AudiogoN ForSale: canrong digital stylus gauge

I have one of those. It appears to work well.

Unless you feel there is something wrong with the sound of the Ortofon I would stick with it. The Ortofons seem to work very well with the Dual tonearms. You could always move up the Ortofon food chain.

Or try a Grado. Happy to send you a Gold that's sitting around doing nothing, if you like. If you're committed to low-mass, you could haunt A'gon for a Shure V15 Type VxMR.

My wife (and now me, really) has had the same Grado cart on out 505-2 since 1986.

Unless you feel there is something wrong with the sound of the Ortofon I would stick with it. The Ortofons seem to work very well with the Dual tonearms. You could always move up the Ortofon food chain.

Upon checking the site, it seems like the OM20 is discontinued, though they still sell replacement styli. I guess moving up would mean going to MC carts? Good excuse to upgrade vintage receivers, I suppose, though I do have a Kenwood C1 preamp with MC capability.

Or try a Grado. Happy to send you a Gold that's sitting around doing nothing, if you like. If you're committed to low-mass, you could haunt A'gon for a Shure V15 Type VxMR.

I'm not particularly committed to anything, since I have nothing to base anything on. I don't even remember why I decided to choose buying the Dual in the first place, other than the fact that it was cheap. I think I got the TT and the cart for around $100 shipped, from Canada. Only problem is Canada Post decided it should go on a tour of Canada for a month before going south to the US and somewhere along the way broke the mechanism for adjusting pitch.

Much thanks for the offer. How about I pay you some meager sum for it so I don't feel as bad?

I'd second giving the Grado a try -- do you like Grado headphones? John Grado likes his gear to accentuate the female human voice, I vaguely remember reading somewhere, so it's bumped up right at the frequencies you like. (It'd be the same as the headphones, if you've heard them.)

Could you guys recommend some carts for my Dual 505-2, with an ultra low mass tonearm? I've got an Ortofon OM-20 in there now. Should I not bother and just get a whole new turntable with different cart? I'm pretty much a complete vinyl noob, just curious what my upgrade path would be, if I were to upgrade. Don't really listen to it enough to justify it right now, but definitely will later on.

Denon DL 110 - Phono cartridge

Upon checking the site, it seems like the OM20 is discontinued, though they still sell replacement styli. I guess moving up would mean going to MC carts? Good excuse to upgrade vintage receivers, I suppose, though I do have a Kenwood C1 preamp with MC capability.

I would definitely take stretch up on his offer for the Grado. If you decide the Grado is not for you and want to get back to an Ortofon, try the 2M Red. It lists for $99 but you can get it for less with patience.

Jp is selling a Denon DL-160 cart for $90 on HC.

I would definitely take stretch up on his offer for the Grado. If you decide the Grado is not for you and want to get back to an Ortofon, try the 2M Red. It lists for $99 but you can get it for less with patience.

Thanks, PMing him now.

Jp is selling a Denon DL-160 cart for $90 on HC.

If I am reading some online chart right, the compliance is too low for the ultra low mass tonearm. Not sure how much difference it'd make, and it is a high output MC so potentially could work with MM phono stages...

AudiogoN ForSale: canrong digital stylus gauge

also Mehran is a good guy and easy to deal with, just be careful he may try and tempt you with a killer deal on a zyx cart

Ditto. The gauge seems to do a splendid job. I wouldn't use it every day in a shop or the like, but that's not the point. And Mehran

is an extraordinarily nice guy.

My Shure gauge reads under. You can get somebody to weigh a bead or something and work around that, but the electronic gauge is so much less hassle to us.

Question for the DIY vinyl guys. How hard is it to make a decent step-up transformer?

Question for the DIY vinyl guys. How hard is it to make a decent step-up transformer?

Probably depends on who you know.

On a serious note, shoot Ari a PM about it, I think he's built a couple.

Probably depends on who you know.

On a serious note, shoot Ari a PM about it, I think he's built a couple.

Heh. This wasn't a trawl!

Guess I'm just curious what the parts cost of something like this might be, while thinking about the best way to get some more cartridge flexibility: Add a SUT or go to a more adjustable phono (or get an active preamp).

Heh. This wasn't a trawl!

Guess I'm just curious what the parts cost of something like this might be, while thinking about the best way to get some more cartridge flexibility: Add a SUT or go to a more adjustable phono (or get an active preamp).

Rough guess, $400 or so. Hard to know since it's a custom designed trafo and uses the OCC wire option which drives the price up for sure.

If you can build it yourself, and dont go too overboard with "non-transformer" parts the largest expense is the transformers.

By far the hardest part is grounding everything "properly" which occasionally means not grounding at all! what fun!

Rough guess, $400 or so. Hard to know since it's a custom designed trafo and uses the OCC wire option which drives the price up for sure.

I would guess $300 to start.

the transformers are listed at 58pounds each, with a 10 pound add on for OCC wire. so about 150 pounds=$250, plus all the other stuff.

all the "non transformer" junk (including my junky cast aluminum case) for this cost $50.

you could probably do it for less than $40 + transformers if you didnt put the binding posts or ground/float switch in. I realised after my last SUT that im too lazy to open the thing up and solder it every time I want to change stuff.

What do you guys think of the seriously vintage turntables, like ones made by Garrard? Would they require a lot of DIY to make/keep functional and would they sound good?

Also, is this a good deal? http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/clt/1472415594.html

Depends how much they want for the lot, and how many of them interest you.

All of them interest me, actually. Yeah I think this might be my Xmas present to myself, I'll ask how much for the lot.

I could give you a deal on a sony ps-x45 that just needs a cart. It's relatively easy to maintain, because it's a quartz lock DD...

If you can build it yourself, and dont go too overboard with "non-transformer" parts the largest expense is the transformers.

Ari, how did you choose the capacitor values on the secondaries, was it specified in the datasheet? Also, when doing the external loading like you're doing, some people might have problems with RF pickup. I had an issue with this in my previous house. The only cure was some capacitance on the input.

I think I'll just buy this. The workmanship enthrals me.

Please don't buy that thing.

Do you have to pay extra for the chipped paint and rusty screws?

I'd buy that SUT stretch linked to if the guy posted any info on which transformers it has. Mystery SUT's dont do it for me.

Ari, how did you choose the capacitor values on the secondaries, was it specified in the datasheet? Also, when doing the external loading like you're doing, some people might have problems with RF pickup. I had an issue with this in my previous house. The only cure was some capacitance on the input.

RC values were taken from the datasheet.

I can see where my loading system could cause problems. My house is pretty good for noise, but I plan to shorten the resistor legs when I settle on a value. looking at it some more, shielded plugs for loading would not be absurdly expensive to implement.

Please don't buy that thing.

ur just jelly nicck doshi eat ur hart out lolololoool