Phonography

I got the Technics up and running with some very basic interconnects. I am going to DIY some cables at some point but I really wanted to hear how it sounded. Short answer is it sounds great. Doesn’t have the refinement or sheer drive and scale of my Garrard, but it is definitely good and enjoyable.

I also found another cartridge I forgot I had, a Mofi Studiotracker, a fairly basic cartridge built by Audio Technica for Mofi I believe. It uses a V-twin dual magnet generator to mirror a vinyl cutting head, and has an elliptical stylus. Output is around 3.5 mV so plenty for the Sentec. I mounted that in the Yamamoto headshell and put it in the arm. Of course the weight of the headshell necessitated me using the supplied extra counter weight on the Technics arm. Nice good sound is what I got. Then I had to try the Spec Corp. cartridge I have. For a fairly cheap basic cartridge, it sounds great. When I have actual time I will see which one I prefer, but it’s pretty close. Both are a step up on the 2m Red though.

I seem to have misplaced my Rega Atlas stylus gauge somewhere when I moved house, so I had to dig out an old Shure SFG-2 stylus gauge to set the tracking force. A bit agricultural, but it did the job. I also need to get hold of one of those cheap Technics overhang gauge contraptions for setting up the cartridges more easily.

All the carts I tried sounded great, probably helped by the Sentec phono stage they were feeding. This isn’t exactly a budget system by any means, but it is compared to my Shindo stuff, and it sounds superb really, more than anyone could reasonably hope for.

I also fitted an Auditorium 23 Hommage platter mat. The Funk Firm Achromats are out of stock locally, and I can’t be bothered waiting to get one, when this A23 one is great anyway. A super cheap record clamp is on the way too.

Eventually, I am going to make up some cables using some nice microphone cable from a company called Sommer, it’s cheap and looks good, and will be in keeping with my vision for a fairly low cost set up. I’ll post photos of the construction of those if I remember to take any.