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I have recently purchased a Stanton "WOS CS100" and over the weekend, set it up in my Magnepan Unitrac (tracking at 1.1gm) and had a listen.
A mighty fine sound ... I suspect I will end up selling my Grado Reference Reference1 as a result! :-)) (Just needs more of a listen and then I'll have to mount the Grado in the same arm, to make a final decision.)
The WOS CS100 is not common but I suspect it is similar to a Stanton 980HZS (or 981HZS). So my question to 980/981HZS owners is ... does the 980/981HZS have a preferred resistance loading which is different to the nominally recommended 47K?
I ask because my Grado RR1 is nominally set up for 47K loading – but various people here have posted that it sounds better at 33-35K. So I’m wondering whether Stanton devotees have made similar experiments?
Thanks,
Andy
Follow Ups:
Andy,
I would suggest you post your question at Lenco Heaven in the "cartridge styli" section.
One of the regular posters there is Richard Steinfeld, who actually did write the book on Stanton cartridges.
Great resource on all things Stanton.
.
The CS100 is indeed a wonderful cartridge! Actually, the 981HZS is quite different - the coil inductance for the 981HZS is 450mH compared to 270mH for the CS100 (mine measures 230mH at 1kHz).
I'm assuming you bought the CS100 second hand so I guess you won't know if the stylus is the original or not. However, if the kit is complete you should have a frequency response chart. The chart is produced for the recommended load of 47k, 275pF.
I've been very happy with 47k and 200pF.
One thing you may notice from the instruction booklet, the stylus is described as a Stereohedron II, but the tip dimensions are actually elliptical 0.3x0.7 mil. I bought mine during the end of line sellout in 1996 and my original stylus (longish cantilever) is indeed an elliptical. However, I chanced upon some original Stereohedron II styli and these are jewellery grade (transparent) diamond tips with an ultra short cantilever.
If you have a 10x loupe and a bright light you should be able to tell straight away what tip you have - the elliptical should show a bright flat spot on the front face. Also it was on a longer cantilever.
Regards
Anthony
Regards Anthony
"Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.." Keats
Great to get your post, flood2. :-))Yes, I bought it s/hand. Here's a couple of pics I took with my USB microscope of the cantilever & stylus - perhaps you can tell me whether it's an original?
Is that a short cantilever?
Now, re. re-tipping ... a mate of mine (who loves Stantons and has a 980LZS) knows a guy called Richard Stein - who, it seems, worked at Stanton for a while - who is supposed to be a "world expert" on Stantons. Anyway, he recommends Expert Stylus in the UK for re-tipping.
I contacted them and they said they will re-tip with a "Paratrace" profile. This seems like it would better than a conical stylus (even though it's theoretically supposed to be a stereohedron). So that's what I am intending to have done.
BTW, would you be able to photocopy or fax the user manual and send it to me? I just bought the cartridge - nothing else.
And re. " 47k and 200pF " - is the phono stage set to 200pF load ... or is that including the capacitance of the phono cable?
Regards,Andy
Edits: 10/13/14 10/13/14 10/13/14
Hi
The load capacitance is "everything" from the phono stage capacitance plus all intermediate cabling (incl tonearm wire). I'm not a believer in fiddling with the load away from the recommended values - I use a white noise test tone to calibrate the response (for transcription purposes) and I digitally equalise my recordings. When considering overall bandwidth and uniformity, I have yet to get an improvement by deviating away from the standard load.
Others will undoubtedly disagree with me. However, I trust that the engineers knew what they were doing when they created the specifications!
Hard to tell from your pictures, but it looks like it's the short cantilever so very possibly a Stereohedron but I can't be sure! From the relative size, it looks to be a bonded tip (of a similar size to the ones on my D88S styli which is not a nude tip. Stanton was very inconsistent in my experience. I've got D4500S styli that are supposedly bonded but are actually nude. Anyway, a moot point as I wouldn't trust the stylus condition of any supposedly NOS cartridge that is > 20 years old!
What is the tip azimuth like? You are very lucky if the stylus is actually perpendicular with respect to the mounting! If the cantilever isn't skewed, then you could get anything up to 10 degrees off...such was Stanton QC in their twilight years.
Don't worry, even though Stanton QC was atrocious, you are unlikely to have a spherical stylus! The tip may look large as it is fundamentally derived from a 2.8 mil 78 rpm tip. However, as you may be aware, the Stereohedron is very similar to the Shure Hyperellptical which is a derivative of a Shibata except they make 4 cuts - one in each quadrant and the intersections of each cut on the scanning surface give a line. If you were to chop off the cone tip, you get a diamond shape.
I've been planning to use Expert Stylus as well as I've got a number of Stanton styli ready for retipping. Expert used to be a distributor for Stanton in the past so they are very experienced with retipping Stanton product - when I contacted them in July, they told me to hold off until late Aug and since then I just haven't got round to it. I guess I'll now be behind you in the queue!! ;)
Regards Anthony
"Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.." Keats
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