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Ymiko cartridge - is it any good?
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- Опубликовано: 9 янв 2021
- Testing the new Ymiko cartridge against a couple of standard Crosley type ones and a Banpa flip cartridge I have a while
The Ymiko is also a flip cartridge and basically is fitted with a double stylus with a plastic arm which sticks out of the side. By pushing down on the arm you can flip it over to the other side which brings the other stylus into use. No need to remove and refit it.
To clear up any misconception here: All these cartridges used are 'ceramic' - the stylus cantilever/metal bar rests in a small rubber fork which transfers vibration from the stylus tip onto two short, thin pieces of a piezo-electric material; ceramic in nature. This causes the piezo-electric 'crystals' to vibrate in time to the stylus, which generates a small electrical signal, which is fed through the tonearm wires, and into the amplifier.
Most 'ceramic' cartridges need around 4-5grams of tracking weight.
A 'magnetic' has a small diamond stylus tip also, mounted onto a thin, usually aluminium bar, or cantilever, that has one, or two, small magnets attached to the opposite end to the stylus. This cantilever is also held into place in the stylus mounting, by a small, supple rubber gasket. The magnet/s, are just inside the cartridge body, and are positioned between the poles; coils of tightly wound copper wire, surrounding metal pole pieces. As the stylus vibrates in the groove of the record, this action is repeated by the magnet/s, which generates a small voltage in the coils. This voltage is then fed down the tonearm to the preamp/power amp stages.
A typical 'magnetic' cartridge can track from 1-3 grams on average.
The magnetic cartridge is capable of far higher quality sound reproduction - but at far greater expense than an average Crossly/Victrola type player.
Thanks for the very comprehensive comment 😀👍. Yes indeed, its only Ymiko's advertising which mentions it being magnetic. There is absolutely nothing about its apparent construction or performance to suggest it is any different from the ceramic cartridges. The Banpa doesn't say which it is but as I think I said, I had always assumed it was a ceramic one. I have done a few more videos on this and the Ymiko sounds frankly disappointing, even against the standard Crosely type cartridge. The flip over to 78 is not of much value, as even for people like me who play 78s, the stylus is not the right size. The stylus is interchangeable with a BSR type, which is its one redeeming feature. Thanks again
Hi. Thanks for doing the comparison. I could certainly detect a difference between all four cartridges/ stylus. The Bampa coming out the best. I look forward to seeing a stylus comparison video. As I am always looking at ways to eek even more out of my cheap and cheerful hifi set up.
I'm going to have a little play with them and take a good look at the styli and see what I come up with! 🤔😉😀. Thanks 😀 👍
There is a difference with the newest one being the most “different”. Possibly switch styli between the last two to see what is cartridge and what is styli as far as sound goes. Great video, keep them coming
Yes, good idea, and I have a BSR stylus that fits, so I will try that too. I hope to do another video where I take close look at the styli.
The Ymiko was disappointing. It sounded ok, but I think the others sounded better. Thanks 😀 👍
Interesting comparison! I believe that Bampa sounds better than the others, but that's a matter of taste. You could give them a more similar performance by building specific EQ curves for each. The spectrum analyzer found in Audacity is great for that!
Thanks 😀 👍. Glad you found it interesting. Yes, good idea about using Audacity. I didn't think of that
the first cartridge sounded MUCH better than the 4th one
The 4th one I think was the Ymiko, and it doesn't sound as good as it should do. I did have a bit of a dodgy stylus. Thanks 😀 👍
my first stereo had a varco cartridge with a plastic needle and it sounded great
Interesting to hear. Thanks 👍 😀
Just found your channel, Great stuff....
wouldn't the output level tell you the likely-hood of a cartridge being a moving magnet as opposed to ceramic?.
Thanks 😀 👍. Yes, it would, and I think its clear that the Ymiko and the Banpa are just ceramic. I always assumed the Banpa was ceramic, and to be honest was pretty skeptical of the claim in the Ymiko listing that it was magnetic. I have done 1 or 2 follow up videos to this which explore the performance more.
@@mrrgstuff The Chinese sellers are throwing English words around on products they don't really understand. The sellers are not the manufacturers. Look at eBay listings to find gems such as "ceramic needle" and sometimes hilariously Photoshopped picture showing them in action.
