#phono pickups

I have been at this for a while. I was perusing information on old equipment I considered back in the day, specifically the products by G.A.S. and Mr Bongiorno. He was one of the big old school iron audio designers. One of his contributions was the Dynaco ST400 in part. This path lead to a preamplifier he sold called the Theadra. It was a good one in the mid 1970s. So good it was considered basically the equal of the SOTA ARC SP3a-1. That ARC commands big bucks today.

The thread brought me to an old review by Mr J.G.Holt the original golden ear. He really liked the unit. This is from 1976. Shit I am old, I was there.

There are embedded within the review several tidbits of information which I found a bit shocking. Yes shocking, having to do with moving coil phono cartridges. Here is the first quote:

worst drawbacks of the currently popular (we are tempted to say "faddish," but we won't) moving-coil cartridges is that they require a bootstrap input booster of some kind in order to drive adequately a standard phono-cartridge preamp stage, which means either a transformer (which introduces harmonic, phase, and frequency distortion) or an outrigger "head amplifier" in that part of the system where distortion is most conspicuously audible: Ahead of the phono stage.

Wow. This was early in the high end days, but moving coils date back to the 1950s FYI, so they were not some new revolution back then. The most popular good cartridges were ADC XLMs and the Shure V15 iii. Later of course the fad became a wave. People think nothing of throwing a stage in front of a stage now.

The next huh, did they really say that tidbit, is within praise for a V15III:

The fact that an optimized Shure V15-III spherical can sound as good as any high priced moving coil we have tested will probably not impress readers who are already convinced that moving coils are the only way to go.

Spherical stylus? Shit!

As the designer Mr Bongiorno commented about his favorite MC cartridge:

I do hope you will evaluate the EMT again, this time through Thaedra. Although it is very expensive ($330) and hard to obtain, it is the very finest cartridge available. Incidentally, it has a spherical stylus.

Spherical stylus!! In this era the four channel LP had just been killed, but in that service the Shibata, and microline phono styli were available and in use. 45 kHz frequency response. I am sure nobody today would hold that a spherical phono stylus is a good thing. Generally they cannot track deep detail and soften the sound. This was SOTA in 1976? Yes golden ears can be wrong.

As an engineer I have a love hate relationship with math. The love part is it is a rationalization of often abstract concepts so they can be manipulated or understod. The hate is well, I aint that good at it. Good enough to just get by. My super power is visualization of problems.

What does that have to do with audio? Very much actually.

If there are any mathematicians out there feel free to correct me.

There is a theory / method that states that any signal may be accurately modeled by an appropriate mixture of sinusoidal functions of various frequencies, amplitudes, and phases. In audio it is very applicable as your ears have fine hairs that are tuned to respond just to a specific frequency and only inform your brain of amplitude and start and end of the signal. That's your whole connection to the world of sound. You detect mixes of discrete frequencies, time intervals and amplitudes.

It is this that makes possible all the various digital recording methods in the world today.

I have read several golden ear BS reviews of phono cartridges that complain that some types can detect displacement, which is inherently superior to all other types. Usually this is a preface to praising a 5 figure cartridge system that detects displacement of the stylus and not acceleration so must be the proper way to do it.

I gag when they say that.

Also some will credit some other part of the chain having similar advantages for similar reasons. All bullshit.

So here is why I think this. No part of the audio reproduction chain detects displacement, and the chain aint short.

Newton's first law written as a formula is F=M*A. Apply a force to a mass and get acceleration. Algebra gives you F/M=A ( acceleration). Push on a mass and it accelerates. Where the F am I going?

Lets start the audio chain.

A microphone detects a wave of pressure against a diaphragm. That pressure causes a force that accelerates the diaphragm. Newton is in charge here do not quibble. That acceleration is measured by a voltage or current changing. That is the initial signal brought into the recording system. It is not displacement it is acceleration. Acceleration is the derivative of displacement over time.

So here comes the math. Any signal can be modeled by Sine curves. The derivative of motion from force or pressure is the acceleration. The measure of the acceleration is a measure of the force if you undo the derivative or integrate, and of course take into account the mass of the moving bits.

