Stanton 681EEE Calibration Standard.
In original wood box. Original paperwork and matching serial number. Has the original stylus with it but also a new Jico Elliptical aftermarket as pictured. Unknown hours on the original but the aftermarket span one record to test. Nice collector piece as well as a great cart!
$250 for quick sale. (New stylus alone is $50)
St Kilda East Victoria
Reason: Thorens upgrade needs financing and I have too many carts.
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/opinions-info-on-stanton-681eee.207881/
"It’s still made, and is currently Stanton’s best cartridge, as it was back in the 1970’s, until the 881S was released. The 681EEE cartridge is a “moving iron” cartridge. See here for an explanation of how that differs from MC or MM cartridges http://www.decibelhifi.com.au/webcontent23.htm . I’ve been listening to, servicing and building hi-fi for more than 30 years, both as an electronics engineer (in another field, related to sound) and part time hi-fi serviceman for several dealers, and I’ve seen the 681EEE reviewed by countless magazines over the years, and can’t remember one review that didn’t like the sound. I do own one, along with an 881S, and while it’s not the best cartridge I’ve ever heard or owned, I’d happily live with it if I had to sell all my others. All that I’ve heard which sounded better were more expensive.
It’s still a very competitive cartridge among other cartridges in its price range. I have a comprehensive test of a number of cartridges around the same price level in the UK, including tracking, distortion, frequency response and sound tests, by a UK magazine in 2004. I must have been thinking of buying something then, because I rarely buy hi-fi magazines these days. They tested the following cartridges: Stanton 681EEE, Audio Technica AT-440ML (not the later, and current, 440MLa), Shure M97xE, Ortofon 510Mk2, Grado Prestige Silver and Goldring 1006, as “affordable MM cartridges”. It was quite a technical test, and being an engineer, I thought it was one of the best I’ve seen recently, as the measuring proved why objective testing is so valuable to back up their listening test comments, which it did, plainly showing the differences they were hearing. They tested for different loading to see which loading gave the best results and flattest response for each cartridge.
The order of merit overall, including their comments in quotes, and mine without, was:
1st Goldring 1006:tresbon: (OK, it was a UK test, so it may be no surprise that a UK cartridge took out the prize!![:D]()
However, it did have the flattest frequency response and was a very good tracker, although it suffered some high frequency drooping on the inner grooves. “Superlative value for money” - it was made in the UK, so it should be – “few obvious nasties”. It also had by far the best stereo separation, beating the next best by 6dB. They did say it needed careful attention to VTA, as setting that wrong would make it sound dull, and it was quite sensitive to different settings.)
2nd Stanton 681EEE (“tracking was superb”, “a very fine unit which deserves an excellent turntable and arm to partner it”, “delightful” - they obviously really liked it, even if it was made in the wrong country:D, “stylus is superb, suffering virtually no inner groove loss” – here they meant high frequency losses at the inner grooves, and their frequency response graphs showed it was far better than all the others on inner grooves, including the AT-440ML, which was also quite good. The 681EEE also had possibly the flattest frequency response out to 12kHz, but after that there was a quite sharp peak to be +3dB at 16kHz, but which didn’t make it sound too bright, as it’s well above most people’s hearing upper limit, unless you’re 20 or younger.)
3rd Grado Prestige Silver (“adds warmth” “measurable weaknesses, but they are not major”, “tracks well” apart from some “slight shakiness” on the torture tracks, “a tad pricey”. The frequency response was quite uneven, compared to the others, with the bass starting out well, and then a general downward drooping as the frequency rose, with a few droops and then a sharp peak at 10kHz, which wasn’t as high in level as the bass region, followed by a further tilt down to 20kHz.:nono: That overall droop in level as the frequency gets higher is what gives it the characteristic Grado warmth that some people love.)
4th Shure M97xE (“classic high frequency roll off” causing “a warm sound”. Tracking wasn’t very good, even with the stabiliser down, which was a surprise, based on Shure’s past superb tracking performance, which they commented about, and were also surprised, like me, that it didn’t appear to meet the standards of past Shure models.)
5th AT-440ML (This was the best tracker of the lot, as you’d expect with the microline stylus. However, it had a large peak at high frequencies: +2dB at 6.3kHz, +3dB at 8kHz, and over 3dB at 20kHz, which made it sound "too bright", and “fatiguing”. They said it was “a flawed gem that will sing with some systems, and grate with others”, which seems to agree with the comments of plenty of people here. It also didn’t trace inner grooves quite as well as the elliptical stylus of the 681EEE, which was a surprise.)
6th Ortofon 510 Mk2 (“tracking was good” but “not up to rivals”, “crude and charmless”.:thumbsdn: Tell us what you really think! They did say it wasn’t up to Ortofon’s usual efforts, and showed the gap between their “superb, state-of-the-art” moving coil cartridges and their “very ‘also ran’ moving magnetic range”.:nono: They also said that since Ortofon was under new ownership in 2004, they expected “a replacement soon”, and obviously Ortofon have delivered that recently with their 2M range, which reviewers seem to like.)
So you can see that the 681EEE is very competitive, and performs very well.