I could hea a differences. The plastic styus had a little more brittle sound (only by a fraction compared to the metal cantilever one), I could hear the limited frequency response from that red cartridge. The bampa cartridge has a higher frequency response and is definitely an upgrade in performance. The last cartridges interesting. I wonder with a different load on the input or impedance it might change the character - or maybe it is s magnetic? A mystery - love the comparison
Thanks 😀 👍. The red ones seemed the same to me and I couldn't really hear any difference with the Banpa, but I'm glad to hear it was performing a bit better. The Ymiko is a bit of a mystery though. Clearly sold for these type of cheap units, but maybe its substandard, or maybe as you say designed for a different type of amp. 😀
I shall just tag onto Matthews comment as I completely agree with him. I was dissapointed that the Ymiko didn't perform better as 3 of them dropped through the letterbox today lol ordered from china long before christmas. It will do the job though for what I want it for :) Great video Mr RG as always. Cheers Paul
Thanks 😀 👍. I'm going to switch the styi around and see if it makes any difference. I'm also having a closer look at the actual tips. Should be in a video in the not so distant future 😀
@@mrrgstuff Great, I was really surprised and disapointed that it wasn't as good as the full red plastic one :) Could easily be the stylus though. I just checked mine and they dont have a name on the container but they look identical .
Mine could be a duff one, the stylus is certainly not the best on the one I received. The 2 red stylus ones are just random ones I got on various 2nd hand machines, so I don't know their history. They did perform very similar to each other though. It would be interesting to know how your Ymiko ones behave 🤔. Thanks 😀 👍
To determine if the cartridge is magnetic could you not just put a small compass next to it and see if it deflects? Also with not the output be significantly different between ceramic and magnetic? Thanks, I love these reviews!
Thanks 😀 👍. Yes, a compass might work for this, and yes I thought there would be something noticeable in the output, but the levels of all 4 cartridges seemed to be much the same.
It's not magnetic. If it was, you would not have heard anything. Magnetic cartridges have a drastically lower output than ceramics (on the order of 5 mV or magnetic, versus 200-300 mV for ceramics). It's a big part of why magnetic cartridges need a preamplifier.
@@xaenon Thanks 😀👍. Yes, the Ymiko listing on Amazon I bought from claimed it was magnetic, but I think they were just using terms they didn't know the meaning of. Banpa never made any claims that I saw either way, but all these cartridges perform in a very similar fashion so clearly are all ceramic.
@@mrrgstuff NO. Not how it works. The magnet/s in a magnetic cartridge is often minuscule as to be almost impossible to see.
Presumably in reference to the use of a compass to check? Its a fair enough suggestion - even if it wouldn't actually work in practice. From what I have read its more likely that a magnetic cartridge will be affected by a stray magnetic field than be powerful enough to affect something else
Sir ihave player of philips HQ international but needle is not available in India original sir please told me whis best ceremic cartdage i use for player &safety for my record s
I'm not familiar with the Philips HQ international however it seems to be a range of record players available in India and there are several different models. Philips made their own cartridges so you will need to find a way to fit a different cartridge to you record player. I solved it on this older one with a 3D printed part - but your one is more modern and will be different:
ruclips.net/video/B1El4q1t68I/видео.html
The best ceramic cartridge I have tried is the Banpa BP2ATC but I don't know if it is suitable for your machine. Good luck
Sir. Ji thanks . I saw in your video you change cartdage. In philps player sir. Same cartdage. I have. Sir iam thanks ful to your detailed video.
@@SureshChoudhary-iy8nz Thanks 😀👍. Glad it was helpful.
I use Audio-Tecnica styli. Lynne Anderson, Rose Garden nice song. It’s as old as me.
I'm somewhat lacking in quality audio equipment. I may yet invest in a decent cartridge/stylus or two 🤔 😉😀. The song is actually a cover version which I think sounds great and Google doesn't seem to recognise 😉 . Thanks 😀👍
It appears that the Ymiko cartridge is actually using a 3 mil 78 stylus, which is too wide for the vinyl groove. The stylus seems to be riding much higher than the other 3 examples, because it’s too wide to properly fit in the groove. That would also account for the lousy sound and almost total loss of fidelity.
And that is in no way a magnetic cartridge. It is ceramic like all the others. The dead giveaway is the protruding rubbery rest that the cantelever rests on. No magnetic cartridge has that, only ceramic.
In addition, you would get almost no output if it were a magnetic cartridge as you would need a pre-amp to properly amplify the signal.