The derivative of the Sine (pressure wave) is the Cosine. The cosine is the same shape and amplitude of its predecessor, it just off by phase of I think 90 degrees. The information is preserved.

So going from the air to the recorder you have the first derivative of the pressure signal.

In an LP the next step is to cut the master on a lathe. The cutting head is a magnetic motor with voice coils that ACCELERATES the cutting head in response to the current from the amplifier. That is what magnetic coils do under changing current. So that Cosine signal is now another derivative on the lathe. Derivative of cosine = -sine. It is negative, but all the information is preserved. Oh and another 90 degrees. So we are at 180, oh that means negative, funny eh?

In an LP the next step is the phono cartridge. The stylus in the groove moves coils or magnets which accelerate and create another electric signal. The coils measure the change which is another derivative. The derivative of -sine is -cosine. Almost home. 270 degrees.

When the amplifier chain in your system feeds a speaker guess what happens. The signal to the speaker accelerates the speaker cone or electrostatic diaphragm or what ever and creates a pressure wave of sound. That is another derivative and the derivative of -cosine = sine and 360 degrees, you are home.

The only thing left hanging is whether or not you have the correct absolute phase at the end of the chain but that is easy to fix usually.

So microphone to lathe to magnetic cartridge to speaker preserves the loop.

You may have noticed that a phono cartridge that truly measures displacement means you are off by 90 degrees somewhere. Suck on that inherent superiority.

I think also if you have a digital source you are off as there is no lathe and no cartridge so you are probably off by 180 degrees unless some very anal geek inverts the signal.

BUT is does not matter!

The phase and amplitude and spectrum of the signal is preserved in there somewhere. It sounds the same to the discrete frequency detecting hairs in your inner ear. As it doesn't matter I get frustrated by some pompous ass who says it does.

Lets talk about phono pickups or cartridges if you prefer. The slaves to expense love 4 and 5 figure devices. I stay well in the three figure range.

I avoid moving coil types. No secret there if you go back in my previous stuff. I resisted because it is not just the tiny thing on the end of the tonearm, it is the other accessories. It's like buying a boat. Once you have a boat you need a trailer and a big pickup truck to haul it. Moving coils require either transformers, or outside pre-preamplifiers or stupid high gain in the phono stage. Each of those options has ardent fans who have endless bad things to say about the other options.

Transformers distort. Maybe nice distortion maybe not but signals that are not on the LP get to you.

Pre-preamps add a layer, more layers are generally not good and specifically usually bad.

High gain preamps can be noisy and depending on the method.... Oh and then there is the input impedance problem. As moving coils took over the extreme high end they required far more capacitance in the phono input than the other types. The electronics are voiced to sound better as moving magnets like Audio Technicas react very badly to high capacitance. My ARC preamp came with 600 pF at the phono inputs. I took it off.

And if you read what Mr Sound Smith says about all MC types having high frequency resonance and bad tracking well into the bin with all of them

Dig into it and very clever people who know far more than I do also avoid them. LP mastering engineers, and those two guys in New York who build Moving Iron types. The mastering gurus judge by sound. Sound Smith and Grado are competitors but have very credible things to say that are not good for moving coils.

Moving Iron and Moving Magnet types are very common and range from dirt cheap to holy shit! So If you want to spend big bucks you can. That also means there is a big choice in almost any price range you care to look at.

My most expensive pickup cost in today's money about $600 bucks. My most expensive purchase in the last 5 years was $500. My current favorite was $320. I have several between $120 to $250.

Somebody asked me (in person not virtually) about turntables. So here is a repeat of my general advice.

There are many many TTs out there. Current listings in Clist for good ones range from a couple hundred bucks to WTF. As in most things it all depends on you. How much do you want to spend? Is this a party toy or a sitting by the fire with a single malt type of experience.

I am solidly in the old camp of new versus old. Far better value, and well made ones are both simple and reliable. New products will cost more for a given performance level, but you may get help in setting it up.

Today's Clist crop is typical.

Here is an older high end unit for $300 bucks.

Here is an even older one for $1800 that was SOTA back in the day.

