Another move upwards

[rabski]

This time, courtesy of the classifieds and rather a bargain in the form of an AT OC9XML, unused and a good whack off list (thanks John, @tidywires). It ended up sitting here in the box for a little while, but I spent some time today nailing it to the Linn arm on the GL75 and it's happily playing now.

To be fair, a Linn Basik Plus is probably at the limit of its abilities with it, but it certainly doesn't sound outclassed. Anyway, the compliance suggests it's good match and it tracks superbly. I've got the VTA about bang on horizontal at the moment, but alignment was straightforward,

Why, you may well ask, did I buy it when I already have a rather excellent AT 50ANV on the Well Tempered? Good question really. It does allow me to ease off on running up the hours on the 50, as replacing that eventually is going to hurt a lot more. With another good MC, I can stretch the life of the 50ANV until the hifi fund is replenished enough to go a bit more insane. Also, I'd always fancied having a go at pushing the GL75 a touch more, as it sounded so damned good with an AT95EN that it seemed worth a go. Lastly, the Well Tempered has been screaming out for a strip down, arm rewire and set up from scratch again for ages. I've been putting that off, because I don't want to be without 'serious' vinyl for any length of time, but attacking the Well Tempered is not going to be a five-minute job: not least because Johnnie (Audio Origami) hasn't got time to do do the arm, so I'm going to have to tackle the internal rewire here. I am seriously not looking forward to that...

Anyway, back the the OC9. How does it sound? Better than I'd hoped for, to be honest. It's got the typical 'wide and clear' AT sound, but the detail is surprisingly good without over-emphasising the top end at all. The mids are not at all far behind the 50 and nor is the extreme top end delicacy. Bass is too early to tell. It's not even got an hour on it yet, and I know AT moving coils usually need a good 20-50 hours to come properly alive in the low frequencies, but it's no slouch nevertheless. It's already deep, and as tight as a duck's dodah.

A happy bunny indeed. Most of all, very happy that my old 'family rescue' GL75 is proving to be a real gem.

 

[Rockchild]

This time, courtesy of the classifieds and rather a bargain in the form of an AT OC9XML, unused and a good whack off list (thanks John, @tidywires). It ended up sitting here in the box for a little while, but I spent some time today nailing it to the Linn arm on the GL75 and it's happily playing now.

To be fair, a Linn Basik Plus is probably at the limit of its abilities with it, but it certainly doesn't sound outclassed. Anyway, the compliance suggests it's good match and it tracks superbly. I've got the VTA about bang on horizontal at the moment, but alignment was straightforward,

Why, you may well ask, did I buy it when I already have a rather excellent AT 50ANV on the Well Tempered? Good question really. It does allow me to ease off on running up the hours on the 50, as replacing that eventually is going to hurt a lot more. With another good MC, I can stretch the life of the 50ANV until the hifi fund is replenished enough to go a bit more insane. Also, I'd always fancied having a go at pushing the GL75 a touch more, as it sounded so damned good with an AT95EN that it seemed worth a go. Lastly, the Well Tempered has been screaming out for a strip down, arm rewire and set up from scratch again for ages. I've been putting that off, because I don't want to be without 'serious' vinyl for any length of time, but attacking the Well Tempered is not going to be a five-minute job: not least because Johnnie (Audio Origami) hasn't got time to do do the arm, so I'm going to have to tackle the internal rewire here. I am seriously not looking forward to that...

Anyway, back the the OC9. How does it sound? Better than I'd hoped for, to be honest. It's got the typical 'wide and clear' AT sound, but the detail is surprisingly good without over-emphasising the top end at all. The mids are not at all far behind the 50 and nor is the extreme top end delicacy. Bass is too early to tell. It's not even got an hour on it yet, and I know AT moving coils usually need a good 20-50 hours to come properly alive in the low frequencies, but it's no slouch nevertheless. It's already deep, and as tight as a duck's dodah.

A happy bunny indeed. Most of all, very happy that my old 'family rescue' GL75 is proving to be a real gem.

Must be good Richard as you don’t start many threads
I too have the same cartridge and after those hours, you do question ‘why pay more’
It’s an excellent cartridge.

 

[rabski]

I'll have a better idea after 20 hours or so, but it's closer to the 50ANV than I expected to be honest. Ah well, that means the next move has to wait a while until the hifi coffers are a little more replenished. I still have an urge to find out whether the Well Tempered will, as I suspect, do justice to something really 'serious'.

