The issue with B&O cartridges isn't wear - it's the rubber suspension.

It hardens and can restrict cantilever movement; sibilance, lack of bass and noticable inner grove distortion are typical symptoms.

The older cartridges aren't as badly affected compared to the newer MMCx series, I haven't had a MMC 20 cartridge fail on me yet though I have friends who had.

Wouldn't hurt to see how it performs on a cartridge test LP such as

The MMC20CL I have doesn't behave like that at all. It clears all my torture record tracks (even the last "grooves"), but it lacks treble and surface noise is quite high.

The treble setting on my Beomaster 8000 has to be set at 3.5 to get treble level back. Bass is prodigious however !

Thanks for the advice!

My MMC20CL is also doing very well on a test record, no problem there. Hopefully this means that what I see in the microscope is correct - no significant wear.

Anyway the high frequencies are badly missing. I'll try using a different phono stage and lowering the capacitance... This may help (but it's a pity that the phono stage of the Beomaster 8000 doesn't work as well as I'd like with this cart). I'll let you know!

Already tried that. Adding 200pF restores some lower treble, but not upper treble. 

The Beomaster phono stage is one of the best by the way.

So we have the same problem after all, I hadn't understood what you meant by "close". Closed-in perhaps?

The treble setting on my ears unfortunately is almost definitely set to -5 these days! The Soundsmith cartridges however always seem much livelier in the treble department if that is what you want. It would be interesting to compare a number of CLs and see how they compare on a frequency analyser. Anyone fancy doing this? I can probably lend them a number of CLs - I think I have three worth testing! I would be happy to send down these and a couple of Axel's retips if anyone has the machinery to test them! I am almost eclusively using an SP2 these days when I listen to vinyl!

Peter,

Did you really expect no replies on your statement? ;-)

The SP2 is a spherical diamond, right?

IIRC, it came in 4 sizes, according to color - 12u, 17u, 25u, and 75u radius

You sued to be a fan of the MMC20EN. What do you hear differently with the SP2?

Menahem

My SP2 is actually an Axel special commissioned by Frede for me. Elliptical diamond - lots of detail and because it is on the 12" arm on my Beogram 3000 Thorens, bass that would make any 4000 weep with envy! 😁

20EN is an excellent cartridge - my favourite however was the 6000 though. I say was , partly because I no longer have a decent one, and also because my high frequency hearing is simply no longer what it was and distinguishing cartridges is becoming beyond me!!

I have been measuring a lot of cartridges over time and the general result of the B&O cartridges is the frequency range is not like the original specifications but it is very close.

Especially if I test a cartridge where Axel Schürholz has replaced the rubber suspension the test results are very good.

I have tested the following specifications of the cartridges for my costumers:

Frequency range

Channel separation

Channel difference

Sensitivity

Output

Distortion

And I have found test record a few weeks ago which means I can test tractability.

I have been testing mostly the SP family (SP1/2 – SP6/7 – SP8/9 – SP10 – SP12 – SP14)

I find a small drop at the high end and also at the low end and a typical example is attached here.

I have also seen some SP6/7 where a lift after 8 kHz is typical – the lift is perhaps only 3-4dB.

The low end characteristic for the SP14 here is very typical for most B&O SP cartridges.

The sonic result is a warm pleasant sound.

The test equipment I am using is of course a collection of vinyl specially cut for the individual test and a PC based test equipment using a high-end soundcard and software for spectrum analyzing. 

/Frede