And here is one for a WTF price for a kinetic art unit.

All of those will play records fine, and the cheapest one is actually better than the WTF one. Knowledge is power.

There are a couple of things I look for, starting with the tone arm. Likely you will be looking at conventional pivoting arms. Curved or S shaped ones with detachable head shells are best. It makes mounting the cartridge SO MUCH EASIER. It also makes it easy to play swap the cartridge games. Fundamentally the "sound" of your vinyl front end is mostly due to the cartridge. Changing one for another can make a big difference to the voice of your system. You may even have preferences depending on what you are listening to.

If you have very good hand eye coordination a fully manual TT is fine. I do not have a reliably steady hand anymore so automatic cuing is good, as is automatic lifting at the end of a side. I have a fully automatic TT as my main system and my second TT has an auto lift feature but is almost manual otherwise. It has a good damped cuing lever.

The next choices are belt drive, direct drive, or idler drive. My preference is direct drive. There are rabid tribes preaching belt or idler types. It is less important at entry level to mid-level types, but I have had issues with both belt and idlers. My main TT is direct drive, the second one uses a belt. They all work OK.

Heavy is better than light. A heavy platter will run steadier. A heavy TT body (plinth) has better sound isolation potential. Soft feet or good suspension help with that. The basic job is to spin reliably and not transmit any vibration into the cartridge.

Finally the record mat is surprisingly important. Most platters are metal and will ring like bells without a good mat. I add a cork mat on top to do two things. It further isolates vibration and is has a good grip on the record. Records can slip on the turntable you know.

I have a few. More than I need.

Getting into the vinyl thing phono cartridges are a basic essential. They can be cheap or so expensive "that if you have to ask....."

I have heard a few. Not that many compared to what is available, but certainly a representative sample of the art.

Here is a clumsy narrative of my journey.

I started out seeking advice and hints from magazines and store salespeople. My first turntable was a Dual with a Shure M91ED cartridge that came in the package. It was OK to actually good. I was pleased with it for some time, as I really did not know better.

My next step was a Shure V15 III in a Grace 707 tonearm. In the mid 70s that was a magic combination promoted by the Gurus at TAS magazine as close to SOTA. (TAS=The Absolute Sound) It was seriously good. Frankly my system was good, but not yet high end.

Several years and a few thousand miles later I got an Audio Technica Signet TK7E which was better than the then old Shure. At that time I had monoblock tube amplifiers and a tube preamp and my first truly ambitious Speaker Tower. It was a deliberate upgrade. I was getting high endish.

That stayed in service for a long time. I was not interested in fiddling and tweaking the front end. I just wanted to listen to my LPs.

Then a problem emerged partly due to the "death of vinyl". Signets was no longer around. The availability and selection of new styli was drying up. If you do not keep the tiny diamonds fresh they will damage the records.

So I embarked on a search for replacements. That was a rabbit hole.

I explored the highly promoted world of Moving Coils. I did not have gobs of money so I did not get very expensive ones. I recall one called an AZDEN GM-1 which was high output as my preamp could not handle low output. I just looked that one up and you can still get them for $350 bucks and up. I did not care for it that much. No others were memorable.

Old names such as Pickering were out of business. Mr Pickering invented phono cartridges, as we know them, because he was dissatisfied with the quality of recording playback. He died a few years ago, even though I see ads for various models none are new as far as I can tell. Also I never saw them on any of the good stuff lists. Replacement parts are spotty, or out of production.

Shure is gone from the phono cartridge biz, though still in business with Microphones and the like. Some are available as New Old Stock. NOS in phono cartridges is not a good thing generally. The cantilevers are mounted in a flexible material that may not age well. Also it may not be truly new, but certainly old. There is a supply of new styli from several places so If you find a Shure body you can probably get it working. But first check out the prices for those styli! When I got my Phase Linear turntable there was a Shure cartridge on it. I sold it with my Sony Turntable.

My friend had an ADC XLM back in School and it was on good stuff lists. In fact it was a TAS favorite before they drank the moving coil kool aid. ADC was sold to a big company in the late 70s and survived a few years as a brand name.

