AT150SA Cartridge for 9" JMW Memorial Tonearm

[Packgrog]

For the love of Vinyl, Waxxy, dust your gear!!!

[Waxxy]

That's another great trait of the AT150sa...it's nearly immune to dust and groove noise. No need for pristine records / playback equipment!

I would normally dust before taking a photo, but what you see is the reality of the situation 90% of the time. You should see my high-gloss Aries...it looks like it's wearing a sweater!

[Dorian]

For the love of Vinyl, Waxxy, dust your gear!!!

No offense Waxy but that was my first thought too! That LP looks pretty badly beat up too!

[Waxxy]

For the love of Vinyl, Waxxy, dust your gear!!!

No offense Waxy but that was my first thought too! That LP looks pretty badly beat up too!

Check out my amp. You must be sickened!

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[DeeCee]

*whew!* I thought it was just me and some OCD kicking in (and I'm not exactly Mr. Clean myself... )

[JohnCh]

I thought a thick layer of dust dampens airborne vibrations, resulting in improved inner detail?

-John

[lizzardkingseattle]

Waxxy


Yes the KAB subsonic filter did the trick in eliminating speaker pumping without loss of fidelity. You are right there should be more subsonic filters on Phono Stages because speaker pump is so hard on both the speakers and the amp driving them.

I have noticed my AT150sa is getting a lot more detail and smoother sound as the newer cartridge breaks in. I have been using the AT 607 stylus cleaning formula with good results too. Figured I would use their cleaner with their stylus since I didn't want a chance ruining the glue they use to set the stylus on the cantilever. I will be keeping an eye out for other ATs to try in the future, I have been impressed by their performance even though my tonearm is not perfect for their cartridges.

[Waxxy]

Update...

I've moved the AT150sa over to my Aries / JMW-10 and there is significantly reduced woofer pumping. This may be partially due to a change in tonearm mass, but I also believe the fluid damping is doing it's job and attenuating the low frequency arm / cartridge resonance. The AT150sa sounds even better on this combo, gaining a dollop of weight while losing a bit of edge / grain. How much of this is down to better tracking on the arm, or the different sonic signatures of the two turntables (Scout / Aries) I can't say, but the AT is one hell of a cart and is a great match for either combo.

As far as the subsonic filter, I've had phono stages with them and without. One of the phonos had it built into the circuit and you couldn't turn it off. I liked the sound of that particular unit, but when I have the option of turning off the subsonic filter, I prefer the overall sound without one in circuit. Mind you, if I'm going to crank up some tunes, I'll engage the SS filter to keep distortion as low as possible. It's nice to have the option. Especially if running low powered amps and / or speakers with small main drivers. I'm doing the latter at the moment.