It's been a while since I made this video. However, I seem to remember the cantilever on the Ymiko came bent. I did check all the styli under a microscope, and I'm pretty sure both tips of the Ymiko looked the same, and were the same as the Banpa. Only the better quality BSR replacement had any sign of having a 3 mil tip. Indeed, these are all ceramic cartridges. I have recently upgraded to a magnetic cartridge which I installed in this video:
ruclips.net/video/MXGczxwlMYc/видео.html
The headshell fitting on the ceramic cartridges was never that great, which may also have contributed to differences in the stylus position.
Thanks 😀 👍
Banpa was better... I recently change my stylus and upgraded the cartridge from the Audio Technica website cost £100 but it has made a considerable improvement... A cheap cartridge and stylus is really only any use on a Crosley or similar record player... The best stylus funny enough is on my 50's record player, you can bend it with pliers and it still carries on working, long story why I had to do this, great thick heavy thing that sounds great, this leads me to think that most modern budget styli are just rubbish and you have to pay over the top to get anything that is decent... Yeah fit the better quality one and dump the other three... ;)
I like the Banpa and it does generally get good reviews. I wonder though if the Ymiko really is the same as the Banpas which are shipping now, as opposed to a couple of years ago, when I bought mine. This stuff is certainly aimed at Crosely style machines (although the cartridge designs were originally Japanese I believe and probably better quality). The flip cartridges are interesting in so much as they are probably the same as the cheap ceramic ones, but take a BSR style stylus. I don't think the supplied styli is up to BSR's, but I hope to look at that in a future video. I may yet invest in a decent cartridge, but I really have very little vinyl and prefer the gramophone for 78s. Thanks 😀 👍
AT 3600 is a perfectly good magnetic cartridge, can be had for $20-$25.
I liked the original one more.
Yes, I thought it was surprisingly good. That ION record player was sold for archiving vinyl to MP3 through USB, and listening to to the recorded files, I thought it didn't do a bad job of it at all. That machine has no speakers, but I am sure the speakers on an average Crosely type machine let it down badly. Thanks 😀 👍
@@mrrgstuff ...and if you noticed, the one with the plastic cantilever was a genuine japanese Chuo-Denshi cartridge. Plastic stylus assembly or not, they are the best of that class. There are no fewer than 4 Chinese knockoffs.
I didn't notice - but thanks for pointing it out. These were all obtained from various sources and whilst I'm not surprised one is genuine it is more by luck than intention. Thanks
Unfortunately, the Chinese sellers are throwing around words like "magnetic" and "ceramic" (many are listed as having a "ceramic needle"). These listings are put together by people who don't know the product, and don't speak English well. So take them with a grain of salt.
Yes - I think this is a very fair point. Thanks
I have been shopping around for these types of stylus and cartridges and feel there is a communications gap regarding technical specifics
@yapyap66 Yes, indeed. You may find this video interesting also:
ruclips.net/video/SPYZlBIxDGk/видео.html
Thanks 😀 👍
The Ymiko sounded better
Thanks for the comment 👍 😀
I couldn’t really tell the difference, but I’m a deaf old sod.
I couldn't tell the difference listening to them separately. In the side by side comparisons, the Ymiko sounds the worst to me. The others sounded much same! 🤔😉😀. Thanks 😀 👍
@@mrrgstuff I think there are always the issues when doing these comparisons that people’s ears are different/ other than the person doing the test , we are listening to a recording/ we are then listening to that recording on a variety of different players. All interesting none the less.
@@davidk6271 Too true. Thanks 😀 👍
Um, you wouldn't be able to hear virtually anything magnetic cartridge on this setup without a pre-amplifier. Not enough output. No need to "suspect." anything. They work on completely different theories. These are all ceramic cartridges. This is the danger of people reviewing stuff they don't really know anything about. See my next comment. He's accidentally switched the Yamiko and Banpa cartridges, then reviewed them incorrectly as such.
Thank you for you comment. Yes - its not magnetic - I didn't really think it was but was just referencing what the listing was saying. That has been cleared up in some previous comments now though. I notice you still refer to me accidentally switching the cartridges around (and I read your original comment on this) - but I have to disagree. I have very carefully checked the video again just now and I have not accidentally switched the cartridges around. The picture at 00:13 definitely shows the Banpa with the Banpa stylus. The stylus with the red and green dots definitely came with the Ymiko (I have my original photos of it in the box when I bought it). If you follow the video through carefully you will see the orientation is correct for the labels I put on the screen. Thanks