuth to be set?

Then it would only need overhang, Zenith, and VTF

I did this with my CB-L. I had the heavy plate with my SPU Royal N and the wood plate with my Sculpture A.4. It worked great.

 

[Holmz]

I did this with my CB-L. I had the heavy plate with my SPU Royal N and the wood plate with my Sculpture A.4. It worked great.

Did it take an much effort to change them out?
Like 10 minutes or 30 or???

 

[Fishfood]

With practice it was 5-10 minutes. You start to get a feel for where each one sits and you get really close on the first try and then it's just the usual tiny adjustments.