-Don "
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In original wood box. Original paperwork and matching serial number. Has the original stylus with it but also a new Jico Elliptical aftermarket as pictured. Unknown hours on the original but the aftermarket span one record to test. Nice collector piece as well as a great cart!
$250 for quick sale. (New stylus alone is $50)
St Kilda East Victoria
Reason: Thorens upgrade needs financing and I have too many carts.
http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/opinions-info-on-stanton-681eee.207881/
"It’s still made, and is currently Stanton’s best cartridge, as it was back in the 1970’s, until the 881S was released. The 681EEE cartridge is a “moving iron” cartridge. See here for an explanation of how that differs from MC or MM cartridges http://www.decibelhifi.com.au/webcontent23.htm . I’ve been listening to, servicing and building hi-fi for more than 30 years, both as an electronics engineer (in another field, related to sound) and part time hi-fi serviceman for several dealers, and I’ve seen the 681EEE reviewed by countless magazines over the years, and can’t remember one review that didn’t like the sound. I do own one, along with an 881S, and while it’s not the best cartridge I’ve ever heard or owned, I’d happily live with it if I had to sell all my others. All that I’ve heard which sounded better were more expensive.
It’s still a very competitive cartridge among other cartridges in its price range. I have a comprehensive test of a number of cartridges around the same price level in the UK, including tracking, distortion, frequency response and sound tests, by a UK magazine in 2004. I must have been thinking of buying something then, because I rarely buy hi-fi magazines these days. They tested the following cartridges: Stanton 681EEE, Audio Technica AT-440ML (not the later, and current, 440MLa), Shure M97xE, Ortofon 510Mk2, Grado Prestige Silver and Goldring 1006, as “affordable MM cartridges”. It was quite a technical test, and being an engineer, I thought it was one of the best I’ve seen recently, as the measuring proved why objective testing is so valuable to back up their listening test comments, which it did, plainly showing the differences they were hearing. They tested for different loading to see which loading gave the best results and flattest response for each cartridge.
The order of merit overall, including their comments in quotes, and mine without, was:
1st Goldring 1006:tresbon: (OK, it was a UK test, so it may be no surprise that a UK cartridge took out the prize!
However, it did have the flattest frequency response and was a very good tracker, although it suffered some high frequency drooping on the inner grooves. “Superlative value for money” - it was made in the UK, so it should be – “few obvious nasties”. It also had by far the best stereo separation, beating the next best by 6dB. They did say it needed careful attention to VTA, as setting that wrong would make it sound dull, and it was quite sensitive to different settings.)2nd Stanton 681EEE (“tracking was superb”, “a very fine unit which deserves an excellent turntable and arm to partner it”, “delightful” - they obviously really liked it, even if it was made in the wrong country:D, “stylus is superb, suffering virtually no inner groove loss” – here they meant high frequency losses at the inner grooves, and their frequency response graphs showed it was far better than all the others on inner grooves, including the AT-440ML, which was also quite good. The 681EEE also had possibly the flattest frequency response out to 12kHz, but after that there was a quite sharp peak to be +3dB at 16kHz, but which didn’t make it sound too bright, as it’s well above most people’s hearing upper limit, unless you’re 20 or younger.)
3rd Grado Prestige Silver (“adds warmth” “measurable weaknesses, but they are not major”, “tracks well” apart from some “slight shakiness” on the torture tracks, “a tad pricey”. The frequency response was quite uneven, compared to the others, with the bass starting out well, and then a general downward drooping as the frequency rose, with a few droops and then a sharp peak at 10kHz, which wasn’t as high in level as the bass region, followed by a further tilt down to 20kHz.:nono: That overall droop in level as the frequency gets higher is what gives it the characteristic Grado warmth that some people love.)
4th Shure M97xE (“classic high frequency roll off” causing “a warm sound”. Tracking wasn’t very good, even with the stabiliser down, which was a surprise, based on Shure’s past superb tracking performance, which they commented about, and were also surprised, like me, that it didn’t appear to meet the standards of past Shure models.)
5th AT-440ML (This was the best tracker of the lot, as you’d expect with the microline stylus. However, it had a large peak at high frequencies: +2dB at 6.3kHz, +3dB at 8kHz, and over 3dB at 20kHz, which made it sound "too bright", and “fatiguing”. They said it was “a flawed gem that will sing with some systems, and grate with others”, which seems to agree with the comments of plenty of people here. It also didn’t trace inner grooves quite as well as the elliptical stylus of the 681EEE, which was a surprise.)
6th Ortofon 510 Mk2 (“tracking was good” but “not up to rivals”, “crude and charmless”.:thumbsdn: Tell us what you really think! They did say it wasn’t up to Ortofon’s usual efforts, and showed the gap between their “superb, state-of-the-art” moving coil cartridges and their “very ‘also ran’ moving magnetic range”.:nono: They also said that since Ortofon was under new ownership in 2004, they expected “a replacement soon”, and obviously Ortofon have delivered that recently with their 2M range, which reviewers seem to like.)
So you can see that the 681EEE is very competitive, and performs very well.
-Don "
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