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In Reply to: And... posted by mosin on April 17, 2007 at 15:37:17:
Let me add I tried to find spmething out on the Aurum Beta MKII originally when I was looking at the cartidge, and never could find any comparisons with it to anything including the AT-93E. Different though if what you say is true, is tha fact that it does have a better stylus, and an totally different body, made out of some type of alloy with the drilled and tapped body, so would seem quite a bit different.While the Pearl Shelter thing is the same body with a different colr, and a stylus that is identical.
Follow Ups:
The body of the Aurum Beta S is the same alloy as the AT-95E, although it does differ from the Linn K9. There isn't anything particularly special about AT's body on its lower lineup, and I don't see anything drilled and tapped there. The Aurum Beta S is an Audio-Technica with a jazzed up look about it. The primary components of both the Aurum Beta S and the Linn K9 are sourced from Audio-Technica, and both are very easily re-tipped, although Clearaudio charges its customers who have their cartridge a fortune for that service.The photo is of the Aurum Beta S beside the Linn K9. There is a strong similarity between that pair and Audio-Techinca's Signet 5.0 Series, as well as the less expensive AT-95E.
So...
What makes the Beta S different from the Beta MKII? I don't know, but when I get my hands on one, I'll find out. Someone could post a closeup photo, and more than likely, we would be able to tell something about its origin. My bet is that we would be able to figure it out without a great deal of difficulty.
Aurum Beta S, trashed cantilever and all. S'posed to be a II but it isn't marked.
Please excuse my taking my brand new Canon A630 out of the box half an hour ago:-)
Same thing, different body color.
What I meant is the body of my Beta MKII is an alloy body drilled and tapped for the screws. It is not wood. Beyond that it is all I know. What I have read that there are a lot of similarity in many cartridges, but that they have difference in stylus, body, etc,,, which I suppose justifies some price differences??
Bear in mind that the bulk of the profit is made by the dealer, however. That said, not every brand has the same profit structure, performance level, or manufacturing cost. The trick is in finding the best bang for the buck, and that isn't always an easy task. (I know this all too well.)
Well, since we are talking about it, where is a good guideline or starting point for cartridges let's say $500.00 or a little one way or the other ?
I think there are some amazing cartridges at much lower prices than that. I believe diminishing returns rapidly take over above $500/600 or so.
I have a lot of cartridges. I made a conscious decision to buy a bunch of good lower cost models (over time of course) rather than one "super expensive" one. I enjoy switching them in and out and listening for differences with my favorite recordings. I have three systems set up too.
I think four of the cartridges I have can give many of the mega buck cartridges a run for their money. They are the Denon DL-160 ($180), Ortofon Samba ($225), Denon DL103R ($379) and Dynavector ($380). Note that they are from companies that build their own and do not seem to overprice their offerings, imo.
Even the A-T440MLa, A-TOC9ML/II and Denon DL-110 are tough to beat and sound great too.
This is a sensitive issue, but some of the very high end cartridges would be beat out in blind listening, I'm sure.
With anything you can buy, the real values are in the middle price ranges. Same with watches, cars, wine whatever!
Madame Lalou Bize-Leroy makes some damned fine wine.
And I could take a short drive into the Alsace to Trimbach and find you a wine for around $50 that is one of the top five whites in all of France, easily competing with burgundies (Chardonnays) that cost anywhere from 10 to 30 times the price. And many, many wines for around $15 that will put the more famous names to shame.
I'm not really a good guy to ask because I tend to use cartridges from back when. I did have a Grado Platinum reference that sounded pretty good, but I traded it to another guy around here. It was a $300 cartridge, and I actually liked it better than the $500 Sonata. I have an NOS cartridge that I like better than both, so I suppose your mileage will vary.If I had the extra money, I would add a ZYX Universe and a Blue Angel Mantis to the stable. I would appreciate it, if you would PayPal $10,000 to my account. ;)
I think we've been here before....
*
groove
- I remember it like it was only yesterday, sure, now let's think, it was a dark and rainy morning when all of a sudden there was a crack of lightning and then,......... (Open in New Window)
From the days of yore.
Some of those Andante cartridges were made by Grace, and sold by Sumiko.
The Andante's were indeed Grace's. However just because Grace is no more, doesn't mean their former design staff are out of work, eh? :-)
Me, I'm just a lawnmower, you can tell me by the way I walk....
-Ray
Thanks, to bad this was not there a year or so a go. This is written as if the 201 is new, I bought mine early last year when they were REAL new.
I saw it for the first time a few days ago. It also happened to be the first time I looked at the Elusive Disc web site.
I guess my "regular cartridge dealer" Needledoctor never carried it.
Doggy, I find a few others that also don't maybe that is why they won't.
I was thinking of buying one myself. I was most interested in the fact that it has the same body as the Garrotts.
Since you noticed the resemblance I need not post a picture, just compare the the Sumiko and the Shelter to the K-series Garrott. Odd, but it was my impression the body used for the Garrott was said to be a Grado. I was led to believe it might be because it invoked that well-known Grado hum on my Heybrook TT-2. I replaced it with a Denon DL-160, which still hums a little but not nearly as bad.
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