 

[Rockchild]

I'll have a better idea after 20 hours or so, but it's closer to the 50ANV than I expected to be honest. Ah well, that means the next move has to wait a while until the hifi coffers are a little more replenished. I still have an urge to find out whether the Well Tempered will, as I suspect, do justice to something really 'serious'.

Btw, Jonnie says he only does Rega and his own arms now which is a disappointment.

 

[rabski]

Btw, Jonnie says he only does Rega and his own arms now which is a disappointment.

At the moment, yes. Had a good chat the other day. It's not that he won't or doesn't want to, it's simply that he's got no time. That's a good thing in a way, because it means his stuff is doing deservedly well.

In another way, it's a bad thing. Because it means I've got to do the WT arm here. I really don't like tonearm wires. Under my watch, they have a disconcerting habit of becoming shorter as if by magic. At least Johnnie has obliged me with a wiring set with the cartridge tags soldered on, and with his Zavfino silver stuff.

Happily now it can wait a week or two.

 

[DomT]

This time, courtesy of the classifieds and rather a bargain in the form of an AT OC9XML, unused and a good whack off list (thanks John, @tidywires). It ended up sitting here in the box for a little while, but I spent some time today nailing it to the Linn arm on the GL75 and it's happily playing now.

To be fair, a Linn Basik Plus is probably at the limit of its abilities with it, but it certainly doesn't sound outclassed. Anyway, the compliance suggests it's good match and it tracks superbly. I've got the VTA about bang on horizontal at the moment, but alignment was straightforward,

Why, you may well ask, did I buy it when I already have a rather excellent AT 50ANV on the Well Tempered? Good question really. It does allow me to ease off on running up the hours on the 50, as replacing that eventually is going to hurt a lot more. With another good MC, I can stretch the life of the 50ANV until the hifi fund is replenished enough to go a bit more insane. Also, I'd always fancied having a go at pushing the GL75 a touch more, as it sounded so damned good with an AT95EN that it seemed worth a go. Lastly, the Well Tempered has been screaming out for a strip down, arm rewire and set up from scratch again for ages. I've been putting that off, because I don't want to be without 'serious' vinyl for any length of time, but attacking the Well Tempered is not going to be a five-minute job: not least because Johnnie (Audio Origami) hasn't got time to do do the arm, so I'm going to have to tackle the internal rewire here. I am seriously not looking forward to that...

Anyway, back the the OC9. How does it sound? Better than I'd hoped for, to be honest. It's got the typical 'wide and clear' AT sound, but the detail is surprisingly good without over-emphasising the top end at all. The mids are not at all far behind the 50 and nor is the extreme top end delicacy. Bass is too early to tell. It's not even got an hour on it yet, and I know AT moving coils usually need a good 20-50 hours to come properly alive in the low frequencies, but it's no slouch nevertheless. It's already deep, and as tight as a duck's dodah.

A happy bunny indeed. Most of all, very happy that my old 'family rescue' GL75 is proving to be a real gem.

Great write up. Those Lencos are something special. I took my first replinthed one to a dealer to remove the arm and fit a Linn Basic Plus arm. They were a Linn dealer and couldn’t believe how good it sounded. Later I took my very custom Lenco cost c£1500 to a Linn dealer and there wasn’t a lot in it between it and a £4,000 Linn LP12 both with same cartridges.

If you are enjoying the Lenco then may I suggest that a Jelco 750D would work well on it and may work better for your new cartridge.

 

[Ian]

I always warm to hearing about classic but lower (much lower in this case) priced gear performing well. The GL75 TTs always seemed incredible value to me.

 

[MotherSky]

I'll have a better idea after 20 hours or so, but it's closer to the 50ANV than I expected to be honest. Ah well, that means the next move has to wait a while until the hifi coffers are a little more replenished. I still have an urge to find out whether the Well Tempered will, as I suspect, do justice to something really 'serious'.

Having failed to pay proper attention to the floor plan, I have belatedly realised that it must have been your Well Tempered that I heard at the WAM show the other day - a design that I have long admired from afar, but never previously encountered in the flesh - it's based on such brilliantly simple engineering principles, one can't help but admire the thinking behind it. I must say that I was very taken with what I heard: possibly the room itself may have been less than perfect, but there was certainly bugger all wrong with the performance of your cartridge - MH