During the refurb I could see that the mechanical engineering of the bits that matter - bearing, arm bearings, platter etc. This is consistent with measurements made in Audio, High Fidelity and Stereo Review magazines when the Micro Ridge (Line) first arrived in the 80s. Our staff have a wealth of knowledge and can offer advice, product support and guidance on your next purchase. With the VM540ML I just want to keep on listening to records, whereas the Ortofon 2M Blue becomes to crisp and analytical for my taste and/or system. However, righthand channel crackling is clearly noticeable on quite a few records (conventional black ones!

The only other explanation which springs to mind is whether some iron debris has got lodged or attached itself to the moving magnets, but that's much more common with MCs.

To my eyes, this means that the actual azimuth is way off and I think this is causing the stylus to ride the very top of the outside groove and to pick up any, however minor, surface imperfections there might be between the grooves to produce a crackling noise in the righthand channel only. Considered to be a replacement for the well regarded AT440MLb, the new VM540ML matches many of the outgoing models specifications, albeit with a modestly higher recommended tracking force (2.

There was plenty of the performer’s breathing heard between notes, indicating good subtle detail recovery. Likely a pressing fault, namely ‘stitching’ or ‘infill’, which are both issues with heavyweight vinyl and are caused by a less than perfect heat or pressure (it is harder to press 180-200g than the traditional 140g). It is hard to explain the details without a drawing but the copyright is uncertain, so I am not reproducing them here. Perhaps the RMS sum of the 3 closely spaced tones should be the value of the 2nd harmonic which would take it to 1. The VM540 ML produced a very low noise floor, showed no sibilance at all, and was capable of providing a highly accurate impression of the original musical event.The VM540ML seems so reliably evenhanded in its nature that I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a genre of music that it doesn’t play nicely with. Change country: -Select- Albania Andorra Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Republic Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Cambodia Canada Cayman Islands Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Estonia Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) Finland France French Guiana Georgia Germany Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guatemala Guernsey Guyana Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Malaysia Maldives Malta Martinique Mexico Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles Nicaragua Norway Oman Pakistan Panama Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Republic of Croatia Saint Kitts-Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines San Marino Saudi Arabia Serbia Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Suriname Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Tajikistan Thailand Trinidad and Tobago Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vatican City State Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands (U. As we will see in the measurements it is not the stylus that prevents the VM540ML from matching the best Audio-Technica and Shure produced in the late 80s, it’s the frequency response.

Now, when I play this record on my Rega P10/Apheta 3 combination the background is silent, there's no crackling at all.When I listen to Leonard Cohen ‘Live in London’ his voice is strong and present with lots of texture, without ever becoming crisp or harsh sounding. This makes the THD of the tones of interest but, as with the IM tests above, the harmonics may be increased by the presence of other tones in the grooves thereby increasing the stylus excursion. When I tested the VM540ML against my Ortofon 2M Blue, I found the VM540ML to provide almost as much texture and dynamics as the highly analytical 2M Blue, but with more soul and smoothness. Using an ultra-lightweight stylus tip ground to a high level of precision, we have achieved a combination of low distortion rate with fuller frequency reproduction during playback. The diamond looks like it might not be mounted quite straight, but the magnification of my loup isn't sufficient to be sure.

The Facebook tracking pixel allows us to share anonymous tracking data with Facebook for the purpose of statistics and targeted marketing. Percussion is crystal clear, brass incredible realistic and the character of a Steinway grand unlike any CD or mid level streamed affair.On the bench, these produce lower harmonic and intermodulation distortion figures than older generation shapes that I’ve tested, using the same test LPs Carlo used. In the measurements section, we will show direct comparison between the AT440MLa and the replacement VM540ML. I have a 60x loup which is just about good enough to see if there's any crud on the stylus and it looks clean.