Grado started up in the 50s. They are still around and very respected. Arguably they have the most experienced designer / fabricator on the Planet in Mr Grado who started in the firm as a kid working for his uncle. I had a Grado years ago and have two right now.

I have never had an Ortofon. They are very respected and the largest company in the world for phono Cartridges. They are also over 100 years old. Many people like them a lot.

There is an outlier in the DECCA cartridge. DECCA is a British electronics company, that came up with a unique solution. It is a different approach to moving iron MI aka induced magnetic. It is still manufactured under license as the "London DECCA" Cartridge. They are over $1k and loved by those so smitten. I have never heard one, but am curious.

Then there is AT. Audio Technica is a Japanese power house. They make a HUGE selection of phono cartridges in two major flavors. Moving Coil and Moving Magnet. The MM types have two tiny magnets bonded to the cantilever that vibrate between two sets of coils. I bought a few of those as my much loved Signets was a luxury brand of AT. I have three ATs that are rumored to be descended from the Signets. Of course Internet Rumors are so reliable.

I found that an ATN12s Stylus fits the Signet TK7 so it is usable again.

My current Stable is : (AT)Signets TK7e, AT 440 mla. AT7V, Grado 3 Green, and Grado Opus 3.

The others are gone. I may still have a AT95 something in a box.

All the ATs are moving magnets. All the Grados are moving iron.

I have convinced myself that moving coils are not good if you are after accuracy. That from the firm resolve of people who still cut LPs and have the master tape right there, never use those to check their work. I think it was Doug Sax who said; " I like moving coils but only on other peoples turntables."

Moving Iron may be the best method used. Grado use it as does Sound Smith and their top of the lines are candidates for the best there is. It can be very low mass and boasts stupid high frequency response.

So looping back to the start. The simplest entry to these things is to get current production from either Grado, Audio Technica, or Ortofon. I believe the best value is in Grado as the least expensive is pretty good. If anything gets you into vinyl that is a good thing.

If you have lots on money the Top of the Line Grado and Soundsmith are worth looking for.

Here is a good place to shop: https://www.lpgear.com/

Rabbit hole time!

I have too many. I have 4 mounted and ready to run. I have three more in boxes or laying on a shelf. This started as my boss cartridge was old and replacement styli were getting scarce and twearnt that good. I needed something more up to date.

Unlike many things Old phono cartridges are not necessarily any good. Styli wear out and suspension polymers age and harden. Even NOS are suspect. You really need new stuff here.

The journey started rationally.

There are several types of cartridges or pickups if you prefer. The magnetic team have three types. There is moving magnet, then moving iron, then moving coil. All use coils of wire within magnetic fields to generate tiny voltages that are amplified in a phono stage preamplifier.

There are other types too. There are exotic strain gauge types that use cool solid state technology to read movement of the stylus. Those require exotic circuits and support devices and do not need a conventional phono stage. There are capacitor based pickups that work like microphones do and also need special electronics. There was (is?) a laser beam based type that was way off the technological deep end. All are rare and expensive.

Finally there are crystal types that use piezoelectric crystals to generate voltages directly. All of those are cheap crap and need only go in the bin as soon as they are encountered.

The meat and potatoes of these things are the magnetics. Prices range from less than 50 bucks to over 300 times that. My most expensive unit is about $500 to $700 dollar replacement cost. The cheapest (on the shelf collecting dust) was $50 bucks.

Moving Magnets are abbreviated MM like the candy. In those tiny magnets are bonded to the stylus and wiggle around near coils of wire that are fixed in place. Those are really common and range from OK to OMG! Audio Technica (AT) makes really good ones. They are vulnerable to capacitive loads as the coils need be fairly high inductance and can react badly to too much capacitance in the preamp and the wires leading from the pickup to the preamp. Most of my pickups are MM.

My preamp has about 50pf load on its input and likes Audio Technicas fine. Some preamps have almost 600 pf and that makes some MMs sound awful. It may not be the pickup but the preamp if you have troubles.

