gwa@whuxle.UUCP (Gregg W. Aughenbaugh) (12/07/83)
My spouse just bought a direct drive turntable and was sold a Shure LTP-2 cartridge as a substitute for another Shure cartridge that she wanted, an M104E (which was shown with a net price of $27 in a discount catalog). The salesperson claimed that the quality was better than a Shure M95, but not as good as a Shure M97 (with nets of $28 and $41, respectively). The list price marked on the cartridge was $49.99; she paid $30 (but of course in a package deal, one piece can subsidize another). A audiophile friend of ours looked at the specs and suggested we should return it. His feeling was that for $30 we could do better. He says that an LTP-2 is a private-model made especially for discount hi-fi chains such as the one we were dealing with. It is not available at the better audio stores and not usually written up in audio magazines. My own observations (I'm not an audiophile, but I am fussy about sound) are as follows: (1) I had a difficult time installing the cartridge. With a P-mount, I know that sounds ridiculous, but I did. There was so much play between the cartridge and tone-arm (of a Sherwood direct-drive turntable) that I would alternately get either the left or right channel, neither channels, or, once, both channels. At that point, I stopped. The problems, of course, could just as well have been the tone-arm or me, rather than the cartridge. (2) Once installed, the cartridge produced a pleasing sound on both clas- sical and popular music. Gregg W. Aughenbaugh (submitting my first net-news article with some trepidation) Central Services Organization (a part of AT&T Bell Laboratories until 1/1/84)