I bought a used test record because it was inexpensive and I thought it would be nice to learn more about my tonearm/cart combinations. Some observations:
1) If these Shure test records were produced largely to demonstrate the tracking capacity of their cartridges with dampeners, they do that with aplomb. I've run Nagaoka MP-110, Grado silver/silver2, Grado blue longhorn/silver1, Shure paradox pulse m97xe and Shure paradox pulse sc35c/N97HE through their paces and only the Shures make it through all of the tracks without breaking a sweat. Good God the flute tracks are non-dampened-Shure cart destroyers! The worst tracker was the Grado Silver/Silver2, which jumped right out of the groove during the toughest portions on the flute and harp tracks. Interestingly, the Grado longhorn distorted in these portions but never actually jumped out of the groove, FWIW.
2) The dampeners also make a profound difference on tonearm resonance. The MP-110 and both Grados bounced almost to the point of dislodging during the 10hz portion on the record, while the Shures with dampener down could be heard to warble a touch on the 10hz portion but motion was suppressed entirely throughout all of the test tones. I became a believer in those dampeners, and interestingly even the aftermarket craptastic dampener on the N97HE stylus provided the same positive effect in testing.
3) After having not used my paradox pulse m97xe in a while, I took this occasion to try it for a few records and it really sounds pretty great in my system, beyond the capacity to track anything. I tend to lump it in with the universe of $100-and-under carts, something good but meh, but when I play it these days I'm very pleasantly surprised at its sound, which reminds me that it's incredible that Shure offered such a technologically advanced and solid performing cart for $100.
1) If these Shure test records were produced largely to demonstrate the tracking capacity of their cartridges with dampeners, they do that with aplomb. I've run Nagaoka MP-110, Grado silver/silver2, Grado blue longhorn/silver1, Shure paradox pulse m97xe and Shure paradox pulse sc35c/N97HE through their paces and only the Shures make it through all of the tracks without breaking a sweat. Good God the flute tracks are non-dampened-Shure cart destroyers! The worst tracker was the Grado Silver/Silver2, which jumped right out of the groove during the toughest portions on the flute and harp tracks. Interestingly, the Grado longhorn distorted in these portions but never actually jumped out of the groove, FWIW.
2) The dampeners also make a profound difference on tonearm resonance. The MP-110 and both Grados bounced almost to the point of dislodging during the 10hz portion on the record, while the Shures with dampener down could be heard to warble a touch on the 10hz portion but motion was suppressed entirely throughout all of the test tones. I became a believer in those dampeners, and interestingly even the aftermarket craptastic dampener on the N97HE stylus provided the same positive effect in testing.
3) After having not used my paradox pulse m97xe in a while, I took this occasion to try it for a few records and it really sounds pretty great in my system, beyond the capacity to track anything. I tend to lump it in with the universe of $100-and-under carts, something good but meh, but when I play it these days I'm very pleasantly surprised at its sound, which reminds me that it's incredible that Shure offered such a technologically advanced and solid performing cart for $100.