Moving Iron (MI) are really interesting. In these there are coils and magnets both are fixed in place. They exploit a thing where moving a piece of iron (magnets really like iron) near the end of a pole piece will make a current in the coils. The magnets can be quite big which allows the other bits to be small. The piece of iron bonded to the stylus can be really really small. Grado and Soundsmith specialize in moving iron types. The least expensive of these is the Grado Black at around 100 bucks. The most expensive Soundsmith listed on their site is $8000 USD. The most expensive Grado is $16,000.

Grados advertise incredible bandwidth. Bass down to 10 hz and treble up to 60khz which is more than dogs can hear. I have a Grado Opus3 the cheapest of the top line. They claim they are immune to preamp capacitance problems.

Soundsmith also makes new Bang and Olufsen MMC (moving micro cross ) cartridges which are a particular type of MI. B&O cartridges are coveted by their fans.

The GURU of Soundsmith Peter Ledermann advocates with great fervor that moving Iron is the best and moving coils suck. Visit the website for the lecture.

https://www.sound-smith.com/articles/fixed-coil-vs-moving-coil-why-make-jump-different-technology

Very well thought out actually.

That brings us to moving coils (MC). It is accepted by many that anything but MC is dog shit. It is literally an article of faith. Let the golden ears guide you child. In MCs the coils are wound on tiny armatures and these are bonded to the stylus cantilever. It is finicky and the stiffness of the armature, size of the coils, and how they are bonded all make a difference as they wiggle about.

Most larger manufacturers make MCs as there is a demand. AT, Denon, Ortofon, and several others sell what people buy and are good at it. Ortofon is the largest selling producer of all types is over 100 years old and has about 100 employees. Big is a relative term.

I explored this as there are some affordable units of good reputation. But it is never that simple. MCs are usually low output and good ones require either special preamps or input transformers or other voodoo all not cheap. Adding that to the cost of the pickup makes them all fairly expensive to own. Another common thing is they are usually disposable. Once the diamond wears out you either buy new, or send it in to be retipped. Not cheap.

Retipping is also true of Soundsmith and the high end of Grados. Not having replaceable styli has subtle benefits to performance.

A large factor to MC popularity is that high end manufacturers expect customers to use MCs so they adjust (voice) their products to favor them. (Audio Research) You can adjust it back if comfortable with solder.

As faith is involved debate gets heated. Actually not debate which is a rational logical process. It is a bloody fight between sides.

As I value rational thought I scraped through the debris of battle and found some information. GRADO had an original Patent on MCs decades ago but decided it just was not as good for them. Doug Sax a recognized master of making LPs did not like any MC types. He QCd his master lacquers with moving magnets or moving iron. He really liked the Shure V15 mk 3 and up. Mr Ledermann is quite convincing as well.

Add to all that is it is plain that some types of distortion are enjoyed and preferred. Microphonic vacuum tubes can add an aire and texture to the sound that is not on the recording, but sounds so nice. Apparently MC pickups can do the same thing.

In any event you really have to spend big bucks to appreciate the differences or even to detect them.

I can testify to the overall sound of my collection of pickups is quite similar. The key middle parts with vocals and particular instruments are all pretty good. Differences I find are in tiny details and textures. Most telling to me is rendition of space around a performer. The lower end units sound flat, as in front to back. Better units sound deep.

My current Boss pickup is the Grado Opus3. I have nothing bad to say about it. It is similar to the AT 440 and 7V but with just a bit more something.

That all brings it down to cost. The Grado Opus 3 is about half the price of the "good" MM ATs. My Preamp would cost 3 to 5 times the cost of the cartridge to replace. I am convinced you need that level to appreciate this stuff. The Turntable is also from 1.5 to 5 times the cost of the cartridge.

That term and it’s variations such as the sharp end usually mean the start or first thing to encounter a thing.  It is perfectly used in reference to Vinyl Audio.

The stylus or needle or whatever you call it is very pointy when it touches the LP.

Here are some pictures I took with a microscope.  It magnifies, but I think it shows a simple fisheye sort of distortion. These things are not as twisted as they may appear.  All the shots were taken with the same settings and magnification.

