Your videos are really awesome for those of us who care and are truly interested. My ears aren't so good anymore and they all sounded good. I think I prefer the Stanton but maybe because I once owned the 681EEE. Thanks!!
The V15 sounds great. You're creating quite a record (if you'll pardon the pun) of the characteristics, history, and even the sound of these wonderful old cartridges. Thank you for doing this, and I hope you're uploading to the Internet Archive as well as RU-vid, to help insure the longevity of the record you're creating. Also, on IA, people can download your files and hear them without the audio compression RU-vid imposes.
I've had Stanton, Acutex, Grado and Empire these are all moving iron . Also Ortofon ,Shure and Audio Teknica moving magnet cartridges. I always come back to the Stanton 681 moving iron. The other nice thing about the 681 is the number of distinctly different styli that were available to use and worth having more than 1 kind more like 4 on hand like the 680EL disco duty for when it was right.
the V 15 name refers to the then new idea of matching the cutter head angles of the time, about 15 degrees, to the playback needle . the final version was so good, it still supports a Japanese aftermarket for the replaceable stylus.
I have very fond memories of testing various phono cartridges, turntables, and highend tonearms while working at a Hi-Fi establisment many years ago. In my opinion you could not go wrong when choosing a Shure, all of thier cartridges sounded excelent in thier respective price catagory. My next choice would be the Stanton line, the 581 and later 881 were masterpieces and second only to the V15 . Thank you for showing this video.
Stanton 581 for me. Big fat bass on the timpani and nice strings. ADC second, Empire 3rd and V15 4th. The Shure sounded muddled in the bass to me. All of them sound better than the modern rubbish. I would be happy with any of them.
To me the Shure was the cleanest, with the Stanton second. The other two just sounded bad. I wouldn't touch any of these today. A cheap AT VM95E will easily eat all of their lunch
@@johnstone7697 It's amazing how we all hear differently isn't it? I still use a Shure V15 mk3. I also have an atvm95c, 95e and 95ml. Compared to the v15 and Stanton 681eee they sound like cheap rubbish so I don't think things have moved on as far as people would believe. The Shure m75ed still leaves the vm95e out to dry.
Stanton stands out, agree, but mostly due to the "Naim sound", the PRAT thing. I'd rather go for Shure here, sounds most neutral. So, continuing with Brit-Fi ref ADC is most "Arcam";)
I like the Stanton most. I've had all brands but the Empire and i still prefer Stanton. I do, however like the Shure with its high output and the and the Audio Technica Shibata for its clarity, although its output is lower. I do listen to a lot of mono records and 78's and the Ortofon 2M is great for those. I'm thinking it is just a strapped output and I'm looking for a true mono cartridge.
The Stanton Steriohedron is a great stylus tip too. I'll go out on limb here and say for two channel stereo the Steriohedron is the best. Yeah put an album on close the lid and press play it does everything else including clean the record. It even knows what size the album is as long as it is opaque and not clear there is even a manual setting for that. Saving that Steriohedron so I got a bunch of bonded hypereliptical styli to use up. They are good enough that I haven't put the Steriohedron back on yet ...it does sound better...I need to keep it as a reference.
