Quest
Active Member
Ow, breaking your arm is always painful. Are you going to replace it? It is cheap enough.
Review of the 'Quest 20' Ortofon/Digitrac
- Thread starter eteller
- Start date
Ow, breaking your arm is always painful. Are you going to replace it? It is cheap enough.
eteller- I feel your pain & then some! I broke a Denon DL 110 this summer & then, while installing a brand new AT 440MLa, snagged the stylus & broke it off clean! I never got to hear the AT. Now I'm making do with the Quest OM Digitrac, & I ordered a spare to be safe! ( I'm such a klutz sometimes!!) Anyone have a need for a brand new AT 440MLa body & no stylus?
MartinG
Active Member
I got my Digitrac (from Jett) earlier this week. I had hoped to try it out on the SL1200 MK2 that's upside down on my bench but it is going to take more work than I thought. The tonearm wire circuit board is really in bad shape. So I'm trying it out on the SL1200 MK1 that's hooked up to the computer in the office. The cart I'm using is a Concorde Pro S dj cart that came with the MK2. I clipped the tab off the Digitrac stylus and it slipped onto the Pro S just fine. I set the tracking force to 1.75 grams. It sounds great right off the bat. The office is not set up for critical listening though. I'll be interested to hear with it sounds like upstairs in the main system. I'll give it a try when I get the other 1200 fixed. My regular table wont take this style cart.
eteller
Addicted Member
Well I got Jett's check out to work via credit card, so hopefully it will be here this week. Trying to make due I've been using the OM5 stylus, which is a far cry from the Quest 20, and seems to be rather low output. I switched back to my Shure 5x which is an improvement, but still no Quest 20!
southp
Active Member
I just got mine in the mail yesterday here in Canada. They still charged me $20 with free shipping even though the postage was almost that much.
Last night I just looked at the packaging and checked how the stylus would fit on my Ortofon. Right away I noticed that little plastic tab that gets in the way. So am I safe to just clip that right off? Does anyone have pictures of the underside of the digitrac stylus with the plastic cut?
Last night I just looked at the packaging and checked how the stylus would fit on my Ortofon. Right away I noticed that little plastic tab that gets in the way. So am I safe to just clip that right off? Does anyone have pictures of the underside of the digitrac stylus with the plastic cut?
southp
Active Member
Got my replacement last nigfht as well, this time the cartridge works. Just snip off the little plastic tab that extends from the body with a nail clipper.
Thanks, I guess I'll just go for it. I'll report back tonight after I get it working.
orthophonic
Super Member
i got mine today, clipped off the protrusion with dykes.
sounds excellent!
sounds excellent!
southp
Active Member
Ok, got mine on last night. I'm comparing against the OM10 which is an eliptical, while the digitrac is nude eliptical. I've got to say that the difference here is very slight. I can hear a little better tracking, and perhaps slightly more range. On a very quiet record, on softer songs I can hear more difference. On louder rock music (was playing Pearl Jam) the was less difference.
Overall, not a huge upgrade, but for the price it's a great replacement/backup.
Overall, not a huge upgrade, but for the price it's a great replacement/backup.
eteller
Addicted Member
Might sound better after some break-in. I set up mine last night using the Digitrac cartridge as it does have a little more gain and my NOS JAN tubes lowered the gain on my pre-amp, so that helped. I also noticed the Digitrac cartridge is alot lighter than the Ortofon w/weight. Sounds wonderful.
southp
Active Member
I've always wondering about that. So why do they need a break-in? What exactly happens?
eteller
Addicted Member
Well, you have a 1 in 4 shot of getting a cartridge that actually works, from what Quest has found out. I got lucky and my second one works, that's what I'm running now. Compared to the stock Ortofon OM5 it has a little more gain and is about 2gr. lighter (roughly). In short, it sounds just as good or better than the Ortofom OM cartridge IMHO. Basically a poor man's OM20 hence the name "Quest 20", given in honor of the estemed discoverer of great audio bargains Quest.
Quest
Active Member
Yesterday, I installed a Quest in a NAD 5120 turntable that I picked up on CL then refurbished it. I tossed off the Shure V15 Type IV (minus a stylus, of course) figuring an ultra high compliance and lightweight tonearm (only 6 grams) with an equally high compliance cartridge would be a perfect mating. It didn’t disappoint me; very nice sounding.
It is a good value as a high performance table on the cheap. The flat tonearm gets a lot of looks too. It is not hype; the radical tonearm gives more. If you know it then you know about the ultra light arms made from a PC board, fiberglass construction. The arm is extremely rigid laterally but very flexible in the vertical, hence the nickname “floppy tonearm.” It doe not damp tonearm resonance but reverses the phase to effectively cancel out infrasonic frequencies. The kinetic energy is stored and timed in fluid damping and a spring loaded weight, both adjustable. Basically, you dial in your resonance to dial out footfalls wobble and reduce a lot of distortion; it sounds very clear with both tight and authoritative bass plus clean and precise midrange with plenty of detail. No shakes out of this one. Other then the tonearm, the whole turntable is almost too simple. This is too cool, sounds great, and within anyone’s budget.
If you need to dial in the combination, the Quest on the 5120 is 9.5 Hz on the balance weight and the fluid damper is set to 2.
It is a good value as a high performance table on the cheap. The flat tonearm gets a lot of looks too. It is not hype; the radical tonearm gives more. If you know it then you know about the ultra light arms made from a PC board, fiberglass construction. The arm is extremely rigid laterally but very flexible in the vertical, hence the nickname “floppy tonearm.” It doe not damp tonearm resonance but reverses the phase to effectively cancel out infrasonic frequencies. The kinetic energy is stored and timed in fluid damping and a spring loaded weight, both adjustable. Basically, you dial in your resonance to dial out footfalls wobble and reduce a lot of distortion; it sounds very clear with both tight and authoritative bass plus clean and precise midrange with plenty of detail. No shakes out of this one. Other then the tonearm, the whole turntable is almost too simple. This is too cool, sounds great, and within anyone’s budget.
If you need to dial in the combination, the Quest on the 5120 is 9.5 Hz on the balance weight and the fluid damper is set to 2.
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dciurej
Member
Ordered two, received on so far.
First, thanks to everyone for the info on this deal, I have three Ortophon bodies that have working styli right now, so a spare stylus would come in handy real fast. So I ordered two on November 30. One came today, hope the other one will come in later.....
First, thanks to everyone for the info on this deal, I have three Ortophon bodies that have working styli right now, so a spare stylus would come in handy real fast. So I ordered two on November 30. One came today, hope the other one will come in later.....