This is the end of the stylus for my original TK7E Signets.  The part number is TKN3.  You can see how tiny the diamond is.  You can also see that the metal arm holding it is small and tapered.  Finally you can see how the end is crimped.  This is a so called NUDE mount.

Compare this one below.

This is the current TKN22 replacement for the same cartridge.  Both are shot with the same magnification.  The metal arm is a large tube and the diamond is glued on.  That is called BONDED and is heavier.  The TKN3 is no longer made. It is no surprise that they do not work the same.

This one below here is a compatible stylus for the AT12s that fits the TK7E Body

It is much more like the original though the diamond is larger and the arm is a bit chunkier. Still it fits the old Signet and is “better” than the official replacement.  Both of these are still made and available online.

They all work which is not surprising, but they are different and sound different which is also not surprising.

How about this one here:

This is a AT 440 MLa stylus.  Nude mounted, visibly tapered very small diamond. Not unlike the TKN3.  A shame it does not fit the Signet.  This one is noted for its very good high frequency response when it is properly loaded with capacitance.

So if you wondered what the difference is between NUDE and BONDED diamond mounts is there you go.  NUDE is better for response.  A more subtle thing is if you look at the bend at the end the center of the tube lines up with the diamond part that contacts the record.  Where that does not happen some of the signal becomes a twisting action rather than a translation.

It is a shame they do not make proper replacements for the Signets.  It is an excellent cartridge even with the big tube stylus. 

Here is another picture.

This is the top view of the TKN3.  Aside from being old and worn you can see it is bent.  Probably an accident but a permanent flaw.  I suppose that some crazy people may look for New Old Stock for these.  I have seen ads for them. The way these cartridges work is the cantilever arm is mounted to a flexible joint of some type of rubber like material just visible top left.  That stuff does not age well.  The grey cylinder near the top is a magnet that activates coils mounted above it.  I think most Audio Technicas work this way.  I like it philosophically as it is simple and direct.

One more picture.  This is the vessel A3SE.

I found this a disappointment for the least expensive model.  You can almost see why.  The diamond is large and the arm quite chunky.  This cartridge runs from $100 to $680 US and the only difference is the stylus.  Arguably making better styli is really hard and fussy.  You get what you pay for.

I spent Saturday going through a lot of albums.  Almost all date from the 70s and 80s.  I was playing it loud for three reasons. One there is a construction job going on next door and the cats are upset.  Two the wife is away helping with the grandkids.  Three I like it.

An important reason for having lots of Watts (500 ish) is to be able to play loud clearly.  A big amp loafing will sound better than a little one straining.  (Sorry class A triode guys)

So comments, conclusions and all that?

I am gaining even more respect for the Audio Technica AT7V.  I am hearing new things on several albums. Different balances and details emerge. But one thing I had not thoroughly tested, really big classical recordings.  Well check that box.

Saint-Saens Symphony #3 L A Philharmonic Zubin Mehta.  It is called the Organ Symphony as its got one. And a couple of Pianos.  Camille Saint Saens was a keyboard prodigy on the order of Mozart.  He was the organist for several large cathedrals as it was a solid income.  He knows that instrument.  He wrote a fair bit of music. He was a hero and teacher to many notable later composers. He did good work. This one is a LONDON /DECCA LP FFRR dating from 1971.  Still in remarkable shape.  This is a solid bit of the repertoire.

This symphony is a big as they get.  There is lots going on and the little AT7V pulls it all out.  Even with the Organ roaring all the other instruments are there and in their proper places and most important they sound right.  Woodwinds sound woody, Brass is brassy and big drums shake the room.  Oh and when the low pedals of an Organ fire up that shows up on the Richter scale.

As a side note this level of clarity needs a special amplification stage.  You either need dual Mono amps or an amp with independent power supply or filtering each channel.  Full out there will be crosstalk through shared power supply rails.  It sounds like mud and confusion.  Some people will blame the wrong thing when they hear that.  It is the power amp.

Now I am not going to say this is the best sound possible.  There really is no best.  We are getting everything off the record.  I was just listening to the performance and it is a good one.  It is about the music.